For people who don’t know much about it, search engine optimisation (SEO) is often seen as a dark art. The truth is that it is actually very simple if you know how to play by the rules.
However, what you need to remember is that if you want your website to climb to the top of the search engines for a competitive keyword which is going to make you money, it is going to require a lot of hard work, especially if your competition has been up there longer than you.
Another thing you need to remember is that at some point along the way it is probable that the search engines are going to change the rules without warning. So what is the best way to build an SEO strategy which is going to give you the best possible results?
SEO Gives You Free Traffic
1) Conversion Rate Optimisation
Making sure your site is built for conversion is not strictly SEO. However, there is no point in spending time getting more traffic to your site if it is not going to convert traffic into sales. Increasing the rate of conversion for your website for the same amount of visitors adds value to the bottom line.
The basics of conversion rate optimisation involve making sure that there are strong and visible calls to action on the site, that the contact details are easy to find and that the shopping cart or lead capture is simple to use.
2) Keyword Research
Once you are happy that you have a site that will convert to sales and that will effectively act as your top sales person, it is time to do some research into the keywords that you will focus on during your campaign. What keywords do you think will people type in to find your site, and which of these will bring in the most traffic?
Firstly and most obviously, ask your existing customers for suggestions. Also it is worth having an internal brainstorm to come up with keyword ideas. The next step is to use one of the many free keyword tools available to get an idea of estimated traffic for each of the keywords on your list to help you whittle the list down to a manageable level.
3) On-Site Optimisation
Now you are armed with your keyword list, it is time to go through your site and make sure that the content is relevant and in context with your keywords. You need to decide for which pages you are going to target which keywords and then make the keywords visible on these pages, especially in headlines and internal links.
It is also extremely important to optimise the title and description tags for the relevant keywords as these indicate to the search engines what those pages are about. It also important during this stage to make sure your site uses good, clean code and runs as fast as possible. Google has a tool called ‘Webmaster Tools’ which will help you with this.
4) Link Building
Once the on-site optimisation has been completed it is time to start building links to your site. The first step of your link building campaign is to go for quick wins such as directories related to your niche. The next step is to decide what your linkable assets are. You may have a useful guide on your site, a software download or some video content which others will want to link to.
Think about the sort of sites that will link to these assets and get out there and contact them. A word of warning – you may be tempted to buy links and there are many people out there selling them. However, this is totally against Google’s terms and conditions and could get your site banned. You have been warned!
5) Competitor Research
Once you have your own house in order, it’s time to spy on your competitors. Don’t feel guilty about this, they are doing it to you too! Use a tool such as Yahoo Site Explorer to see what links your competitors have gained and think about how they have got them. See if they have had any site redesigns using Way Back Machine. Perhaps they have social media buttons on their site or other clues as to how they are marketing themselves.
One more important tip. Never lose sight of the fact that the aim of the game is to drive more business, don’t get caught up in doing SEO for SEO’s sake.
1 comments:
Thank's a lot for the very important SEO information.
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