A Practical Guide to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Website Marketing

There is no "magic" to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The only real trick to the process is planning ahead! The best time to optimize your site for search engines is when your site is still on the drawing board. However, don't fret if your site is already up. There is still hope... as long as you are willing to rethink "what makes a good web site".

Search engine optimization is no longer about "tricking" search engines into thinking that your site is relevant. Search engines are becoming much smarter at weeding out the pretenders. Take Google, for example... Their business model relies on providing searchers with relevant and timely information based on user searches. Their continued success in the search engine market would be seriously undermined if every search that you performed on their site returned thousands of annoying and meaningless results. You'd end up going elsewhere for your searches. Google knows this.

Google is spending millions of dollars in research and development related to building smarter search systems (robots, crawlers, indexers, etc.) that use increasingly complex "artificial intelligence" algorithms to actually "read and understand" your site... not just index it.

As search engine technology gets closer and closer to being able to look at a site the way a human does, the more important it becomes to design sites for the "user experience", not for the search engine spiders. So the days of packing keywords into your meta-tags and filling your site with useless (and often bogus) reciprocal links are over.

Successful site optimization is now a continuous and ongoing process of providing useful and relevant content and resources to your visitors. Good (enduring) search engine optimization involves three basic processes:

1. Design: Clean, Clear & Intuitive
2. Content: Relevant, Fresh & Consistent
3. Promotion: Pertinent, Diverse & Creative

Each of these processes is defined in greater detail below. This information is provided free of charge by Miami Web Design Firm: iSatisfy.com and is presented "as-is" and without warranty. Please feel free to offer your SEO tips and insight...as long as you don't mind making it freely available on this web site. Also, please let us know if you find a broken link.

The SEO Roadmap ©:

1. Clean, Clear & Intuitive Design -

• Use NO frames - EVER!
• Use intuitive, text-based navigation:
  • No image maps
  • No javascript menus
  • No Flash navigation
• Provide alternative HTML pages for dynamic content, provide "Search Engine Friendly URLs" or list all dynamic URLs in your sitemap.
• Configure Meta-Tags correctly (Keywords, Description, Robots, etc.)
• Limit Meta-Tag keyword repetition
• Create unique and relevant "Title" tags for each page
• Include descriptive "Alt tags" for contextual images
• Create and configure "robots.txt" file
• Create a full XML Sitemap: SiteMapDoc.com, XML Sitemaps or SitemapsPal
• Register site map with Google
• Register site map with "Ask" using the following syntax:
  http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http://www.YourWebSite.com/sitemap.xml
• Create a robots.txt file with the following directive: SITEMAP: http://www.the URL of your sitemap here.xml
   
• Create and register "urllist.txt" file for Yahoo robot

2. Relevant, Fresh & Consistent Content -

• Carefully describe or define, in detail, your services and/or mission
• Research pertinent and relevant keywords using an online "Keyword Discovery" tool such as Keyword Discovery.
• Research specific keyword phrases that are directly relevant to your services & mission using Google's keyword tool.
• Place a strong emphasis on relevant textual content throughout your site
• Be sure your landing pages contain specific measurable offers.
• Update content frequently (via a Content Management System - CMS)
• Write original articles or news posts and post to web site using Blog or CMS software
• Embed relevant RSS feeds where appropriate (like the "Search Engine News" section below)
• Include relevant reciprocal links (Don't use bogus link exchange services)
• Careful keyword distribution, density and proximity:
  • Place keyword phrases within "Heading tags"
  • Use keywords and keyword phrases in textual Hyperlinks
  • Use keywords and keyword phrases in actual URLs
  • Use keywords in first and last paragraphs of text

3. Pertinent, Diverse & Creative Promotion -

• Manually submit web site to all major search engines:
  • Google
  • Yahoo
  • MSN
• Use a free submission service for secondary search engines
  • PromotionWorld.com
  • ISEDN
• If you have a physical location (or even just a mailing address), make sure you are included in Google's "Local Maps". Google also offers a free "Coupon" feature that you may display in conjunction with your local map to draw more attention to your listing.
• Add your site to "Local Classified" ad sites:
  • Backpage
  • Lycos Classifieds
• Add your "local location" to the MSN network powered by localeze.
• Link Popularity (or inbound links) is now considered to be the most important factor for determining search engine rankings on the major search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN). This quote comes directly from Google's Webmaster Help Center: "In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages." Seek out relevant linking partners:
  • Industry associations
  • Service directories
• Submit original articles to industry publications (online and offline)
• Original Content Distribution - Write articles about your industry, give away free resources (how-to guides, eBooks, newsletter subscriptions, etc). By doing this, you can end up with a significant amount of useful content on the web that other sites will link to and that will include a link back to your own.
• Syndicate articles on web site via RSS feeds
• Participate in relevant online discussions:
  • Answer questions from other users in discussion forums
  • Submit insightful content/comments to industry blogs
• Develop eNewsletter campaign for opt-in subscribers
• Consider pay-per-click campaigns (e.g., Google AdWords & Yahoo Search Marketing)
• Consider advertising on industry related web sites

Other Helpful WebMaster Information -

• Google Information for Webmasters
• Google Facts and Fiction
• SEO and Internet Marketing
• One of the best online resources for Web Masters - SiteProNews: WebMaster Resources
• Online search engine ranking report: SubmitAWebsite.com
• Google Page Rank Tool:
• SEO Website Grader: WebsiteGrader.com
• Search Engine Popularity: popuri.us
• Various SEO Info: xinuReturns.com