It can be hard to see the forest for the trees when pursuing a search engine optimization campaign. The following are useful tidbits I have found over the years that will help you achieve results.
1. Optimize for Google – If you are going to pursue a search engine optimization effort, always focus on Google. It has the most traffic. If you can nail down Google, Yahoo and MSN will soon show similar rankings.
2. Daily Fresh Content – If you want to make the search engines sit up and notice you, add a daily tip to your site. Use automated software to preload the tips.
3. Efficient Meta Titles – When putting your meta title together for the pages on your site, don’t just slap keyword phrases together. The title is what people will see in search results, so make sure it makes sense.
4. How Long Till Rankings – Depends on the phrases you are going for. In general, you can count on a year in Google and less for Yahoo and MSN with a new site. MSN always produces high rankings first.
5. SEO Goals - The key to seo is setting your goals and sticking to them. It can take a while to get rankings, particularly if your site is new. If you get discouraged, just try to think how great it will be when you pop into the top 3 on your keywords.
6. Dreaded Google Eleven - Google can be wickedly cruel. For some reason, rankings will often pop up to the number eleven position and then sit for a few months. Don't change your tactics. Just keep doing what you are doing and you will move up.
7. Checking Yahoo Rankings - Google and MSN will often vary the rankings for a site on a daily basis. Yahoo tends to stick and sit. You only need to check your rankings on Yahoo once every two weeks or so.
8. Black Hat Optimization – Black hat optimization refers to finding some trick to get rankings. Sounds good until the ranking process changes and you lose all your rankings. Be patient and go for long term, stable rankings.
9. The Keyword Box - When developing keyword lists for your optimization efforts, try to think beyond the subject matter of the site. Throw in catch all phrases such as "problems", "gifts" and so on as appropriate.
10. Must Use Article Directories – Not all directories are created equal. If you submit, make sure you focus on ezinearticles, goarticles and articledashboard.
PPC is the lazy man’s solution, but search engine optimization is where the ultimate best return on investment will be found. Start with PPC for a new site, and gradually evolve into a pure seo marketer as you get rankings.
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