Top 10 List of SEO Things To DO!

Posted • June 28, 2007 • Comments Off

As promised here is a list of the top SEO things you should DO!

There is still a canyon between understanding SEO and actually doing it. I have tried to bridge that gap by building a bridge. Here is the “to do” list that will help you whether you are actually planning on doing the SEO your self or are going to hire a SEO company.

1. If you are going to hire a SEO Company check them out with some of their clients. Ask for their opinions. Ask the SEO company to show you some case studies of previous clients. Ask for phone numbers of current clients for references.
2. Implement your SEO strategy when you are in the planning stages of your site. Research keywords for your field using one of the free research tools or for $1 you can get a 2 week account with, in my opinion, one of the best services available NicheBot2. Your site is already up! It is never too late to implement a good keyword strategy.
3. Submit your site to directories not search engines. There are plenty of good directories out there and a lot of them are free. DMOZ should be your number one priority. The DMOZ isn’t easy to get in to but it is free and it’s The Place to be listed. Always look for directories that are relevant to your site. Don’t know how to find relevant directories? You can search for "your field" submit URL or "your field" add site.
4. Make your site easy for the search engines to crawl. Use a robots.text file and a sitemap.xml file. Following the W3C standards for your code won’t hurt either. If it is easy for the search engines to crawl your site they will reward you by indexing more of your site.
5. Use keywords that are relevant to each page on that page. Use them sparingly and in groups that have coherent meaning. Use your keywords like fine polish, only where you need them and to make your content shine. Make sure your keywords are words that people search on, not jargon specific to only an elite few in your field.
6. Choose your page titles carefully and make them unique to each page and short. Use your limited keywords and/or phrases in your titles and your page description meta tags. Don’t over look the importance of your description meta tags. Some search engines use your description tag as the text under your title in their search results. Make them compelling. Remember you are trying to entice the reader to click on your link.
7. Make your site usable and navigable. You can have 1,000,000 visitors per day and if they can’t find what they want or how to get to what they want they will leave. Easter eggs are fun, but they have no role in your website, providing your site isn’t a gaming site or something similar where this is the content of your site.
8. Build your site for your users with the search engines in mind. Provide compelling unique content for your visitors and you will be well on your way to getting traffic to your website. If you trick your visitors into coming to your site and your content isn’t what they are looking for, poof they are gone.
9. Use your analytics and explore what your visitors are doing on and with your site. There are plenty of free site analytics available (Google Analytics to mention one) if your host doesn’t provide them.
10. Continue your SEO campaign on a daily or weekly basis. Remember SEO isn’t a do it once and you’re done process. Always keep track of your competition. Check your SERPs?

Well, there’s my top 10 list of SEO DOs. I hope you enjoy them. You can download a pdf version of this list. I am still offering a free 1 hour consultation, for a while anyway. Call me and set an appointment 503-616-4SEO (503-616-4736).

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Late,
Gary Pool

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