Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization
Posted on February 6, 2007 |
Now I know for a fact that, as a home business owner, you’re probably watching your budget. I’m featuring this article because I figure it might help you save some big bucks.
If you paid someone to do your search engine optimization, or SEO, it could cost you an arm and a leg depending on how far you want to go with it.
So what I suggest is you go ahead and try the DIY approach first and if you’re happy with it then, you might want to get professional help with it.
Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization
by Tom Oki
When it comes to search engine optimization, you basically have two choices.
1) Pay consultants thousands of dollars to do it for you, or
2) Do it yourself. For obvious reasons, most people pick the latter.
There are two components to optimizing your site to rank high on search engines. One is to build links to your site from high-quality, popular websites. This is done by contacting potential link partners and asking for links.
The other component is to make sure your webpages are optimized for the appropriate keywords. For each page, choose one keyword phrase that matches the content of the page, and stick to that keyword phrase. Then,
1) Include the keywords in the title tag
2) Use the keywords inside an H1 tag
3) Use the keywords as bold text
4) If possible, use the keywords in link text
5) Repeat the keyword within the body of the text
6) Use the keywords in the file name of your page
One controversial topic is how often to repeat your keywords on the page. Too much repetition can end up hurting you, since the search engines will assume you are simply trying to stuff keywords and raise your ranking without providing useful content.
The general rule I follow with my own do-it-yourself search engine optimization is to repeat the keywords a total of 3-6 times on any given page. However, the number of repetitions should be higher for longer pages, so there is no set rule on the number of repetitions. Use your judgement and don’t go overboard.
There are also tools that you can use to help you in your do-it-yourself search engine optimization. By far, the most popular tool would be a program called Webposition Gold, which automatically optimizes your pages for you. I have found this program useful if you have a large site with many pages. For smaller sites, you will probably be fine doing the optimization yourself.
About the author:
Tom Oki is the author of 30 Minute Sites, a course of instant Web design that teaches people how to design professional websites in 30 minutes, regardless of their experience.
