Search Engine Optmization Process

The other day, I was asked "How do you get my web site on the first page of search engine results?" I told them that Search Engine Optimization is a process. It's not simply putting meta tags on your website and magically you will be on the first page of results.

The process I use is pretty simple.

Step 1: Select Keywords - This step is pretty simple. I start by going to Google's Keyword Suggestion tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) and typing in a generic keyword. Once I get the results, I will select my keywords based on which keywords have the highest search volume. I usually do not like to target any more than 5 keyword phrases per page. Yes, you can target more if you like however, the more keyword phrases the more content you will have to develop.

Step 2 - Content Optimization - This step is actually two part. First, copy writing. This is the process of making the copy on my website filled with the keyword phrases that I selected in step 1. (I suggest that you target your keywords and write the content before you start creating any web pages.)

Content is the most important element on your website search engine success! Your website should also be at least 5 pages deep. The more pages of content the better! I also like keeping my copy on each page to about 100 - 150 words per page.

Next, I will then create my html with the following html tags: Title, Meta Keywords, Meta Description. While there are more tags that add to the SEO equation these are the only ones that really put any time into. Each of these html tags are also filled with the keywords that I selected in step 1.

The next part that is very important is the H1 tag. This is the main header tag. This should be at the top of the page directly after the body tag and should also include all the keywords I'm targeting. I then usually make my menu navigation using h2 tags with a href links to the sub-pages and the text that contains keyword phrases for those sub pages.

Step 3: Link Building - This is when I go and find other website to link to the website that I'm targeting. This is probably the most crucial factors to have a successful search engine campaign. DO NOT JUST GO OUT AND SIGN UP FOR THESE 'LINK BUILDER'

This is also very important USE YOUR KEYWORDS IN YOUR LINKS. When you exchange links with people, it is important that the links to your website also include the keywords that you selected in step 1. For example if you are targeting 'widgets' then your link should have 'widgets' in the text of the A tag. so the code would look like widgets


Step 4: Check Ranking - Once Step 2 is completed you can then start watching the results! I use GOOGLE'S webmaster tools to monitor my website performance. If you are not familiar with Google's Webmaster tools I suggest that you visit : https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ From this website you can see if there are ANY ISSUES with your website. This includes errors in your html tags and if there are any pages missing.

Google's webmaster tools also allows you to view what keyword phrases your website has been displayed. So if someone searched 'widgets' and my website was displayed in the results I will know! If someone then clicks on my website it will tell me what keywords people clicked to get to my website!

There are a lot of good tools at Google's Webmasters Tool so if you've never looked at it I HIGHLY SUGGEST LOOKING IN TO IT!

Next is Statistics! I use GOOGLE ANALYTICS to track all my website Activity. This includes how people came to my site. Using this tool, I can tell you how many people found my website from the Search engines. What keyword phrases they clicked to get to my website.

If your website sells something, Google Analytics will even track how much each keyword phrase has sold. For instance it can tell me that 5 people who searched for 'widgets' purchased X number of products for a total of $xx.xx. This is great for measuring the ROII (return on internet investment as I call it... I know it should be ROI)

Now that's it! That is the big secret process on how to come up on the Search engines!

Web Marketing Houston