As I’ve said before, SEO is not that difficult, although a lot of people would tell you that it’s a dark art worthy of wizards. Sure, it can get very hard in highly competitive markets, and when the gains to be made are small because a lot has already been done.
That said, SEO (which, by the way, means Search Engine Optimisation), is not always so hard and complex. In fact, if your business isn’t competing for keywords and rankings with the New York Times, these 10 basic commandments of SEO will go a long way in helping your rankings. If you’re just starting out, adopt these SEO commandments today so that your website and keyword strategy is set up correctly right away.
1. Register a domain name that relates to your keyword objective
While not entirely essential, this is a good step to take. If you’re trying to rank in search engines for the term ‘mobile phone’, having a domain name saying ‘mobilephoneheaven.com’ is logically better than ‘smithandsmithimports.com’
Again, I insist this is not completely and entirely essential, but if you’re still going to buy a domain name, then make it one that relates to your keyword objective.
2. Put as much text on this site as you can
I harp on this with every one of my clients and in every single one of my meetings; on the internet, words are all you have. Yes, your design looks good, yes that video is amazing, but when it comes to organic search traffic, words, copy, that’s all you have.
So, put as much text as you can on your pages. This is not a license for 3000 word pages written like a dense Tolstoy piece; you do still have to write for the web, but generally speaking, more high quality words is better than less low quality words.
3. Ensure the content is about at least the top 4 keywords you wish to “promote”
Back to mobile phones, if you want to rank in search engines for the term ‘mobile phone’, you had better include that term in a lot of your content. Sure, go ahead, feel free to write about other, marginally related things such as USB cables, but bear in mind what your most important keyword terms are.
4. Ensure the header section of each page is at least slightly different to any other
Self explanatory really, make sure the header is different (and includes the name of the page or article focus keyword). Also, make sure that your page names include your keyword/phrases.
5. Use each of your top 4 keywords/phrases in at least one H1 tag
H1 is Header 1 and is the first thing Google’s bot ‘reads’ when going through your page. If you don’t include your keyword or key phrase in your H1, you’re losing out. Do this on a number of pages, not just a single one.
6. Use each of your top 4 keywords/phrases in at least one H2 tag
As above, except that this time we’re talking about H2s, Header 2. Same as above applies.
7. Use each of your top 4 keywords/phrases in at least 1 page’s header section
Your header section is important; use it well.
8. Use each of your top 4 keywords/in the text as text a handful of times
If you don’t use your keywords and phrases in the text itself, you’re missing out. Use often, but without going overboard.
9. Use each of your top 4 keywords/in the text as bold text a few times
Bold helps legibility when a user scans a page, keeping them on the page for longer and in the long run, increasing a page’s rank just by virtue of that. Every split second counts.
10. Use each of your top 4 keywords/in the text as a text link
Use each of your top 4 keywords/in the text as a text link a handful of times, to either another page on your site that includes the keyword in bold and as text or…
….use each of your top 4 keywords/in the text as a text link a handful of times, to another SITE that includes the keyword in bold and/OR as text (preferably in the page name of the destination site too.
If you link to external sites as mentioned above, linking to sites of good repute such as the BBC, well trafficked blogs such as Mashable and other highly “respected” sites is much smarter than linking to poor, scammy, fly-by-night sites.
And that’s all for the 10 basic commandments of SEO. Basic stuff mostly, but lots of it to be done. Hope this helps your SEO rankings go through the roof!
Read all of the above and still can’t make head or tail of it? Don’t worry, we can help; that’s what we’re here for!
Systemato can help; we know our fair share about SEO and we can tap into international resources if your situation calls for even more highly specialised assistance.
