Five Effective Search Engine Optimization Tips

There are a lot of people trying to give advice on effective search engine optimization, and it can get overwhelming when you are just starting out. Here are five basic tips to increase your web page rank without having to learn a new language.

1) Make sure your site is searchable. It is amazing how many web pages simply aren’t able to be read by web bots. Your site needs to be designed in a way where information is east to find in text form, and where links are arranged in an understandable hierarchy. Try to avoid too many fancy flash or java applications, because these are not able to be easily scanned. Using alt image texts are also an effective way to increase your search engine optimization.

2) Know your tools. There is a lot of great data available through Google’s web master tools. By adding a small piece of data to your sites html you are able to see what keywords people are using to access your site as well as the number of visitors you have and what sites link to you. Not using this information means just taking a shot in the dark and hoping you hit the target.

3) Choose your keywords carefully. Too many people will start building their site around keywords that won’t actually be used in the real world. Say you work for Allied Widgets in Los Angeles, California. You only sell widgets to people in LA. In that case, make sure that you have the location in one of your keywords. What good is it to be the number one page for “quality widgets” if people looking for “Los Angeles Widgets” can’t find you! It is a good idea to ask your customers what search terms they would use if they were trying to find you through a search engine.

4) Hit the Links. The numbers of similar pages that link back to your page have a big impact on your page ranking. The key is that these sites be similar to yours. Because of problems with people using link spamming to increase page rank, most search engines look at the content of the pages that link to you. Instead, contact web pages that offer complementary services and ask if they would like to link to you in exchange for a link back. However, the best way to get people to link to your page is to produce helpful content that people want to read.

5) Don’t let SEO rule your life. Yes, you want your page to reach that number one rank on Google, but just because you’re at the top it doesn’t mean anything if you aren’t increasing your sales. Some people get so caught up in the SEO game that they forget to make their site customer friendly. Effective search engine optimization isn’t just about increasing page rank, but turning those extra eyeballs into customers.