How to get your website to the top of Google: A beginners guide to search engine optimization
This article is intended for those who have a website, but are new to the field of internet marketing. It summarizes the processes and procedures used to get your website to the top of the search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. I will attempt to explain this in a jargon free way so that even the most inexperienced webmaster can understand and hope that you can use this information to get your own website to the top of the search engines.
Search engine optimization
To start off; the process used to increase your website rankings is called search engine optimization, or SEO for short. SEO consists of processes and procedures relating directly to your website, or web page, as well techniques relating to other websites. This is referred to as on-page and off-page optimization.
On-page search engine optimization
We'll start with on-page search engine optimization techniques.
Keyword research
The first thing that you need to do is keyword research. You need to understand exactly what keywords are related to your web pages, how often people search for them, as well as how competitive your keywords are; or how well your competitors rank for those keywords. There are a number of online keyword research tools available.
Once you've established a good set of relevant keyword and their competitiveness, you need to decide which keywords to target. Personally, I advise targeting 'long tail keyword phrases', particularly if the competition for your website's keywords if fierce. A long tail keyword is a keyword that takes the core keywords and adds adjectives to them. So, basically it is a slight broader description of the original keywords. Don't worry, I'll give examples later.
Now that you have decided which keywords and 'long tail keyword phrases' you are going to target, the optimization can begin.
Write a good title tag
Firstly, you need to write a good title tag. This is the text that display in the title bar at the top of your browser's window. You will find it in your web pages' code in the 'head' section. Your title tag should start with your most important keywords; it may repeat those keywords up to three times and should be a maximum of about 90 characters. Try and work your 'long tail keyword phrases' into the title tag after the core keywords which appear first. Remember that when somebody finds your website in Google they will see your title tag, so it must look appealing and be easy to read. If you are targeting a geographically specific location then mention the area in your title tag. I usually do this near the end of the title tag.
Which meta tags to use
Next we move onto Meta tags. Meta tags are for the most part history. Search engines don't pay much attention to them any more. The only meta-tag that you need to include is the description meta-tag. There are many more Meta tags, but they are not worth bothering about. Your description Meta tag should provide a brief, concise description of your web page. It should include your keywords and be under 200 characters. Your description Meta tag should be clear and easy to read; it should encourage people to click on your website's listing. In technical terms, a good description Meta tag will increase your click-through rate.
Navigation and linking structure
Now it's time to discuss navigation and linking structure. This refers to your website's menu and the way in which different pages on your website link to each other. It is of utmost importance that people who visit your website can easily find what they are looking for. You menu and sub-menu should be presented in a logical manner, so that relevant information can be found easily. When you build your menu you should use what is called an absolute link instead of a relevant link. An absolute link contains the full URL of the page on your website that you are linking to. This means it will include the full http://www.yourwebsite.com/page-name.html, instead of simply 'page-name.html'. You may also want to use keywords when you name your pages and use a hyphen to separate keywords instead of an underscore.
Headings
Just like a book, a website has a title, headings and sub-headings. It is very important to label the different parts of your web pages correctly. This is done by using heading from H1 to H6. Use the H1 heading as the main one and then break it down, having multiple H2 and H3 headings. The heading above this paragraph is an H# heading. Remember you can go up to H6 if necessary.
How to write good content
Now that we have all that out the way we move onto content, and content is KING! Search engines love content. There are no hard and fast rules in SEO and especially not when writing your copy or content.
Like I mentioned earlier you should target long tail keyword phrases. You will notice that one long tail keyword phrase will target a number of individual keywords and keyword phrases; highlight important keywords in bold. Another point to consider is keyword density; this is the repetition of your most important keywords with your content. You should have a high keyword density, but your content must read in a logical manner. You can't simply repeat the same keywords over and over again. The search engines also really like it if you change, or update your content regularly.
Furthermore, whenever you insert an image, you should use alternative text that contains relevant keywords. Linking to other websites should also be taken into consideration as having too many links on your page may hurt its performance on the search engine results pages (SERPS). If you need to link to another website, you should give the link a ‘NOFOLLOW’ attribute. Linking to a few websites that are related to your website may have some benefits, but that goes beyond the scope of this article.
That takes us to the end of our discussion on ‘on page search engine optimization’, next we’ll move away from your physical website and explore what else can be done to get your website to the top of Google and the other search engines’ rankings. This is called ‘off page optimization’.
Off-page search engine optimization
Link Building
The most effective thing you can do to promote your website, without actually changing your web pages is to get links from other websites. This is called link building. There are a few factors to consider when doing link building: Firstly you must try and get links from websites that are related to your website and secondly, you should try and get links from websites with a high ‘PageRank’. PageRank or PR is a number between 1 and 10 that Google assigns to a page. You can check a pages’ PR by installing the Google Toolbar and enabling the PageRank option. You will then see a little bar indicating the pages PR.
You can get inbound links through link building, link exchanges, submitting your website to business directories, commenting on forums, social bookmarking and blogging.
Generate a sitemap
Next you need to make a Google sitemap. There are a number of free online tools available which can generate a Google sitemap. You should create a Google Webmaster Tools account and submit your sitemap.
Search engine submission
Many websites offer a search engine submission facility; this is an issue of debate, but personally I don’t like to submit websites to the search engines. I prefer to let them be found naturally.
Use online search engine optimization tools
Once you have implemented these techniques you need to analyze your campaign. There are a number of free search engine optimization tools available. These SEO tools can check links to your website, your PR, code/content ratio, website traffic and keyword density etc... I will not go into that technical jargon in this article.
Analyze competitor's websites
Your competitors are also a valuable source of information. You can check what keywords they are ranking well for, analyze their web pages, check where they are getting links from and see if you can also get links from the same websites.
Analyze performance
Finally, you need to analyze your website's performance by mimic customer behaviour. It is no good if you have the number one spot in Google for your business’s name. You need to rank for relevant keywords. Imagine that you are a consumer looking for a product or service. Open up a search engine, type in a few keywords and see how your website ranks. Remember that consumers searching for a product or service will often start by entering the core keyword and then entering further adjectives to narrow down their search. Remember that it takes time to get your website to the top of Google’s rankings. Don’t expect it to happen overnight, have patience and keep on optimizing!
If you like this article then please share it using one of the social bookmarking gadgets listed below.
Labels: get to the top of Google, internet marketing, online marketing, search engine optimization, SEO
posted by Dylan at 4:10 AM 3 Comments 
