SEO Guide for Front Page Ranking Introduction This guide is created based on our own approved strategies that has brought front page ranking for our different websites. We hereby announce that there are no secrets for search engine ranking, right search engine strategy at right time with right content bring you top search engine rankings. Before getting into search engine ranking business, you need to make yourself aware that there is no short cut for keywords ranking. We at SEOExpert.com.sg are working hard to produce a working document that can be followed by other small businesses if they want to rank their website against appropriate keywords. We will also present in this document a case study and complete search engine marketing strategy that we deployed to get top ranking for some of our clients. 1
What is Included? 1. Recommended Search Engine Marketing Practices 2. How to Choose Right Keywords 3. Website Onsite Optimization 4. Website Reputation Management [Website Online Branding] 5. Website Map Optimization 6. Social Media Guide for Enhanced Branding 7. Website Link Earning and Link Building Strategies 8. Obsolete Search Engine Optimization Strategies [Don ts of SEO] 9. Video Marketing [why every business shall have its own videos and proper video promotion strategy] 2
SEO Guide Search Engine Optimization is not a new term for internet marketers, businesses, advertisers and web developers. In fact, it has become utmost necessary tool for bringing a website on top position. Search Engine ranking is not a difficult task. However, it is technical one and demands appropriate strategy at right time with proper content. Why you need to read this guide? Before diving into the SEO business, one has to make strategy based upon extensive and comprehensive guideline. Being the most advanced and fastest source of information, internet has plenty of information about SEO guide. Due to skepticism, it is hard for users to decide to whom to believe. Here you will find extensive and detailed guide of advanced SEO techniques exist today and being deployed by us for achieving higher ranking of your websites. You can implement this guide, if you are looking for making useful strategy to achieve successful top ranking on leading search engines. 3
Indexation and accessibility Before going for any search engine marketing technique, it is important to evaluate the current position of your website on search engine page results. You can have quality content, most amazing audience and maximum traffic but having all these benefits is useless without properly accessing search engines. Crawlers are used by search engines for finding the pages on algorithm. Pages that are linked to search engine indexed pages don t require to be submitted. Indexation, accessibility and crawling by search engines matter a lot. It is vital to view your website from the perspective of search engine. Being noticed by leading search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing is beneficial for search engines, your website and the visitors. Search engine marketing practices Let s find out the search engine marketing practices that are highly recommended by Google and being utilized by webmasters to get more visibility of websites on search engine ranking results. These practices include choosing keywords and their appropriate usage, onset optimization, map optimization, content creation and promotion, conversation optimization, link building, social media marketing etc. Keyword research Let s start from keywords research which is considered one of fundamental factors in boosting the ranking on search engines and maximizing the traffic. Undertake comprehensive research to finding what keywords and keyword phrases are best suited to your website to grab more traffic. Choose the keywords that are highly related to your website objective, products, services, theme or expected traffic volume. It is always recommended to select the keywords that don t only make your website climb to the top but also transform website visitors into potential buying customers. How to judge a value of keyword? For evaluating the value of keyword, you need to understand your website and make some hypothesisthis is classical marketing formula. Ask yourself- Is that keyword is relevant to your website? Will researchers find what they are looking for? Will this traffic result in financial reward by increasing traffic? If the answers of all questions are clearly yes, then proceed. 4
Search for the term on major engines- Now it is essential to understand which websites are already using that keyword and giving your valuable insight for competition. How many chances that you will be rank on this term? Use keyword research tools- If you find your keyword not working for you then use keyword research tools including Google AdWords, Wordtracker, MarketMuse, Webmaster tools etc which will give you traffic estimate of the keyword and generate new keywords. You can buy a campaign for the keyword at Google AdWords or Bing Adcenter. Don ts of keywords Selections Make sure to not commit some common mistakes while choosing keywords: Don t use single word terms for keyword Avoid the terms that are too broad and don t focus on what you actually offer. Don t use the terms that are specialized and no one has used. Avoid unpopular terms Don t opt for highly competitive terms that will not rank you on top. 5
Content creation and appropriate use of keywords You are familiar with the fact that content creation also crucial for search engine optimization. For ranking the website on the top position, appropriate usage of keywords in the content plays vital role. To leverage a website optimization, keywords are cornerstones in SEO. Using keywords throughout the page or website can be critical when it comes to increasing the ranking as the part of internet marketing strategy. Understanding of the keyword density is vital because too much and too little amount of keywords don t work. But there is no fixed formula or hard and fast rule for the identification of keywords density. The experts suggest 2% keyword density for Google while Yahoo and Bing favor content with 5% of keywords density. It would be better to use keyword density from 2% to 5%. Too much use of keywords is highly criticized and prohibited as it leads to keywords stuffing which is considered as spam by search engines. Too little use of keywords does not make your content being noticed so keep it moderate. You must use keywords in Meta tags, headings, subheadings, titles and first paragraph of the content as these are the perfect places to use appropriate keywords for gaining top ranking. But don t over stuff these areas. Keywords usage in content should look natural, avoid adding keywords forcefully. Keyword variation should give consideration. 6
Content creation When it comes down to the wire, search engines rank content, not the companies and their products or services. Content creation is not only associated with using keywords. The quality of the content does also matter. When users conduct a search for finding answer of any question, the more relevant the answer is, the more useful it will be for users. The content that is considered useful and informative with quality by search engines, it is ranked higher. Do remember some important points while creating content: Content should be based upon thorough research and facts and figures must be supported by references and sources. Plagiarism is not acceptable at any cost. Content should be descriptive and in conversational style. It must be error free and contain authentic and reliable information on which users can rely. Avoid use of irrelevant details that are time consuming and let people to transfer to other content. Create content in chunks. It is easy to read for users. Use keywords rich headings and subheadings. Website Onsite Optimization against Selected Keywords Onsite optimization is a critical portion of SEO that should not be neglected. It is the process of increasing accessibility and crawling of a website for targeted keywords to improve its ranking in organic search results. Onsite optimization includes updating and improving all the features of website to make it more effective and user and search engine friendly. Common optimization techniques are: Defining landing pages based on keywords or keyword phrases. Use relevant and consistent link anchor text to building link to leading pages. Place keywords at the beginning of title pages. Optimize Meta description to increase click through rate Use keywords optimized alt tags and filenames for images. Use consistent URL structure containing keywords and should be user friendly. Create relevant and natural content by using targeted keywords. Refine the site structure and design. Improve the link structure and navigation. Fix or remove broken links 7
Website link earning and link building strategies Links are the street between the pages for the search engines that crawl on web. Links are the indication of popularity of a website. A link from an authoritative website makes great impact on your website. The more a site having links, it will be considered important in the view of search engines and result in higher ranking. Increase the amount of high quality links directing to your website from business, organizations and companies that are related to your website. Before embarking on link building strategies, it is important to identify some elements of the links used by search engines and how these elements factors in weighting of links in algorithms. Global popularity of the site, topic specific popularity, anchor text, trusted ranking from trusted domains, freshness and social sharing are some signals considered by SEO when measuring link value and site s link profile. There are number of link building strategies used to get external websites links: Content creation and promotion- create appealing content that grab attention of people and they want to reference and link to, and tell others also about it. Submission- Submit your news to press releases and site to directories. Link pages by using targeted anchor text- For this you have to find out relevant and popular keywords and then creation of search friendly information architecture and then apply your keyword research to intelligent interlinking. Pay per click- Buy relevant traffic with PPC campaign. Relevant traffic will get more visitors and brand exposure of site. There is possibility of the creation of links. Blogs- links to other blogs is cheapest marketing strategy. Bloggers track that who is linking to them and where their traffic comes from, so linking to them can be good option to increase quality links. 8
Social Media Marketing Social media sites are giants for search engine optimization. If you are not using social networks, you are missing large chunk of users. Every company or website need to have an active presence on social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pineterest. Social media marketing can help you by providing number of goals: Brand awareness Building links Website traffic Conversions Creating a brand identity Interaction with key audience Social media guide for brand enhancement Follow these steps to enhance brand or business promotion on social network: Planning- The presence on social media is not that difficult. Planning is the key for the perfect implementation of actual strategy. Create a cross functional team to help conceive the strategy. Consider keyword research and brainstorm content ideas to cater the attention of maximum consumers. Content is king- Make sure to create the kind that is informative and your ideal customers find it interesting. Use multimedia like graphics, animations, videos, images and infographics along with text based content to appeal more customers. Brand image- using social media allow you t project your brand image to variety of social networks. While each social medium has its unique voice and environment, your business core identity will remain consistent. Hashtags- Use tags to join large number of people in conversation. The use of hashtags on social networking platforms has become important part of SEO. It does not only tell your brand story to large number of audience but also improve ranking in search engines. Blogging- Blogging is great tool to share information with readers. Your business blog can serve as social media marketing blog, in which you share information about your efforts, brands, innovations and events. Listen- Social media is a democratic medium where everyone is free to give his opinion about products. Have patience to listen to consumers remarks to improve the strategy. 9
Response- Active presence is must. Make sure to respond to every consumer to gain maximum attention. Respond to everyone. Obsolete search engine optimization strategies The tactics and strategies of SEO vary almost every day. In modern SEO, the techniques that are now obsolete are: Penalty inducing SEO- With the popularity of search engines, website owners use tactics that guarantee faster ranking. However, Google and other search engines have cracked down on the strategies that used to cheat algorithms. Their focus on quality, usefulness and thematic relevance weeded the spammers out of the rankings to give fast and reliable content to consumers. Avoid tricks- Tricks never work when Google identifies them. As an unethical marketing tactic, search engines update algorithms to either negate that website or penalize it. There are no shortcuts in SEO. Playing game straightforwardly is best way to build reputation. Keyword stuffing, doorway pages, invisible text, article spinning and duplicate text are unacceptable tricks that must be avoided to build positive image on search engines. Don t use link schemes- Avoid using link schemes to gain unnatural links. These schemes include link farms, comment spam, purchasing expired domains and article directories. Don t force keywords in content- Use of keywords should be natural and keep the amount of keywords moderate. Don t stuff every word with keyword. Don t optimize for search engines merely- Don t only optimize your website to gain higher ranking on search engines. Try to make your website responsive so that it can be accessible to mobile devices also which have become mainstream. Avoid linking to poor quality sites- Don t use links from low quality, irrelevant or spam websites. It can become the reason of your downfall from leading search engines. 10
Online reputation management (ORM) Online reputation assists you in getting more potential consumers to beat your competitors. Poor online reputation management can ruin your brand s value and promotion. There are plenty of things you can do to maintain and improve your online reputation: Conduct a self-search to determine your currently reputation on search engines Monitoring social media conversation about you Post positive content Create an identity hub Participate on relevant social platforms in real and authentic way Projecting positive presence for the reflection of brands value Engagement with communities Taking important actions in case of trouble Sitemap optimization Map of your site make navigation easier and having updated sitemap is beneficial for users as well as search engines. The steps to make sitemap are simple. First you need to generate it, then upload it to your website and then notify search engine about it. The ways to generate sitemaps are: 1. To download and install a sitemap generator 2. To use an online sitemap generation tool After generating sitemap tool, notify Google about its existence. Notifying the Google means adding your website sitemap to your Google webmaster account. In order to add sitemap to your account, you first need to verify that you are a legitimate owner of website. Sitemap optimization best practices Ensure that your sitemap is found at the root of your site hierarchy Limit the number of links on your main sitemap Organize sitemap in logical manner Place a link to your sitemap on the homepage of website Make sitemap static page Use video sitemaps Keep your sitemap up-to date. 11
Video Marketing The specific marketing technique that is sure to benefit your business is video marketing. Leveraging online videos is key to increase search engine rankings. Video marketing is not about keywords, transcripts or video sitemaps. It is ultimately about ensuring that you get maximum bang when you invest in making a video by using both technical and creative elements of video campaign. It is vital for marketers and businesses to have their own videos and video promotion strategies for the following reasons: You can get high ranking on search engines which can enhance the number of people on your website. Conversions can be increased by placing videos on products and services pages. A good video content gives your consumers reason to keep coming back to your website. A website can be made more links worthy by producing quality videos that engage with your customers. Through videos, brand exposure and traffic can be maximized on You Tube. Video is fantastic way to improve brand awareness. Through the integration of people, images, story and sound, the actual message can be easily conveyed to audience. Contact US The SEO Expert support team is always on standby to respond to your questions, comments and feedback about our top SEO services. 14 Robinson Road #13-00 Singapore 048545 6733 2066 info@seoexpert.com.sg 12