Search Engine Optimization

All over the internet you can find top insert-number-here articles about all sorts of SEO tricks and tips. Sadly, most of these “tricks” and “cheats” really won’t do anything for you except maybe hurt your relationship with the almighty online god we call Google. You wouldn’t walk into a room of heavily armed assassins armed only with a kitchen knife and some witty catchphrases, shouting rude jokes about the most respected assassin’s mother, and make it out alive. Don’t expect to try messing with Google and get away with it.

All the online giants you’re trying to cheat hire people who have nothing better to do than throw a wrench in your clever plans. You cannot beat them, try as you might. The only smart way to go is to work with them and use their system to benefit you. These technical system changes quite frequently, but there are several tips that are quite universal and have very little to do with the technical aspects of advertising online. Throw out everything you’ve heard or learned about the tricks that will never help you, because this article will tell you everything you need to start working your way toward the online top.

1. WHERE ARE MY MANNERS?
Doing something slightly shocking or edgy is a surefire way to get attention. It worked for the little boy in your kindergarten class who decided to discover the F word one day, and it still works. Of course, I’m not telling you to run around posting videos of you singing every four letter word you can think of. I’m sure it has been done, and I’m sure it is not the least bit interesting. I am simply saying not to be afraid to be controversial. As a freelance designer, I have the freedom to write more tongue-in-cheek articles than corporate competition. I can post a video about problem clients and get chuckles while a company would be afraid of offending people. In the online world, there is not such thing as bad publicity. I one worked for a company who years ago created a fake viral YouTube video about Michael Jackson being attacked by “tanning terrorists” for a Tanning Salon client. It poked completely innocent fun at the celebrity and received quite a fair amount of views. Upon Michael Jackson’s passing, the video’s views went through the roof with extreme amounts of hateful, angry, and offensive comments. The video itself is not extremely controversial and many people view it and comment just to laugh at the outrage of everyone else who didn’t care just weeks before his tragic death. What is even more interesting is the fact that this particular video has received more views that most other videos created as a loving tribute to Michael Jackson because the people who were so outraged would be sure to pass the video link on to other friends, who would pass in on whether they thought it was funny or whether they too were angered. Often times, “haters” can bring up your publicity more than supporters. You don’t need to go overboard, but you also don’t need to be afraid to upset someone.

2. HERE’S A KEYWORD, THERE’S A KEYWORD, EVERYWHERE A KEYWORD!
We’ve all read about the wonders of keywords, but few people really know how to use them. Did you know that this link right here is counting every single one of these words as keywords toward my website? So many people use the hyperlink text Click Here. Why? Do you really need twenty links with the words “click” and “here” promoting your site via those keywords? Why not keyword load your links? For example, as a graphic designer, I might use hyperlink text such as View Courtney Rose’s graphic design portfolio. Also, another often ignored way to load your site with potential keywords is alt tags. Most people either just don’t use alt tags or use very plain alt tags on their images, which is doing nothing to get their images ranked higher on Google. Include a short description or some keywords in your alt tags.

3. SO WHAT IF MY NOSE IS BROWN?!
In school, the teacher’s pet had the sweet life. The guy following the boss around at work bringing him his favorite coffee and breakfast will one day get the promotion. Being a brown noser has its benefits. While I’ve mentioned being controversial and maybe even insulting can get you far, being a huge suck up can have its benefits as well. While talking trash on Britney Spears can get some attention, web celebrities such as Chris Crocker have built online empires by defending and absolutely worshipping all the right people. Post links to all your favorite artist’s websites, have a featured section to support someone you respect, and watch your publicity go up as you inherit some of your idol’s fan base. Another great person to suck up to is that person staring at you in the mirror. Don’t be afraid to do some shameless self promoting in the third person.

4. MOOCH!
Have you seen an amazing site or the best video ever with ridiculous amounts of views? Is there anyone you’re extremely envious of in the online world? Study success! Study Failure! Analyze their achievements as well as where you see room for improvement. Critique like crazy and use whatever you learn to create your own formula for success. Research, build on the success of others, learn from their mistakes, and combine and tweak things to be your own. I spend quite a bit of time reading articles by other graphic designers, looking at great and horrible sites, and analyzing it all. Everything you find online is a potential source of knowledge.

5. GUARANTEED FRESH.
Keep your advertisements current. Use current issues while incorporated some timeless tactics. People don’t want to see the same old thing over and over and over. Make sure to show people something new and with the times. Permanent things should be timeless, but advertising needs to be up to date and trendy. Keep things fresh and follow the issues. Be funny but functional, interesting but useful, and appealing but informative. Give people what they need or want in an exciting new wrapper. Take these tricks with you and with some motivation you’re sure to succeed. Be persistent, be patient, and be aware.

Search engine optimization is a lot easier than you think. Although you need to gather a certain amount of information about your site, preferably before you build your site, once you have the right information, you can quickly and easily build a search engine optimized website that will get you traffic.

Below are five tips for optimizing and submitting your site to the search engines:

1. Know your market.

This step is absolutely crucial. You need to know exactly who you are marketing your business to. If you don’t, you can’t drive targeted traffic to your site.

The difference between targeted and untargeted traffic is glaring. Targeted traffic comes from those who are looking for your products and services. If you know exactly who you are marketing to, you’ll optimize your site for that market.

2. Target the right keywords.

Target the wrong keywords and no one will find you. That’s why it is really useless to use marketing tools like doorway pages.

The first thing you need to do is understand what your visitors are searching for.

The keyword terms you may want to optimize for, and what your potential customers are actually searching for, can be different.

Tools like Good Keywords can help you find out what others are searching for. The more times that a keyword or keyword term is searched for the better. To determine if you have a lucrative term, do a search in the search engines for the term. Make sure that you search for the exact term.

The more times a term is searched for, and the fewer the sites in the search engines, the more lucrative the term.

3. Learn search engine optimization.

When I first started marketing online, I read all of the guru stuff about buying banners, advertising, etc. The problem was that I just starting out. I was trying to make money, not give away everything that I had.

After becoming a search engine optimization marketer, I felt betrayed. Most of these people didn’t talk about search engine optimization because they didn’t do it. They simply took offline marketing techniques and adapted them to the internet.

Search engine optimization is one of those rare marketing techniques that have no corresponding offline marketing technique.

It’s an online technique. Period. If you want to be successful at it, then you need to learn how to do it. It’s not that hard.

One tool that can help you is Web CEO, This free software works for both PC and Mac. It includes all of the tools you need to optimize your site, and it’s free. It even includes step by step documentation to teach you search engine optimization: what works, what you need to know, and steps you can take to improve your rankings.

Read the documentation for this software, and you’ll know the most important things you need to know about optimizing your site for the search engines.

4. Optimize your site for the search engines.

Once you’ve learned the basics of search engine optimization, then it’s time to optimize your site for the search engines.

Start by selecting your keywords. You can use the Good Keywords software to help you.

You should optimize for no more than three keyword terms per page.

Once you have your keywords, plug your site into Web CEO. Remember, you are optimizing pages, not your site.

Analyze your site and see what changes you need to make. Once you’ve done that, you can edit and reload or upload your site to the internet.

5. Submit your site to the search engines.

There’s some disagreement on whether or not you should submit your site to the search engines, or whether you should just wait for the search engine spiders to find you.

I stand in the camp that says submit. The reason is that these search engines don’t always update the way they should, and although they claim that they will find your site, they may not.

I know this because I had one site that had never been found by MSN even though it was linked to all of my other sites and all of my other sites were fully included in MSN.

There are only five places that I recommend you submit, and you should do this manually. Although Web CEO has a submission tool, it’s better to submit your site manually.

Below is my list of where to submit your site:

These sites cover most of the internet. Before you submit, there are a few things you should know:

1. Alexi is part of Google search. You will get better results submitting here first. This site also allows you to include a thumbnail of your site. You will also get indexed faster.

2. Read the information on each site for getting included. The best way to learn how to market in any search engine is to read the information offered by the site. You’ll pick up valuable free tips directly from the source.

3. Once you’ve submitted your site, forget about it. Concentrate on building quality content and links to your site.