Concentric Sky, Inc.

For many of our customers, Search Engine Optimization seems like an esoteric art. There’s a huge number of vendors offering easy SEO services, but what do they really do? Can’t I just do it myself? We hear this question over and over again. The goal of this post is to help answer these questions and to show you how to pick the low hanging fruit yourself.

Keywords

The first step is to choose the right keywords and use them consistently across your site. Try not to use generic words - find a niche word or phrase and build off of it. Today, the average Google search contains 3-5 related words. Keep in mind that potential customers may not know exactly what they’re looking for.

For example, if you’re a maker of Widgets in San Jose, CA, choose keywords such as “Widgets San Jose” or “Widgets California”.

A simple Google search for a given search phrase will show you how many pages have been indexed with your keywords. It goes without saying that the more sites you are competing with, the harder it will be to get onto the front page of search results. If possible, aim for keywords that appear less often. The more specific you get, the less competition you will have.

For example, a maker of Widgets could give its product a unique brand name such as “WidgetXP” that is guaranteed to come up first in the search results. This is why you see so many online businesses making up new words.

Another useful tool for selecting keywords is Overture ( Now Yahoo! Search Marketing ). Overture’s Search Term Suggestion Tool provides detailed information on search terms and can give you a good idea of what keywords will be popular.

Site Optimization

Every page on your site should be optimized for a set of keywords. Ideally, you’ll have enough content to optimize each page for a different set of keywords to increase your traffic - but it’s OK to use the same keywords on every page if the site is small.

Most search engines will also look at the URL and page title of your pages to determine page rank.

For example, a page at http://somedomain.com/we-make-awesome-widgets will be ranked higher than a page at http://someonlinebusiness.com/products assuming they have identical content and use the same keywords.

Equally important is the page title. Using keywords in the title will definitely increase your page ranking - but it can be hard to strike a balance and keep it looking professional. Generally speaking, the closer to the front of the title you place your keywords, the more effective they will be.

Links

One of the most important factors in SEO is the number of incoming links - other sites on the Internet that link back to your site. Links from certain types of sites are more valuable than others.

For example, a link from a .org or .edu domain will result in a higher page rank that a link from a .com or .info domain.

Partnering with your customers and even related businesses is a good way to build incoming links. Beware of SEO providers that use link farms - pools of sites that exchange links in order to boost page ranking - and doorway pages - landing pages that redirect traffic. These will provide little value and in some cases can actually reduce your page ranking. There are better ways to accomplish the same thing.

These basic steps will help make sure your content is easily indexed by search engines. To move ahead in the rankings will require more advanced techniques.