A few years ago I wrote the article
Ten Steps To
Higher Search Engine Positioning. The article was well received due to the
breakdown of the core requirements for ranking a website being reduced into
simple steps. Well today we're going to break it down into 5 steps. Is it even
easier to rank a website today than it was a few years ago? More straight
forward? Yes. Less time consuming? Not a chance.
As our company provides guaranteed SEO services for our clients, two things
are necessary:
- We need to know that our tactics work
- We need to maximize efficiency so we're not having to charge our clients
unreasonably high rates
And so we've developed processes by which we can attain maximum results in
the least amount of time through carefully developed stages. While we are
interested in all the major engines, it is of course Google that we spend the
lion's share of our time studying (having never heard a client say, "I don't
care about Google, just get me ranking on Ask.com.") Here are the steps we use
to optimize websites (including our own) for Google.
Step One: Website Structure
The structure of your website affects the way search engine spiders see your
site and thus, affects your rankings. I'm going to assume from the get-go that
your site is in a position to be spidered and the internal links followed (i.e.
none of the content is hidden due to poor development). This does not mean that
the structure is optimized.
The way the code appears on your page affects the way the search engines
prioritize specific content. For example, if your navigation appears higher in
the code of your web page than the content then it is given a higher priority.
The goal then is to make the core sections of your page appear higher in the
code than the portions that are not critical to the optimization of each page.
Generally the content area of your page contains the majority of the keywords
and is more easily optimized and tweaked. For this reason, you will want the
content of your page to appear higher in the code. This is especially true if
you have image-based navigation.
The methods for doing this differ depending on how your site was initially
built. If your website was built using tableless design practices (ideal) then
the matter is "simple". Now, I can't get into all the details here as this is a
huge area unto itself. There are many great sites, articles and forums on CSS
that get into this area of structural optimization in detail and where you will
find many helpful forum members willing to help out and answer questions. Or of
course you could hire a professional developer who already knows how to do this
in which case it will take a fraction of the time. This will depend on your
resources, time and of course - whether you're a do-it-yourselfer simply
interested in learning another web development skill.
If learning a new development skill appeals to you, here are some useful
resources you'll want to check out:
If your website is designed using tables the solution is actually much easier
though less ideal. As Beanstalk's Mary Davies wrote about in her
article on Table Structures, with table-based designs the issue is resolved
by simply structuring the cell layout in such a manner that the spiders "read"
the content before the navigation and/or other, less easily optimized portions
on your page. Knowing that a picture is worth a thousand words I'll resurrect
the one used by Mary to illustrate how this is done.
We can see that a blank cell is placed above the left hand navigation.
Because a search engine spider reads from top to bottom, left to right they will
hit the top table (the header) and then proceed to the table cell down and to
the left. With the vast majority of sites this will be the left hand navigation
however, if the table structure illustrated above is followed this will lead a
spider to a blank cell. The spider will then quickly move to the cell on the
right which is the main content area of the page. It is only after seeing the
content that the spider will move back to the left, crawl the navigation and
then proceed down to the footer.
The Point Of This
The goal with site structure optimization is to create an environment where the
spiders will crawl the most important (and most easily optimized) content as
early on the page as possible. This will give increased priority to the content
that matters most.
Step Two: Content Optimization
Content optimization is, for our purposes here, the optimization of the
wording and formatting of the page and site content to maximize its effect on a
site's rankings. There are three defining principles to this stage:
- Keyword density counts
- The formatting of content matters
- Overall site relevancy helps
So let's discuss these in order:
Keyword Density
Keyword density is essentially the number of times the keywords are used on
your page relative to the total number of words on the page. If you had a page
that was 1000 words in total and you used your keyword 100 times you would have
a keyword density of 10% (this is way too high by the way).
The optimal keyword density generally seems to hover around the 3 to 5%
range. Of course the optimal level fluctuates with the algorithm however it's
been a long time since I've seen it leave this range. You will find sites that
rank with higher and lower densities than this. Keyword density is not the only
factor (or how easy would an SEO's job be?).
If you want to check your density against the densities of your main
competitors there are a number of tools you can use to do this.
The Formatting Of Content
Content in header tags as well as bold, italic, anchor text and other
formatting options increases the weight this text carries. Now, this doesn't
mean to run out and bold every instance of your keywords in your content but
rather to make use of this as you are trying to draw the visitor's eye to the
important content on your pages. Logically enough, if you are targeting a phrase
on the search engines then it is highly likely that you will end up wanting to
draw the visitor's eye to these keywords periodically on the page. This is more
about usability and conversions than anything else. If a visitor enters our site
using the term "seo services" we want to make sure that they find this phrase
quickly when they land on the page. This will make the visitor feel more
comfortable and help them more quickly find the content they are looking for.
If a page we are working on has an overall keyword density of 4% we would
target to attain roughly 25 - 30% of this in some sort of formatting outside of
the standard of the site. That said, the visitor is more important than the
engines and if doing this will take away from the visual appeal of the site then
it is not recommended. We can make up any loss in other areas.
Overall Site Relevancy
The relevancy of your entire site is going to impact the rankings of an
individual page. If your entire site is about mortgages for example, you're
going to find it easier to rank for related phrases than if you have a general
site with a single page about mortgages. This is because the cohesion of content
among the pages of your site builds the overall relevancy of the site to that
topic. If we think about it, when Google is trying to determine if a searcher if
likely to find what they're looking for on a site are they likely to believe a
site with a single page on a topic is going to give the searcher the information
they're looking for or are they more likely to assume that a site with many
pages on a topic is going to prove more useful to the searcher?
So we'll resurrect the overused saying "content is king". Many pages on one
topic will fare better than many pages on different topics.
Step Three: Link Baiting
The next step (and an ongoing one at that) is link baiting. Link baiting, as
we discussed in our
article on
the topic, is the development of content/tools/etc. for your website
with the primary function of attracting links to that page or to another page on
the site.
Link baiting can be something as simple as a blog where updates are posted on
a topic that others would want to link to (you're of course going to have to
market your blog to get these posts found so they work as link bait). Link bait
can also be created in the form of
tools,
contests,
humorous
stories or cartoons, or really anything you can dream up that would inspire
someone to link to your site. SEOMoz's Rand Fishkin managed to make
his proposal to the lovely Geraldine link bait.
While most link bait doesn't inspire links being built directly to the
homepage of the site they do work to build internal links which boost overall
site strength as well as to build links to internal page which might themselves
rank for phrases.
Link baiting is an ongoing process. You don't simply build some link bait,
get some links and move on. The more often you develop content that others link
to the more often people will visit your site, the more content they will find
and the more new links they will build. You will also want to test out different
methods for marketing your link bait: Press releases, articles, blog feeds, etc.
People won't simply find your bait because you built it, you need to inform the
world that it is there.
Step Four: Link Building
Ahh link building, perhaps the single most discussed aspect of SEO out there
and also the topic shrouded in the most confusion. Do reciprocal links still
hold value? Is it worth my time to post to forums from a link building
perspective? Are articles really worth the time they take to write and submit?
The short answer to all of these questions is "yes" but with conditions (isn't
there always a snag?)
Never wanting to give advice I wouldn't take myself, Beanstalk applies a
minimum of 3 different link building methods for each client. Now, exactly which
methods we use for link building depends on the client, the type of site, and a
number of other factors but the core reason that we use at least three different
link building methods is the same for all: one link building method may increase
or decrease in value with an algorithm shift. The sites that tend to skyrocket
and plummet with algorithm shifts are those that use a limited number of tactics
and thus aren't safeguarded against changes in the way rankings are calculated.
Sites that use multiple techniques are better shielded from these adjustments.
And so you are left to ponder, which link building tactics will work for my
site?
The link building methods you choose now are not set in stone nor should they
be. Should you choose to go with three different link building tactics and
settle on reciprocal link building, directory submissions and articles you are
not locked into this forever. I generally recommend getting some of the easiest
out of the way first. Directory submissions are a no-brainer and should be part
of virtually every promotion so they make a good first round. If there are a lot
of related sites in your industry (say, if you're a real estate agent) then
reciprocal link building makes a fairly simple second tactic to employ. Now,
let's be clear on reciprocal links. Reciprocal link building is not dead but it
has been brought back to what it should be - an actual vote for a site. A link
exchange between the mortgage site noted above and the Beanstalk site would hold
little value for either of us. The sites aren't relevant. That said, a
reciprocal link between said mortgage site and a real estate broker would make
sense to both the visitors and the search engines and thus, it is a good
candidate.
So you've launched in with two link building tactics, let's assume you decide
to try your hand at publishing and submitting an article next. First you're
going to need to accumulate information and check around to see what editors are
publishing and people are asking. This should (and likely will) lead you to
forums. While you're there you might as well answer some of the questions people
are asking that you'll be writing about. This is a good test of your material
(but please, make sure your comments actually answer people's questions and
aren't blatant ads - I visit a number of forums daily and nobody likes the ads
and they don't stay posted for long). So you're in the forums gathering
information and answering questions while writing your article (which has added
a fourth link building method into the mix), now you've got your article
published. The next step is to submit it.
A few simple searches on your favorite search engine will provide long lists
of sites that publish articles, you'll simply need to create an account and
submit it. I recommend setting up
Google Alerts to
email you with a random sentence from your article. This will allow you to
monitor where it's being picked up and, of course, make sure the credits are in
place.
So there you are, you've already employed four different link building
tactics (and we're not even including link baiting in this total). From this
stage you need to keep on each of them to insure your link counts continue to
climb but you can relax a bit and move on to Step Five.
Step Five: Social Media
The use of social media for SEO purposes is a fairly recent evolution in the
community. While the links from social networking sites themselves do hold
value, the larger purpose of social media from an SEO perspective is the effect
that it will have on personalized search results. I wrote a very length article
on personalization and so I won't repeat all of the details here (if you're so
inclined you can read it after this. It's titled, "Personalization
& The Death Of SEO").
Now, using social media as a traffic and SEO tool is a highly specialized
area. To keep posted on this ever-changing field I recommend reading Neil
Patel's blog on
social media marketing. In his blog he covers a lot more than social media
as an SEO tool but I won't get into that in this article.
Aside from the links themselves social media holds one basic function for
SEO's - building relevancy. Google, in their personalization-related patent
applications, has been very clear that they will be looking at community and
group similarities when personalizing search results. If I like site x then it
is likely that if it shows up for a different search I will find it useful
again. That is the current state of personalization. It is clear it is going to
go further than this and evolve into a situation where the results will run on
assumptions such as, if I like site x and my friend Jim likes site x then if
Jim, on a different search, like site y - chances are that I will like site y if
I run the same search. Now, this doesn't work well in a micro, two-person
universe however when the technology evolves to the point where the patterns of
millions of users can be analyzed effectively the results will likely yield
quite significant shifts in rankings. But what does this have to do with social
media?
Social media is user-based votes wrapped into communities. If I find a site
worth bookmarking in Digg and
another SEO finds the same resource worth bookmarking, and so on - soon it can
be assumed that people involved in SEO communities feel that a resource is worth
saving and thus, that result will - when personalization evolves - rise in the
rankings.
It is for this reason that social media is going to be an important factor in
the ranking of websites down the road. This makes today the perfect day to get
started; you don't want to be playing catch-up to the sites that are currently
employing social media tactics now.
Conclusion
So, as you can see, I was not being altogether accurate in the title when I
called them "Easy Steps". The tactics required to rank highly on Google can be
complex and time consuming however the path itself is straight forward. If you
are willing to spend the time it will take to do it right, success is virtually
assured. If you are not, then prepare to make way for those who are.
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