Category: Small Business SEO

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is easy if you know what you are doing and is difficult and frustrating if you do not.

1. My SEO History
2. Title Tags
3. Meta Tags
4. Permalinks
5. Focus On a Keyphrase
6. Turn on Pingbacks
7. Use Alt Tags
8. Interlink
9. WWW or Non-WWW
10. Sign-Up to Google Search Console
11. Content is King
12. Building Links

My SEO History

My path is not without its failures.  Here is my story.

In 2002 I was a freelance desktop application developer.  I was trying to figure out how to market my skills. A friend of mine had been talking about SEO so I thought that was the answer.  With little understanding I set out to build a website for Tucson Custom Software.  About 9 months later I got a call from a guy that was looking for some help with a Word document.

In 2004 I ran into a guy that claimed he knew SEO.  I told him my story and showed him my website ranked number 1 for “Tucson Custom Software”.  He looked at my website and then jumped on his computer and told me no one was searching  “Tucson Custom Software”.  He was very nice about it and showed me what I was missing.  He showed me I needed to research what people are searching for and use those terms to build my website.

Back then I was building websites from scratch.  Not today.  Now I use WordPress to build websites.

WordPress Makes SEO Easier

WordPress SEO is easier than those sites I used to build from scratch.  I spend a lot of time on Drupal and found it to be time consuming to get it to the same place WordPress is right out of the box. Right out of the box WordPress is ready for SEO.  Be careful that the

Title Tags

The title of your pages / articles is very important.  The page / article title tag is important to Google.  Google uses the title taqg to determine what your page / article is about.  This will effect this particular page / article ranking and may effect how your whole site is seen.  The title tag should be an h1 tag and the page / article should contain only one h1.  The h1 for the WordPress page / article is built into the theme.

One of the things you can do to boost your WordPress SEO is to use search terms in your page / article title.  Only use words that describe or are contained in your copy.

Meta Tags

Permalinks

Focus On a Keyword or Key phrase

The word or phase people use while searching on the search engines (think Google) are referred to as keywords or key phrases.  I refer to them as search terms because that is what they are.

If you do not use Keywords and Key Phrases in your copy your site will take a lot longer to rank and may rank for terms you are not interested in.  Part of WordPress SEO is to use the search terms people are using to search for your products, services, and content.  Keywords and Key Phrases tell the search engines (think Google) what your content is about and to a greater extent what your website is about.

Be sure to use your chosen Keywords and Key Phrases sparingly so you do not over optimize your website, which could lead to a penalty on Google.

Turn on Pingbacks

Use Alt Tags

Interlink

WWW or Non-WWW

Sign-Up to Google Search Console

SEO is supposed to be about all the search engines.  Over the years all of the traffic to mi=y website comes from Google with rare exception.  The current Google Search Console give a lot of information.  It will tell you waht terms your website ranks for and what the ranking is.  This alone is worth it’s weight in gold.  You can use this to track your and validate your SEO campaingn.  Great information.

Content is King

Title

Meta Tags

description

legith

KeyWord Usage

Uniqueue

Building Links

This is an interesting one.  I used to be obsessed with back links or links from someone else’s website to mine.  Then I realized we are all in the same boat.  We want back links and they are hard to come by.

You will hear stories about link bate.  Stories about the guy that wrote this really cool article that went viral and he got tons of links to that article.  Who is this guy?  Do you know him?  I don’t know him, and you probably do not know him either.

So really it comes down to good WordPress SEO optimization and content.  They say content is king.  It takes good content to rank and it takes good content to keep the reader reading.

Here is 11 things you can do to improve your website SEO ranking. All of these factors are important. I suggest you start by blogging while applying the other 9 ranking factors. If you do so your website should rank well within your niche.

Google has as many as 200 ranking factors. Everyone of them matter. I’ve selected 11 I believe will impact your SEO efforts the most.

1. Use Terms People are Searching for
2. Make a SEO Plan
3. Start Blogging
4. Break up Your Content With Header Tags
5. Fast Load Times
6. High Quality Content That is Optimized for What People Are Looking for
7. Image Alt Tags
8. Inter Linking
9. Make Your Website Mobile Responsive
10. Add an XML Sitemap
11. Make Sure Google is Indexing Your Website

Use Terms People are Searching for

This is provably the most important thing you can do for your website. All the other factors are very important, however if you do not do your research and use relevant terms and terms people are using to look for your content, you might as well not have a website.

Optimizing your website for the terms people are searching for in supper important. This is the starting point of any SEO project.

Make a SEO Plan

Use what you learned about what people are looking for to make a plan. Without a plan you could wonder all over the place. Make a plan and work your plan.

Start Blogging

Blogging is important to a site’s SEO ranking. Content is king. Blogging is important because if you have no content the other 9 factors are meaningless.

Make sure you keep on track by first researching your niche to determine what terms people looking for. Then write top quality relevant content that people want to read, content that has value. And don’t forget to use those search terms in your articles.

Break up Your Content With Header Tags

There is 6 different header tags. H1 is the most important and is the title of your article. Every page of your website should start with an H1 tag that is rich with search terms people are looking for that are relevant to your website and the article you are writing. Each page should contain one one H1 tag.

When you are ready to add the header to the next section it should be an H2 tag. Then if you need a subsection make it an H3 and so on.

Fast Load Times

One of the ranking factors for Google is website speed. There is several things you can do to improve your website’s speed.

1. You can obtain a secured certificate and set every page of your website to HTTPS.
2. You can optimize the file size of your media. Smaller file sizes will mean less to load into your visitor’s browser.
3. More server resources. A better hosing platform such a virtual private server (VPS) that is using solid state devices or SSD as they are commonly referred to should do the job for most web applications.

High Quality Content That is Optimized for What People Are Looking for

The bottom line is you want people to convert. That means you are looking for business leads, subscribes to your newsletter, or you want them to read your content. To do so you need your visitor to stay on your website. To do so your content must be relevant. To make your content relevant, write it for the visitor you want to attract and for the subject they are looking for. To do this you much research what people are looking for and use those search terms in your content. This will increase the likelihood that your content is the right match for your visitors and that you are attracting your target audience.

Image Alt Tags

Make sure all your images have good quality alt tags that contain search terms that are relevant to your article. Each alt tag should be relevant to the image it is representing. While Google considers alt tag content, the tag is there for screen readers for those who may not be able to see the image. Always make your alt tags and other content for the visitor first and then the search engines.

Inter Linking

Interlinking serves two purposes. It tells Google which are your more important articles and it helps visitors stay on your website. Both are very important.

Keep people on your website is one of the metrics Google uses for ranking. Ranking is all about relevancy and one way Google determines relevancy is time spent on your articles and you site in general.

Linking from one article to another tells Google which content is most important. Your important content should be linked to by other articles. The content with the most links tells Google it is your most important content.

Make Your Website Mobile Responsive

One of the ranking factors google uses is if a website is mobile responsive. More than half your potential visitors are on a phone or a tablet. There will be less desktop computers as time passes. That will mean more mobile devises. Being mobile responsive is a must do.

Add an XML Sitemap

Having a sitemap is a must. All websites much have an XML sitemap. Google uses your sitemap to find your content. You will want to add a link to your site make in your Google Search Console.

Make Sure Google is Indexing Your Website

If you website is not being indexed you will have no visitors. It is important you register a Google Search Console account so you can verify your website with Google and ensure your website is indexed.

The Google Search Console provides a wealth of information about your website.

Conclusion

Each factor is important. Some are more important that the others, like doing research on what people are looking for and blogging. If you do your research, make a plan and then focus on blogging and apply the other factors to your blogging campaign, your website should rank better for your chosen niche.

I bought my first two domain names in 2000.  I do not recall the first name.  The second was for a Christian website named Christian-Home.org.  That domain name was a real learning experience.

Back in those days a domain cost $40 a year so mistakes were costly.

I learned two things from my early domain history.  In the case of Christian-Home.org, there was two things that confused people.  One was the hyphenated name and the other was the extension of org.  People repeatedly told me they could not find my website.  In talking with them I was able to determine they were dropping the hyphen and / or  not using the extension of dot org, instead using dot com.

Today I recommend a couple simple rules when choosing a domain.

Choose a name that best reflects the theme of your website

For example, If you are a real estate agent try to use a term that is your city or region and contains a real estate related term as well.  In an effort to create a really good domain I like to start by doing some research to determine what people are searching for.   And then create a domain name based on that research.  A domain name that is an exact match to a search term is the best.  How to determine what people are looking for is outside the scope of this article.

Don’t hyphenate

Creating a domain that does not contain a hyphen is the lesson I learned in 2000 when I bought and tried to use Christian-Home.org  Back in the day and maybe even now hyphenated domain names were confusing and hard to remember.

Always go with dot com

Another lesson I learned from trying to use Christian-Home.org.  I work on the web daily so you would expect that I would not be confused by a non-dot-com domain, right?  Wrong – a while back I was trying to print some tax forms when I went to irs.com instead of irs.gov.  Imagine my surprise when I saw advertisements for TurboTax.  My first thought was the Government was selling TurboTax.  Then I realized I was on the wrong website.  Choose a dot com or risk losing traffic to the dot com version of your domain.

Select a domain that is easy to spell

You may reduce the number of visitors to your website if you choose a domain that is not easy to spell.

Select a domain that is short

Short is always good.  Who wants to type in 60 or 70 characters so they can visit a website?  There may be an exception like a company name, however long domain names should never be the norm.

Catchy domain names are easy to brand

Look at GoDaddy.com.  Catchy and easy to remember.

Domain names that are easy to remember add great value

Sometimes it is better to choose a domain that is easy to recall and that might be a little catchy than one that contains search terms.

Choosing a domain name is not to be taken lightly

Your domain is an integral part of your web presence.  I suggest taking some time in choosing the correct domain for your web presence.  Choosing a domain name should not be taken lightly.