SEO Site Preparation Tips for Beginners
Let’s face it, there are plenty of websites out there that aren’t getting nearly as much traffic as they deserve. You can offer a top-notch product or service, but without taking the right startup steps your site may not get a single visitor. Your best chance to gain online popularity is to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices to get your site up to speed.
In the simplest of terms, SEO aims to increase a website’s organic traffic by helping it place better in search engine results. Here is a list of basic steps to consider when you begin the SEO process:
• Redesign your website. It can be difficult to keep up with the latest trends in web-design, but it is crucial that you have an interesting and professional looking site. Many web surfers will immediately navigate away from a webpage that looks amateurish or too confusing to navigate.
• Research the popular keywords in your niche. Find those that are used frequently, yet are possible to dominate. For example, the keyword “Shoes” would be incredibly difficult to place for, but “Italian shoes” could be narrow enough for your cause. Google Adwords and SEO Book offer great tools that can help you find popular web searches related to your topic.
• Improve your site’s architecture. An easy-to-navigate website offers many SEO advantages. If your important pages are deep within the site, it can be hard for search engines to index all of your content. A good rule of thumb is to ensure that your most important pages are no more than one or two clicks off of the home page.
• Optimize your title tags and Meta descriptions using your niche’s relevant keywords. Title tags help search engines understand that your site is relevant to a specific topic, while meta descriptions convince potential visitors to click through. Title tags should be no longer than 65 characters and meta descriptions no longer than 160.
• Correct any and all broken links. Broken links make it difficult for search engines to index your pages and can prevent you from getting listed in major, online directories. Xenu’s Link Sleuth is a great, free tool that allows you to easily identify any broken links on your site.
• Setup necessary 301 redirects. Did you know that yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com are recognized as two different domains (even though they point to the same site)? When others link to your site, they could use either of these addresses and split your traffic. You can automatically direct all visitors to the www. version of your domain by using a 301 redirect.
• Correct URL structure issues. Keep your URLs short and sweet. If, for example, you have a page located at www.yourdomain.com/info/brochures/57/faq.php, try to shorten the address. www.yourdomain.com/info/faq.php is much easier for search engines to locate and index. It is also helpful to use keywords in your URLs. If you have a page that is about discount Italian shoes, call it yourdomain.com/discount-italian-shoes.php.
• Install Google Analytics to monitor site traffic. This is a free service offered by Google that allows you to monitor the number of visitors to your site, the keywords they use to find you, where they are from and much more.
• Produce 5 to 10 new, original articles based on keyword research each month. Fresh content ensures that your site will be frequently indexed by search engines. Never post text that you find on other websites, as duplicate content will result in search engine penalties.
These steps should be employed on all websites, no matter the age or existing traffic volume. It’s risky to say that any tactic is guaranteed to boost a site’s visitor count; however, the methods listed above tend to have very positive results whenever they are used.
