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Author: Suzanne Fyhrie Parrott Article source: http://www.selfseo.com/. Used with author's permission.
Search Engine Optimization shouldn't be a chore that you confront with fear. Learning SEO basics is simple, if not time consuming. Like anything, growth is directly proportionate to how much time you are willing to spend. Let's discuss what you should and shouldn't do in the pursuit of higher rankings.
What is Optimization? In simplistic terms, is it the manipulation of a website to gain top rankings on search engines - mainly the top three: Yahoo, Google, and MSN. When performing a search, the top optimized listings are found in the main body area of the page. These are often referred to as "organic rankings" since they do not pay for their placement. Of all the tips the first is the most basic and the most often done wrong: picking the correct keywords or keyphrases for your site. phrases. When creating these links, the link is the anchor text for the page the visitor is going to. Anchor text is simply the keyword phrase for the page destination. For example, if you click on a link form the home page to take you to a page on Baby Buggies, the link should be baby-buggies.html, and the main keyword for the HTML page baby-buggies.html should be Baby Buggies. More Tips:
Avoid Putting your Business name in the title of your page unless it includes the keywords you are targeting. Most people use keywords that describe the information they are looking for. Unless you are Amazon or Walmart, don't use your Business name in the Title. There is an exception - place it at the end. For Example: Baby Buggies at the Lowest Price - Unique Child Strollers from Jenny's Boutique Do no be skimpy on text. People are searching for information. At least 250 words per page is standard. Do not put database parameters in your URLs. Spiders have trouble reading these pages for indexing. Not that they won't but it is best to avoid them completely or consider a mod-rewrite that will change a dynamic looking URL into a static page. Avoid Flash. Flash makes a great looking site - but is a nightmare for spiders to read. If you simply cannot avoid using flash, consider only using it in a portion of your page. Spiders will pick up the text content of the rest of the site and index you properly. One Page, One Subject. Just as too many cooks spoil the broth - too many subjects confuse the reader. Stick to one subject and your visitors, and spiders, will love you. If you find yourself branching off to another topic - simply make another page. Avoid Frames. The use of frames is so 1995! The Internet has come a long way and the use of Frames is unnecessary except in special circumstances such as pages that you don't' want spidered. The problem with frames is that they do not index at all. The URL name does not change even though the viewer sees different "pages". Trust me on this - avoid Frames. Clean Code. Keeping your code clean will allow spiders to zip through your site with ease. Add a lot of junk and they will get stuck. FrontPage and Word HTML create a lot of unnecessary tags and coding that will slow the spider down. Learn some basic HTML and keep your code clean and clear. This is only a small list of do's and don'ts. For a simple Basic SEO instruction, read this eBook online or download for free. -----------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Suzanne Fyhrie Parrott owns and operates OneWay Advertising and Design. OneWay is a full-service Christian Advertising agency providing marketing, advertising and graphic design services for on and off the Internet. Download our Free SEO eBook "Getting to the Top for Online Searches".
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