When looking at search engine optimization in a general perspective, only three steps are involved. Three. Easy. Steps.

1. Keyword Search

When optimizing your site in the search engines, it is the keyword that is the most important factor. Do a research on the keyword or keyword phrase that your target market might type in to look for the product or service that you offer.

You can brainstorm on the keywords that you would like to try. Keep in mind to include important descriptions like geographical locations or other specifications if it’s important for the customer. For example, when offering realtor services in Michigan, you can enter a keyword phrase like “Michigan real estate.”

You can also look into keyword search tools online like Keyword Elite and Google Trends to look for the best keyword or keyword phrase. (see Keywords)

Make it a point to surf around the internet and looking out for the keywords that your competitors use, too. Take note that the primary keywords that you will eventually choose will most likely be very popular and are hard to have a high ranking with. It would be up to the next two steps whether you’ll achieve that high ranking or not.

2. Site Content

The content of your website comes next in importance after the keyword. You should create a content that is not only unique and simple for the users to understand but is also filled with your keyword or keyword phrase in key locations. This is so that the search engines can crawl your site better and understand the relevance of your site.

You can have the keyword or keyword phrase placed in the headings, or at the top and bottom of the pages. You can have it in bold or italics or as an anchor text, and place it in every page of your site.

After strategically deciding on where to put the keyword or keyword phrase, you can make additional content and offer more details on the products and/or services that you are offering. Don’t forget to ask for their feedback and encourage your customers to share any inquiries and questions with you. These might raise more ideas for additional content and offer more interaction with your customers and visitors.

Do not rely too much on images and flash; they may add more life to your webiste but search engines cannot really read them as well as words and text.

3. Link Building

You already know the important of link popularity. Take it as a vote for your site every time another site links to your site. It can give it more exposure and more traffic.

The quality of the links is vital, of course. It is much more important to have relevant sites link to you. When you do link exchanges, make sure that you are linking with a site that is relevant to your niche and, as much as possible, has a high ranking. Even just a few quality links with authority can have more value and several sites with low ranking and less quality.

Link exchange is not the only method of link building, of course. You can do article submissions, submit your site to directories, and promote your site on social networks. Just keep in mind to maintain the quality that you need and not settle for less.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 8:27 am and is filed under Link Building. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.