A few weeks ago I told you how not to choose a SEO. Tonight, Mark Hager of Knoxville, TN Web Design gives us a few tips for search engine optimization beginners.

SEO

Do your keyword research first

You need to know what people are looking for as it relates to your site, article or web page you are building. Knowing this first will keep you from having to rewrite anything.

You don’t have to be a search guru to get good traction, either. Use tools like Nichebot or SEOBook to get a bead on what people are looking for relating to your topic.

Write purposefully, but naturally

Many search engines (read Google) are incredibly adept at figuring out if something is written for the user or for search engine fodder. Don’t go there! Make everything you write be for your visitor.

Name it what it is

Use descriptive names for everything. “Long-blue-kitchen-curtains.htm” is better than “itemID3642.htm” any day. Your internal link should read, “insurance restoration claim work”, not “construction service” (and link to insurance-restoration-claim-work.htm”). ALT text for a photo should read, “chicago pub with green beer on St. Patty’s day”. For those using a blog or other CMS, use friendly URLs.

Use static links and/or menus

Search engines like static links. Your visitors like static links. Use them liberally. Implement ‘mini-menus’ of static links in your content to other pages on your site that are RELEVANT to the topic at hand. Put links in your text to other websites with supporting content (using the right keywords in the link, of course).

Use images liberally in your content

Search engines are including images in search results. Use images on important pages and in every blog post. Utilize the ‘title’ and ‘alt’ tags every time keywords. Make sure your images are relevant to the content they support.

Hit your target market

Use keywords in your content relevant to the market you are focused on. Demographic terms (city, state) and alternate terms (for your industry, profession, service, products or concepts) should occur naturally in your content.

Add more content regularly

Search engines like new content. Keep building your content up with relevant content to your site’s topic. Adding something new a couple of times a year doesn’t cut it if you want to appear like a viable resource for a particular topic to search engines.

Use tags and ‘related content’ links

Not only are both of these great for your user to find related content, but they also help the search engines correlate the content on your site easier.

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