Below is a quick overview of the SEO process
FINDING THE CORRECT KEYWORDS
• Develop a list of keywords for each page for engine submission.
• Use combinations of keywords and 2 or 3 word key phrases.
• Use geographic and descriptive keyword modifiers.
OPTIMIZING THE TITLE TAG
• Limit the title tag to 50-80 characters long – including spaces
• Include 1-3 of your most important keyword phrases in the title tag, but be careful not to just list keywords.
• Place keywords at the beginning of the tag.
• Each page of your site should have its own title tag with its own keywords that related to the page that it appears on.
OPTIMIZING PAGE CONTENT
• For best results it is recommended that each page you submit to a search engine has at least 200 words of copy.
• Content should be unique. Each page should have different content.
• Content should be fresh. Changing the content on a regular basis causes the spider to visit more often and rank the page higher.
• Content should be relevant. The content on the page should reflect the keywords in the title and meta tags.
OPTIMIZING META DESCRIPTION TAG
• Limit Description Meta tag not exceed 250 characters including spaces.
• Make sure you accurately describe the content of your page while enticing visitors to click on your listing.
• Include 3-4 of your most important keyword phrases. Especially those used in your title tag and page copy.
OPTIMIZING META KEYWORDS TAG
• Limit your keywords meta tag to 1024 characters including spaces.
• Be careful about repeating keywords. This is referred to as keyword stuffing
OPTIMIZING FOR THE CORRECT KEYWORDS
• Think “specific keyword phrases” not “keywords”.
• Try to think like your target audience. What would they search for when looking for the page you are optimizing?
• Check out your competition for ideas.
• You should develop a list of keyword phrases, following the tips on this page, for each page that you optimize for the search engines
OPTIMIZING HYPERLINKS
• Try to include your most important keyword phrases within the hyperlink.
•Try to include your most important keyword phrases in the text that immediately precedes, or follows the hyperlink.
• Make sure your links and surrounding text are still readable and make sense after you include a keyword phrase or two.
These components definately play a key role in the “onpage” optimization of your website, however, many search engines these days are no longer even using the meta tags in deciding the page rank of a website. Meta tags are still important and should be included in your site, but getting quality inbound links with a good link campaign is definately a more important aspect of website marketing and SEO.
You may also want to have a look at our Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing overview or our take on WEB 2.0 marketing and social media.