SEO for the masses (or messed-up)

SEO really bugs me - when an covert industry has taken good practices and made it into a mystery science.

Not much that you have been told about search engines is true... If you would like to increase the amount of traffic flowing to your website - no money needed - follow me through the hoops. You will surprised how much you can accomplish on your own!

The following are tips that have been used by, or passed to me through other articles and that I have borne out to be the best advice.

Many do-it-yourself webmasters and online businesses have been led to believe that search engine optimization is a mystic art, and that no one like you and me can compete with the "experts." Wrong. You, too, can drive free, targeted traffic to your website.

There are only three steps you need to move your site's visibility in the search engines much higher. The three steps are: positioning, optimization, and link building.

Step 1: Positioning (a.k.a. search term selection)

First, allow me to define the terms. "Search terms" are the words and phrases that people type into search engines. For example, if I go to Google.com and type in "graphic artist", that's a search term. To get hits (or traffic) from search engines, you have to know what people are searching for and if you or your product fit the 'reality' of what you think your words will be. Your mission is to strike a balance between popularity, targeting, and competition.

Car Salesmen, for example, might be tempted to use "New Cars," to believe that this is a perfect set of keywords... wrong. Good term, but you will never achieve anything close when you certainly sell cars in one local area only. The key here is to be specific to geography, too.

To achieve the right keywords, ask people outside a particular industry to tell me what words they would use to find a graphic artist. Best people to use? People who are not in your circle of friends.

Step 2: Optimization

"Optimizing" simply means putting your keywords into your web pages logically and with the right formatting. That's all it means. Optimizing is the easiest part of this process.

Stay with this and you will know most of what you will ever need! The first thing to understand is that you should only use 1-2 search terms to optimize each page. Once you've selected a page to optimize, and the search terms you're going to use, all you have to do is put those words in the right places, and you're done.

Put your search terms here:
1. Your page's < title > < /title >
2. Your "keywords" and "description" META tags
3. In a heading tag (H1, H2, or H3) near the top of the page
4. In the first paragraph of body text, and repeated 1-2 more times on the page
5. In the text of any links that point to the page

Follow these amazingly simple steps and you are becoming an expert at SEO for your site! If you are uncomfortable in html, any qualified web designer can fulfill your directions with far less money spent than the 'SEO' dudes!

Step 3: Link Building

"Link building" simply means getting other websites to link to yours. Even if search engines don't matter to you, qualified, reciprocal links help you establish a credible reputation for your website.Link building is important because search engines look at these links as a "vote" for your website, and they will boost your rankings accordingly when other sites link to you.There are three simple ways to improve your site's "link popularity," and drive traffic at the same time:

1. Submit your site to the major directories. No need to pay for these... just start with dmoz.org - follow their directions precisely and get your site listed in the proper area. Do be careful here, as getting listed in the wrong directory can be undone, but takes time and is a pain.

2. Trade links with other websites in your industry. Helping each other is key to making better business for all. It really does work

3. Look for other sites that have resource directories that relate to your business or product, and ask them to link to you.

Remember that there are no shortcuts, and it's never a good idea to try to "trick" the search engines. The honest approach is easier, and much better for you and your visitors."

Black and Blue

Blue is the real Black... When you're designing your site, you should leave your text links in their natural state--blue and underlined. We want to alter our links to any color in the book --anything but blue. And we have the urge to take off those underlines.

Resist the temptation. It is a killer to leave them alone, but here is why.

From the earliest days of the web, text links have been blue. People intuitively recognize that blue, underlined text is a link. They know they can click on it. Notice that Blogspot's colors are not blue? You had to think twice.

The combination of blue and underlines means If I click on this, it goes somewhere. We're Pavlov's dogs - we see the link and instantly know what it means. There's no time wasted in trying to figure out whether or not that particular word or phrase is clickable.

If you mess with the natural appearance of a link, you lose that instant recognition. People have to stop and think to figure out what your colors mean. Have you come across a blue, underlined word that WASN'T a link? Drove you nuts clicking on it.

So... Visitors shouldn't have to think about what is a link and what isn't. Whatever you can do that maintains instant recognition is perfect for you. Make it Pay!

Peace and Safe Passage, Always.