Many clients ask me about how to improve their search engine ranking. There is a certain mystique about search engine optimization (SEO) among business owners. The purpose of this article is to demystify search engine optimization and lay down a simple framework for businesses to target their SEO efforts.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website for targeted keywords (Wikipedia) The idea is that the earlier that a site is listed in search results, the more potential customers will visit the site. Studies have shown that around 60% of users click on search engine results and not the paid ads on top and side. These clicks are called organic clicks (as opposed to pay-per-click or PPC) and do not cost you anything. Since the majority of visitors find sites through search engine listings, creating an effective SEO strategy is essential.

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1. Choose your core focus market and select keywords

The first step is to decide what type of visitors your would like to visit your site and what keywords visitors from your industry are using in the major search engines. By solidifying effective search terms that will drive users to your site, you are now prepared to integrate these keywords into your site and blog posts (see below). Spend time deciding what keywords are used by people most who are looking for products or services that you offer and be sure that these keywords appear within the first few lines of your site.

2. Post on blogs and forums

This probably the most underused, and similarly over abused method to improve your search ranking. The key here is to answer questions and offer expertise to users on other website owners already established websites. For example if you are a mobile phone store, then you could answer questions users have about a phones features on a Motorola forum. By including a link back to your site, along with industry relevant keywords, your website’s ranking will rapidly increase. Forums allow you to build relationships in your niche industry and help build credibility and trust with potential customers. Furthermore, forums allow you to display your website link in the body of each post. Once the website hosting the forum is indexed by a search engine, there will be a noticeable effect on the ranking of your site. A free blog can be created with WordPress

3. Build Your Site in CSS

This article isn’t meant to be too technical, but simply put, ask your web designer if your website was built in tables or CSS. If he/she says “tables”, it is time to find a new designer. Many web designers still use tables to build websites. This technique has been completely abandoned by the expert design community and is frowned upon by search engines.

4. List your site on as many directories as possible

If you do a quick search using your industry as the keyword – say “los angeles photography” you will probably notice that many of the results that show up are different directories of sorts. Many of these directories are free. Submit your site to these directories along with your business information for instant results. If you are listed on a website that shows up in the first 10 pages of search results, it is likely your site will show up too.

5. Write articles on your site (like this one)

Having a blog on your site will provide a steady stream of fresh content that incorporates your keywords. A simple blog like this one can be set up with WordPress, a free open-source blog application.

6. List your business on google maps

This tool is free and better than Yellow Pages. Your site ranking will not only improve just by being listed, but users will be provided with a map directly to your organization, basic contact information, and even hours of operation. Customers will thank you for not burying the store phone number deep within your site.
Google Maps

7. Provide Useful Information

Search engines look kindly on providing visitors with rich, useful content. Don’t spam potential users. Educate users rather than up sell them. Here are some examples of this logic applied
- Pet care tips for a Vet office or pet supply store
- Valentine’s day date ideas for chocolate shop or florist
- Free excel finance calculators on website for real estate agent

8. Write press releases

Releasing a new product? Write a press release. Hire a new CEO? Write a press release. There are many websites that offer free press release listings for you to submit your release to. Make sure to link back to a relevant page on your site.

9. Submit your site to the search engines yourself.

Do not pay for any service that offers to resubmit your site to search engines. They could get you permenantly blacklisted from the search engine. Then it’s back to the drawing board. The major search engines are Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and ask.com.

Google – http://www.google.com/addurl/
Yahoo – http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
Microsoft – http://search.live.com/docs/submit.aspx
AOL – http://www.dmoz.org/add.html
Ask – http://www.garryconn.com/how-do-i-submit-my-site-to-askcom.php

10. Improve your Metadata

While search engines have admittedly reduced the importance they place on your meta tags, there is still great value to be had from optimizing all of your meta tags. For the title attribute, use a descriptive title that does more than state the page and your company name. For instance, on your about or company page, rather than have a title that looks like this “About | Eyemagine”, a more useful title would be something like “Eyemagine is an Orange County based web development agency”. Now, not only is the page title actually describing what content is on the page, but it contains relevant keywords that you want to target. Similarly, try tailoring your meta description to the page itself, rather than using the same description sitewide. For usage info, refer to the w3c page on meta tags: W3C Schools. One important thing to note, search engines have all but completely phased out the keyword meta data from their algorithms due to the abusive keyword usage by webmasters in the past. While many recommend ignoring them completely, I still create keyword lists (no more than 15-20 keywords.