Search Engine Optimization Consulting™ Tipsheet

Phase 1: Keyword research based on product and/or service category.

Phase 2: Create SEO keyword text for all tags, as well as differentiate keyword tags based on each Web page's focus.

Phase 3: Insert all SEO tags into Web page code.

Phase 4: Build In-bound/reciprocal link campaign.

SEO TIP #1: Keyword Research

Using words that describe your product/service, research which keywords people are actually typing into search engines to locate your type of product/service.

Overture is a great place to start to get a basic idea of how many people searched for a particular keyword, as well as, related keywords. By the way, related keywords are great for creating keyword-rich body copy.

WordTracker goes beyond the basic number of searches and reveals the competition for a particular keyword/phrase.

SEO TIP #2: “Title” Tag

The first 60-66 characters in the Title tag are the most important, according to SitePoint's article “Avoiding the 5 Most Common SEO Mistakes”

Google recommends "...that your TITLE tags are descriptive and accurate."

Does your site's search engine listing stand out from your competitors? Your Title and Description tags are the ONLY tags displayed in search engines that separate you from your competitors.

What does your Title tag say? How does it look compared to your competition? Is it enticing? Is your site's Title the answer that customers are searching for? Customers are searching - Does your site's Title display the answer?

The Full “SEO Consulting™ Tipsheet” covers navigation, heading, anchor, image tags, and more - including a diagram showing where everything actually goes in the Web page code.

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SEO TIP #3: Meta “Description” Tag

255 characters to write up a keyword-rich Description. Use the keywords that were found during search engine research phase.

SEO TIP #4: Meta “Keywords” Tag

Add the keywords that were found during the research phase listed in SEO Tip #1.

SEO TIP #5: “Heading” Tags

<h1> thru <h6> tags.

SEO TIP #6: Navigation Menu “Anchor” Tags

Use keywords/phrases as Anchor tags (links) in your site's navigation menu.

In fact, if your site has a graphic navbar made with JPGs or GIFs, then it's very important that you have a second "text-only" navbar (filled with keyword-rich Anchor tags).

SEO TIP #7: Image “Alt” Tags

Tag images with keywords/phrases - just like tagging images on Flickr. Don't overload your alt text.

Google recommends: Be descriptive and accurate, but don't stuff it with extra keywords.

SEO TIP #8: Body Copy “Anchor” Tags

Sprinkle keywords/phrases, as Anchor tags, throughout the body copy.

SEO TIP #9: What's Next?

What's next? Where do all these keyword tags go in the HTML page code?

SEO TIP #10: There are 2 more phases

Phase 2: Create SEO keyword text for all tags, as well as differentiate keyword tags based on each Web page's focus.

Phase 3: Insert all SEO tags into Web page code.

Diagram showing tag locations. (See below).

EXTRA SEO TIPS

Robots.txt file

Thomas Brunt's OutFront is an excellent resource for robots.txt. All search engines, or at least all the important ones, now look for a robots.txt file as soon their spiders or bots arrive on your site. So, even if you currently do not need to exclude the spiders from any part of your site, having a robots.txt file is still a good idea, it can act as a sort of invitation into your site.