This is the third and final article in this series on What You Need to Know About SEO.  If you missed part 1 or part two, click the links.  (What You Need to Know About SEO Part 1) or (What You Need to Know About SEO Part 2).  Now with Part 3, we’re going to go more in depth about what basic SEO strategies you can do on your own, before having your Web guy do the more in-depth stuff, or outsourcing the rest of it.

Let’s talk about your Website Structure

No matter how create you consider yourself to be, or how creative your business is, when it comes to the structure of your Website, it’s important you follow one important rule: Always make sure visitors to your Website find what they’re expecting to find, in the places they expect to find it.

What that means is:

• All your links should be blue and underlined.

• You have a “Home Page” and “About Us” page and a way for your visitor to contact you. For your own protection, you need a privacy policy, and a CAN-SPAM compliance page.

• Having a photo on your site has also been proven to raise conversion rates and increase credibility.

A Warning About Flash, Frames and the Latest Technology Like Dynamically-Generated Sites

Also, no matter how good you are at building Websites (or how creative your Website designer is) – don’t build your site with frames or extensive use of Flash – because most of the time, these design options can’t be spidered by the search engines’ robots. (There is an exception to this rule.  I know of a fabulous Website designer whose designs flash sites for his clients that consistently get ranked in the search engines.  So if your designer really knows his [or her] stuff, then go for it!)

Also, while dynamically-generated sites that use technology like ASP, Cold Fusion, and PERL can have an impact on your Website’s functionality, they often cause problems when it comes to search engine placement. (Believe it or not, the page doesn’t exist until your visitor triggers it)… And because a search engine spider doesn’t trigger the page when it crawls the code – as far as it’s concerned, there is no page there.

And the other problem often caused by this type of technology is that it puts question marks into the URL – and most spiders can’t read a link beyond the “?” in a link. And sure, there are technological ways you can get around this – but it can be tricky. So be sure you or your Webmaster have addressed all of these issues first.

You will want to limit the use of graphic representation of text as well. Remember that spiders can’t index images – so don’t use them to represent your keywords on the page.

When it comes to the structure of your Website or blog, remember this: Don’t make your visitors search for anything (always have links back to your home page on every other page, for example), and give them the kind of high quality content that will keep them on your page now – and coming back for more later on.

The Definition of High Quality Content

Here’s mine: High quality content is measured by how useful the information is to the visitors who come to your Website or Blog.

Which means the quality of your content is determined by: How well you have processed, interpreted and acted on the information you gathered to write your content in the first place.

How Content Relates to Your Meta Tags, Page Titles, Descriptions and Keywords

If you remember in articles 1 and 2 of this series, we discussed what the best SEO strategies are, and also how to use meta tags, keywords, page titles and descriptions to your best advantage.

So now you understand that everything is interrelated and all things connect to each other to help you achieve a higher ranking on a search engine’s results page when someone types in one of your chosen keywords or keyword phrases.

Keep the Content Real, Keep it Updated and Keep it Focused

Finally, the content on your Website or blog has to be real. If you’re giving answering someone’s questions, or providing them with new information, it needs to be accurate, useful and to the point.

You need to update the information – or add to it regularly – for both the spiders and the people who are visiting your site. Since your home page is the first place to be spidered, it makes sense that it shows the latest news or information. (And if this isn’t possible then this is where having a blog that links regularly to your home page can be an excellent SEO strategy.)

And remember when you’re writing the content, it’s important to think about what the spiders are seeing – and write accordingly.

For example, don’t use links that say “click here” – because otherwise the spiders will think at least part of your page is about the words “click” and “here.”

And if you offer a service – be specific. For example, don’t just say “our copywriting services” – say “direct mail packages” or “travel articles” or “Website copy.”

Creating Your Own Link Strategy

Remember in Article 1 when we touched on having an onsite and an offsite SEO strategy for your Website or blog? This is where a link strategy comes in.

The search engines give your site more credence and a higher ranking for having multiple links pointing to your site – as long as they’re from RELEVANT third-party sites.

So if you’ve been trying to get as many links as possible – stop wasting your time. It’s not a popularity contest anymore.

The Way Search Engines Decide Which Links Are Most Important

No one knows the exact strategies used by the major search engines, but we know that they use a link analysis for search ranking placement.

So they looking at the importance of each link that points to your Website or blog, and they may also be looking at the context of the link. That’s why it’s a good idea to use anchor text with your keywords or keyword phrases.

Getting quality links from authority sites or sites that relevant to the content on your site can be a time-consuming process – but it’s worth the effort.

How To Create An Effective Link Strategy for Your Website or Blog

You don’t have to do everything at once, but a continuous and dedicated effort will go a long ways.

Step 1: Set up a link page where you can put links to other relevant Websites or Blogs.

Step 2: Decide what constitutes a “relevant” link to you. For example, it might be links from authority sites, or links from pages with a certain page rank, or links from sites that sell to your target market. (It’s a good idea to put your link strategy and guidelines in writing)…

Step 3: Do your research and figure out who you want to get links from. You might want to create a database so you can keep track of your efforts.

Step 4: Send a request to the site owner or Webmaster and ask for a link from their site. Make it interesting and relevant for them – and explain up front what’s in it for them. If you don’t hear from someone within a week to ten days, send the request again.

You should also decide if you want to pay for links – although this is a tactic that’s continually coming under fire.

When you’re posting your links on other sites, it’s important to include text links if you’re using a logo or other graphic, and use your keyword or keyword phrase as well in the “alt text” section.

And don’t forget to use a cross-linking strategy between pages or posts on your Website or blog. If you use “anchor text” for each link – such as using the title of a post or article, most robots will follow the links to the other pages and index them as well. You might also want to add a sitemap to show all the text-only links on your entire Website or blog. And again, make sure that you’re using your main keyword or keyword phrases for each page of the Website or blog in those text links.

Submitting Your Website or Blog to the Search Engines

The final step to optimizing your Website or Blog is to start submitting your site to the search engines and directories. Start with the three major players – Google, Yahoo! and Live. One of the advantages of this is that most of the other search engines will pick up your site automatically once it’s listed on the Big 3 – saving you a bunch time and effort.

If creating an effective search engine optimization strategy – and carrying it out – sounds like it’s going to be more work than you want to undertake, you might want to outsource it to an SEO expert.

Although it’s a time-consuming process, and you won’t see sustainable results overnight, I hope you see that it’s not that hard, and it is something you can choose to do for yourself.

To make it even easier on you, we’ve created a checklist you can use as you’re going through your SEO process – so you don’t forget any of the vital steps.

Want your own copy of the SEO for Writers and Authors checklist? I’ve written one for writers and authors on my Writer’s Business Academy site – and although you may not be a writer or author, the process is the same, so go ahead and download your copy today.

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Let’s start with the the importance that Meta Tags, Page Titles, Descriptions and Keywords have in optimizing your Website or blog for the search engines…What Happens When A Search Engine Visits Your Website

When a search engine comes to visit your Website – it sends something called a spider – and the first thing it does is look at your Page Title, Description, and Keyword Meta Tags.

These are all elements in the “code” of your page.  If you didn’t design your page yourself,  and you want to see what’s written in those elements of your Website or blog, just look at the tabs along the top of your browser. (It usually starts with the word “File”.)  Look for the word “view”.  Click that, and scroll down till you see the words “Page Source” – and click it to see what your Website looks like in html or other “technical” language.

Scroll down until you find the “Page Title,” “Description,” and keyword “Meta Tags.”

If you have a blog, you can find these things in “settings” on your dashboard.

The SEO Steps You Need to Take Before Submitting Your Website to the Search Engines

Meta Tags

Before submitting your website to the search engines, make sure that your Meta Tags for each page accurately describe each page’s content.

In other words, don’t use the same keywords on all pages, and don’t fill the Meta Tags with every single keyword you can think of.

Right now, less is more. Only focus on the one-to-three keywords that accurately describe the content visitors will find on your Website or Blog.

Page Title

Make sure the page title describes what the visitor is going to find – and include your most important keyword or keyword phrase. Remember, you can always add lots of subtitles, to keep visitors moving through your content, but each page title should give them the big overview. In most cases, it’s best to keep titles to under 10 words.

Description

You want the description (this is what humans read when your site shows up on a Search Engine Results Page [SERP]) – to be interesting and enticing enough that a searcher clicks on your link to get more information.

Keywords

Your keywords need to be in your meta tags, in the description and in the page title. Use it in the first sentence, or at least in the first paragraph. Make sure you’re not just repeating your main keyword phrase.

Why?

Because search engines have gotten a lot smarter. If all you’re doing is using your keyword over and over again, you’re going to get penalized for what is known as “keyword stuffing” – which is a practice of lazy Webmasters (or Webmasters who can’t write real content) of using their main keywords in the hopes of getting people to click the link to their page.

The problem is – while this used to work for the search engines (and it doesn’t any more) – it has a tendency to tick off the human visitors to a site – and rather than clicking another link to try and find the information they need – these days people just click the back button and look elsewhere.

Instead, think about what information your visitor really wants… What questions or problems do they have and what kind of information can you give them that helps them find the answers?

Are Meta Tags Still Important?

You may have heard that meta tags aren’t important anymore when it comes to optimizing your Website for the Search Engines. There is some truth to this, because in the old days, as I said, you could just slap up a whole bunch of keywords in the meta tags, and you were guaranteed to get listed in the search engines. These days, it’s not so easy. For one thing, you’ve got a whole lot more competition than in the old days.

For example, while researching this article, I found 4,170,000 Websites for the keyword “copywriter.”

And for the keyword phrase “How do I make money from a writing business” Google shows 143,000,000 results. Which is why you have to use a different SEO strategy when it comes to using Meta Tags on your Website or Blog.

How You Can Use Meta Tags Effectively for SEO Optimization

So what’s the most effective SEO strategy for writers or authors when it comes to meta tags? Make sure that each page includes only the most important and relevant keywords listed in the meta tags. Don’t go overboard. Keep it simple. Choose one or two at most.

You also want to put that same keyword or keyword phrase in the content.

The search engines give your keyword or keyword phrase more importance when they find it in the beginning of your content. (And doesn’t that make sense? After all, if I called you on the phone and told you that I had to tell you about this new restaurant I found, and then start talking to you about my new pair of walking shoes… You’re going to be a little confused.)

So that means to make your SEO strategy for getting the most out of Meta Tags today goes – include your main keyword or keyword phrase in the headline and in the first paragraph of your content.

Just Remember: You need to make sure that all your keywords or keyword phrases are included in the content on each Web or Blog page.

But now I want to give you another piece of advice about optimizing your Website or Blog for the search engines: Don’t obsess about it. Because the other thing you need to remember is that as important as your SEO strategies are – at the same time you’re writing for people – real people who are trying to find the answer to a specific question or problem.

Getting someone to your Website or Blog because of your keyword strategy is really only half the battle. Once you get them there, you’ve got to keep them on your site.

And that’s where content and structure come in. If you want to know exactly why high-quality content and your Website’s structure are so vital, read the third and final article in this series.

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The Source of 80 Percent of Your Traffic Comes from Here

Did you know that for most businesses – about 80 percent of the traffic coming to your Website comes from the 3 major search engines – Google, Yahoo! and MSN?

That’s great news – because it means people can find you easily.

It’s also bad news – because if you don’t understand how to optimize your Website for the search engines – and yet still make it interesting and relevant for the people who are searching for you – then you’re likely to be lost in the crowd – hidden in and among your competition.

Can You Do Search Engine Optimization Yourself? Should You?

One of the biggest problems many entrepreneurs and business owners have is time.  There are only so many hours in a day, and you’re already working longer and harder than you want to be sometimes.

The second biggest problem is that people aren’t not sure what they should do – and what they should stay away from – because you don’t want to do something that ends up making things worse, and hurting your SEO.

And finally, the third biggest problem with DIY SEO is that people aren’t even sure if they CAN optimize their Website or Blog for the search engines, because it seems really complicated and scary.

Why You May Be Experiencing SEO Overload

And of course, it only gets more confusing when every so-called expert has a different idea of what steps to take when you’re just getting started. So you may have bought a book or ebook, or subscribed to someone’s blog RSS, or started reading different special reports – and what you end up with is a bunch of confusing and contradictory information which leaves you more confused than you were when you started.

So it’s pretty easy to find yourself in “information overload” – a state which leaves you worse off than when you started thinking about whether or not you should try to optimize your Website or blog in the first place.

And for many entrepreneurs and business owners, they just decide to leave things as they are, and move on to the next item on their To Do List, which never seems to get any smaller anyway.

DIY (Do It Yourself) Search Engine Optimization

And that’s why we’ve written this three-part article for you. My team has done all the research, we’ve checked out the experts – and the “so-called” experts’ Websites, and we’ve taken all the best information about Search Engine Optimization, cut through the fluff and the nonsense, and distilled it into an easy-to-understand and easy-to-follow – checklist. (I’ll tell you how you can get your own copy of the checklist in just a minute.)

A Definition of Search Engine Optimization

But lets start with a simple definition of search engine optimization, so we’re both on the same page, and there’s no confusion:

Search engine optimization (SEO) means structuring your Website or Blog both on the site itself – (online optimization) and out in the internet (called offline optimization) in a way that opens your Website to the search engines.

When done correctly, your SEO strategy can actually improve your Website’s chances of being found and placed as close to the top of the list as possible when someone searches for your chosen keywords.

The good news is, you don’t have to be an SEO expert to get started right away – just a few simple changes will have significant results.

A Review of the Best Search Tools and Optimization Areas

The second part of this article will review the best search tools and tells you which areas of your Website or blog you can optimize that will have the biggest impact on where your site shows up when sometimes types a question on a search engine, using your chosen keywords.

The bottom line is, there are simple steps you can take to optimize your Website or blog for the search engines, and improve your chances of getting ranked highly so more of your clients, customers and fans can find you easily.

I mentioned I’ve put together an SEO checklist for you.  You can get that simply by signing up for my free newsletter.  I’ve added it as a bonus to the subscription.  The checklist takes you by the hand and walks you through the most basic steps you can take to do your own search engine optimization on your Website or blog.  If you already have a Webmaster or IT or “techie” person who’s handling your SEO optimization, chances are they’ve already done this.  But having the checklist takes the “mystery” out of it for you, and puts you on the same page.  And gives you an idea of what needs to be done next, if you’re not happy with the traffic you’re currently getting.

If you don’t have someone doing your SEO for you, this shows you what you can do yourself – and saves you from paying someone to do the basic stuff. That way you can get more bang for your buck and hire someone to do the more complicated things that will add an additional layer to your SEO strategy and ability to get more traffic to your site.

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