Thursday, December 24, 2009

The Five SEO Secrets for site's visibility

1. Determine Goals, Priorities, and Measurements
Before starting an SEO campaign, develop measurable goals and priorities, and plan to revise them periodically. Some questions to answer: What are your current business needs? Which of your products or services are most important to promote now? What do you want visitors to your site to do, buy, or learn?
Next, decide how to measure success. If you haven't already done so, add Google Analytics to each page of your site. Google Analytics reveals which keywords visitors used to find your site, and much more. You can find many Web traffic analysis tools out there, but Google's includes all of the features that most small businesses need.
2. Research Keywords
Often, a business doesn't describe its products using the same keywords that its clients use. You may be promoting "portable media players," for instance, but your potential customers call them "MP3 players." That's why it's important to talk to employees, partners, current and potential clients, and your sales staff to determine which words are most frequently used when people seek out your company and its products or services. Use those phrases to develop an initial list of SEO keyword candidates.
Several keyword-research tools are available to help you choose the best terms for SEO. The free Google AdWords Keyword Tool helps you gauge how frequently keywords are searched in the United States (and globally), and how competitive a keyword is. The tool is designed to help marketers choose keywords for Google PPC ads, but it's useful for organic keyword research, too. You'll also get lots of keyword variations that you might not have thought of.
3. Use Keywords Judiciously
Using keywords effectively can make your site more discoverable. But overusing or abusing them can cause search engines to ignore you. Here are some tips for adding keywords to your Web pages:
4. Create 'Linkbait'
Editorial endorsements of your product or service from someone else, such as a high-profile blogger, can be pure SEO gold--especially when that endorsement includes a keyword-rich link to a relevant page on your site.
You don't have as much control over external links to your site as you do over the keywords you use, of course. Still, you can take some steps.
5. Make Sure Your Site Is Search Engine Friendly
Search engine "bots" primarily index text and follow links. Though they are getting more sophisticated, bots can't easily index nontext content, such as Flash animations. JavaScript content, such as site menus rendered in Ajax, can stop a search engine bot in its tracks. The bottom line: If your Website contains lots of Flash, Ajax, and other nontext material, you're making it difficult for the search engines to index your pages. And if search engines can't index that content, searchers won't be able to find it when they perform queries. If you're planning a new site, make sure its design is friendly to search engines from the beginning.
Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/22/AR2009122203353.html