SEO In 10 Steps – How To Make Your Website Google and User Friendly

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I have covered more than 100 articles just on SEO in TechInfo Blog. As I mentioned in my earlier posts I love to write about Search Engine Optimization. SEO is one of my favourite topic and I learnt it myself using the internet self-study.  There are hundreds of thousands of SEO self-study resources accessible freely on internet you can use them to be master in SEO.

In today’s post I’m going to write 10 simple SEO steps you can use them to optimize your website for Google or other search engines and your users. If you are planning to optimize your brand new website or a blog this tutorial is recommended for you. Just keep reading. These 10 essential of Search Engine Optimization are based on Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Step No. 1: XML Sitemap Submission:

Sitemap is means of creating your existing links and pages in your website in a single page. Webmaster creates sitemap to tell Google or any other search engines how many urls your website has and make them easy to crawl and index by placing in a single page called “Sitemap”. The XML Sitemap is introduced in 2005 by Google which is called “Sitemap 0.84 Protocol”

XML Sitemap has replaced submission of website directly to search engine Google. You just need to create a XML sitemap using some free online tools and upload it to your website’s root directory and submit it to Google using Webmaster Tools. Then Google bot will crawl through your Sitemap and index the pages listed.

Tools You Can Use To Create Sitemap:

1. http://code.google.com/p/sitemap-generators/wiki/SitemapGenerators
2. www.xml-sitemaps.com
3. www.web-site-map.com/

If you use self-hosted WordPress blog you don’t need to create a Sitemap and submit to Google. There is a Plugin called Google XML Sitemapswill do everything for you.  This Plugin not only updates Google but, other search engines like Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com too. Google XML Sitemaps  updates your sitemap and submits to search engines every time you post a new article.

Step No. 2: Link Building:

Link building is one of the most imperative aspect that search engine Google considers when give your website a good page rank and SERP ranking or search Engine Result Page ranking. As you know page rank is depend on the backlinks and the quality of backlinks you have. If you have thousands of backlinks from poor quality websites Google will not consider it, but If you have 100 quality backlinks to your website which weights more.

Never Buy Links! – Yes it’s against Google’s policies. Google may penalize your website if you found buying links. Get links naturally by adding comments, publishing articles to article directories, submitting your blog to different blog directories etc. Also note that, getting links from the sites already blocked by Google, will increases chances of getting block too. So whenever you have comment on your blog make sure to check the commenter’s website before approving it.

Article Submission, Blog Directory Submission and Commenting- Commenting, article submission and directory submission are legitimate link building methods. Make sure your articles to directories are unique and never been published anywhere, even on your article. I read people saying after your post is indexed you can submit those article to article directory so the search engine will not fine you or your article will not look like spam. But my point of view is its wrong. Any duplicate content on the internet is treated as SPAM! . Never submit strings of comma-separated keywords or duplicate content that will be seen as spam.

When submitting your article to directories make sure to submit only reputed article directories. Do not submit your article saying website “Submit Your Article To Hundreds of Directories”.

Other Link Building Options You Can Try – There are tens of legit ways to build links that really work like a charm. Some other options you can try is; press releases, getting .gov, .edu major business website backlinks, getting backlinks from big .org websites, submitting product reviews, using Yahoo! answers to get backlinks in source field, register yourself in large user based forums and using your website link as signature.

Step No. 3: Basic HTML and PHP Knowledge:

HTML and PHP are languages used by web browsers to format web pages dynamically. Many important SEO techniques require only very simple changes in the HTML or PHP script of your site. Knowing what to change and how to fine-tune the source code has a huge effect on your Search Engine Optimization.

Step No. 4: Using Right Keywords and Key-Phrases in Proper Way:

Find highly targetable two or three keywords or key phrases for each page or articles and home page of your blog. Research plays vital part on getting right keywords. Use Keyword Research Tools. I advise you to target less competitive, more specific and narrowly targeted keywords because these will bring you your potential customers and better ranking in Search Engine Result Pages.

Google’s two free keyword research tools listed below are a great way to discover keywords that may be worth targeting in your content.

1. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
2. http://www.google.com/insights/search/

Step No. 5: Deliver Fresh and Unique Content Using Your Keywords:

Delivering keywords rich contents is totally essential to get search engine ranking as well as get visitors attention.  As a writer you must carefully select keywords and put them into article that’s what you have to do.

Start your article with minimum 200 words, then chose 2-3 keywords from the article and enhance it 350 words. Make your article heading using any one or two keywords you choose. I suggest you to use SEOPressor plug-in to enhance your article with its unique algorithm. If you cannot write article with 300+ words do not worry, but should aim your most important two or three keywords within the article.

If you cannot get idea about an article do not directly copy from the articles found on internet. Get a motivation from the article, read the article and enhance in your own style. You can re-write that article in your own style with different heading. But never copy the content from others.

The keyword density is important. Make sure to add your keywords at least once in headline using the tag, never exceed 3 headings with the keyword.

Where to Use Keywords in an article:

• In the Title of article.
• In the page or article description.
• In the Url.
• In the article heading and subheading.
• In first line of the article, last line of the article.
• In the image ALT tags. (search engines can’t recognize images but the ALT tags.)

Step No. 6: Optimizing Title Tags:

Optimizing title tag plays another vital part in SEO. Look at my blogs title tag which is like this: TechInfo Blog – WordPress, SEO, How Tos, Make Money Online, Technology Updates and Gadget Prices.  HTML title tags are significant because search engines use them when deciding what your website is about. Using easy to understand words and phrases in your Title tag helps your users and search engines to understand your website. You can use your more relevant keywords in your heading.

Look at below image:

How To Optimize Website Title Tag

How To Optimize Website Title Tag

In the above image [1] is my title tag. Lengths of Title should be maximum 72 characters. Because Google displays up to 69 characters, Yahoo displays up to 72 characters, Bing displays up to 69 characters including the spaces or special characters you have.

The Title tag is the most significant tag to optimize on your webpage because:

• A search engine gives a lot of weight on the words used in the title tag when determining your page ranking and keyword indexing.
• Title Tags are used as the title for your search engine results listings, giving a essential “first impression” to search engine users. As you can see in the above image (1).
• Title Tags are used as the bookmark heading when someone bookmarks a page in your site.

Step No. 7: Optimizing Meta Description Tags:

The no. 2 in the above image is called “Description” of a website. This description is retrieved from the <meta name=”description” content=”Navin Shetty writes about SEO, How to make money online, WordPress hacks, Technology, WordPress tips & tricks.” />

How to Optimize Your Website or Blogs Description Tags:

• You should create unique META description for each page and articles on your blog.
• Use keywords in the description tags.
• No duplicate META tag description anywhere in the website.
• Create good description tags that accurately illustrate the particular page to users who searched for particular phrase on the search engine.
• Respect the character limits (see below).

There is a character limitation for Meta tag description in search engines. Popular search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing have their own character limitation. Google displays up to 156 characters, Yahoo displays up to 161 characters and Bing displays up to 185 characters including the spaces.

You can refer below example to optimize your description tags to get acceleration in search engine.

[Your Keyword or Key Phrase] – [A Brief Description of Page]

If you only have a little time to optimize your site for better search engine rankings, at least write good Title and Description tags. They are a basic prerequisite search engine optimization and website ranking in SERP.

Step No. 8: Other HTML and Heading (Titile) Tag Optimization:

The heading or title should briefly describe the topic of the section of a page it introduces. The use of text “heading” tag is important to the user as its visible in search engine results, but they are also used to specify the importance of the words or phrases to the search engines.

Step No. 9: No Broken Links, No Error Pages:

Broken links that produce “Page Not Found” error messages are harmful for your website. Error Pages reduces the efficiency of search engines on your website. For search engines Error Pages means that some of its contents cannot be indexed. Also “weaken” your site’s overall search engine reputation. Page not found is another way that you lose your visitor because broken links and error messages can create a very negative impression on your visitors and often causing them to leave and not return.

It is strongly recommended to regularly review your entire site for the error pages. SEO Tools Your account includes a report of broken links and a tool that helps you find both the URL of the error page and all links to within your site. Use the tool to remove all internal links to error pages, and then use the following solutions to any possible external link to them.

Creating a custom 404 error page 404 page a good advice to visitors who have come to an invalid URL, and offers direct links to other help them to their destination.

Use 301 redirects should you move or rename pages, use 301 redirects to automatically transfer the location of the old page to new permanent home. This redirection is anonymous for site visitors. If you cannot implement custom 404 pages or 301, contact us for help.

Note: You can use Google Webmaster Tools to get the list Broken or Error pages.

Step No. 10: Practice Patience:

Do not expect quick results. Using these simple techniques will actually deliver more traffic from Google and other search engines, but it takes a little time. There is no way around this fact. Once you start following the steps above, the ranking of your site slowly but surely increase.

While you should start seeing results within weeks, significant improvements usually requires a little more time and effort. However, these efforts always pay off.

Navin

Hi I'm Navin owner of TechInfo Blog. I usually write about WordPress, SEO and Technology updates on this blog. Connect me: Twitter @navinshettyy Google Plus: Circle me.

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