Building a new website can be a difficult task, but getting it found by users is something else altogether. By following the 5 golden key rules of SEO you should be able to acheive good search engine rankings for your site.
Find out what keywords are important to your business
The starting point for any successful search engine optimisation campaign is to start right at the beginning. Use the search engines to firstly find your competitors, secondly to look at the keywords and search terms they are organically marketing, and finally to use this information to create a list of keywords and search terms which are appropriate to your business. Once you have assembled a list the next stage is to find out if your keywords will perform at a high level. Each search engine offers tools which will help you to find out how popular a search term is. Use this information to create a definitive list, removing, adding and editing to maximise your keywords potential traffic levels.
Build your site navigation to maximise your exposure
The next stage of the Search engine optimisation process is to create a website category tree using your keyword list. Simply categorise your keyword list into groups and to split the groups into pages. Each category and page should have approximately 4-6 keywords associated to it. Use the category tree to build the navigation of your website. You should also have a site map that clearly links to each page within your site. The site map should link from the front page of your site so that Google can find it easily.
Target the content of your site to your market
This simple stage makes complete sense. Content is the single most important part of any successful Search engine optimisation campaign. By targeting your content to include the appropriate page and category keywords and search terms, you are enabling each of the search engines to view your sites content, understand subject matter, and list and index the page correctly under important keywords and search terms. By following this process, you will be in control of where and how your site appears within Google, Yahoo and MSN. This will help to maximise your sites exposure.
Descriptive, keyword rich, page titles and meta data
The TAGS on your page hold a key to key word prominence. To help maximise SEO on your pages its vitally important to include your keywords in your Page Titles, Descriptions and Keywords tags. Also make sure that your body content contains your keywords – but don’t go ‘stuffing’ crazy! Don’t forget traditional marketing, good content with a clear sales message will increase your conversion rates.
Making every page unique
It’s very important to avoid duplicate content. Rumours are afoot about Googles duplicate content penalty, although we don’t believe that its as stringent as once thought. Remember, however, that the golden rule in SEO is to build your sites for your visitors and would they want to read the same content over and over? Keep adding new pages to your site, target the pages to new markets, and make every page unique. Don’t duplicate content.
