Search Engine Optimization (SEO)- Simplified!
© Ray White

There have probably been more articles and books written about web site design and search engine optimization than most any other subject on the web today. Well actually maybe Pamela Anderson or Britney Spears has gotten more copy but you get the idea.

When you begin to build your first web site reading as much information on the SEO subject and trying to comprehend the facts are very difficult and confusing. That's putting it mildly. Every author has similar ideas and yet many different opinions about how a website should be designed, html coding, copy writing, and position of certain elements on the page.

Seems the more you read, more confusion and mistrust of the last article or book you read. Some are simply giving their opinion based off experience from the past and changes they expect in the future. Even the experts seem to be confused about how and why Google or other search engines do certain exercises in determining page rank and importance.

Side Note: Don't spend all your time trying to please the search engines to get traffic. Yes, it's free, but your time can be used for more productive ways to get visitors.

We read, study, struggle with all the contradictions on the many different opinions and methods suggested. Still we end up on the tenth or worse page of search results if lucky with no traffic getting to our web site from search engines. Bummer!

Becoming an expert in SEO requires many different talents in my opinion. First and foremost you must possess a lot of patience. Whatever you do to improve your site will take time for search engines to take effect, weeks not hours. New sites trying to get indexed by Google for instance have a normal 3 month waiting period and only if good. The phrase "patience is a virtue" applies here.

You need to be a web designer. Be able to roll out attractive pages for your potential customers with graphics and eye-catching objects related to your product. No one wants to look at an ugly page. A balance has to be achieved in order for your page to load quickly and yet interesting enough for searchers to stay and visit for a while. Too many or annoying images can actually be detrimental to this effort.

You need to possess copy writing skills. Requires the ability to produce text that is readable and interesting plus related to your sites theme and purpose. Inserting the correct mix of keywords and descriptions that relate to your site. Too many, not good, too few, ineffective. This also involves your marketing skills. Choosing the right key words, descriptions, and text content that will give you the best results for your product or web site purpose.

If all that wasn't enough you need to have some skill in HTML coding to make your site "friendly" to the search engine spiders or robots. Using FrontPage to design your site as I do is great, however more detail work needs to be done in the HTML coding to accomplish your top ranking site.

The experts tell us that Google changes their algorithms often so you have to make changes in order to appear high in search results. They also say that all search engines are different and what works in one may not get the same results in others. Talk about encouragement!

Apparently we have to adjust and be "detail freaks" as well. Guess there's not enough pressure already. Bet you didn't think we would be working on aircraft or perhaps doing brain surgery where detail is a must. Seems search engines make it so difficult that it keeps the Web designers and SEO companies thriving. Why can't we just build a simple web site that represents our company well, says what it needs to say and get good results without paying out enormous fees to the so called experts?

Problem is not everyone can be number one in search results, somebody has to be #2, 3, ...100th or worse. The livelihood of any web site is of course traffic and traffic from search engines is very targeted and free. There are other methods of getting traffic without search engines but you have to admit this seems the most widely pursued because of the effectiveness.

Purpose of this page is to provide some simple, hopefully effective strategies to assist in boosting your web site ranking. No tricks, just simple search engine friendly strategies. Spider bots don't fall for tricks and just might penalize a site using them.

Let's start with Meta Tags:

The title tag in my opinion the most important. The title tag should include at least three of your top keywords, plus your location if your are only doing business locally. Do not include your company name unless of course it is one of your top keywords. Title should be no longer than 80 characters including spaces.

The description tag is used by spider bots for a summary of your web site and should include most of your primary keywords if practical. Sentences using keywords, essential information and a call to action. 200 characters max, keyword related and do not use words --and, or, the, it, nude, free, for, of, etc. (stop words)-- or any insignificant word not necessary. Using similar text in your title and description tags using your main keywords near the beginning have been known to be very effective.

Keyword meta tag although some feel is of less importance now than before should still be used without penalty with targeted effective keywords. Keywords should be at least two words long, separated with a comma. No more than 20 keywords maximum and 4 minimum. Keep in mind these keywords should be used multiple times in the body text therefore make them practical and related.

There are many good keyword generating suggestions on the web, this link is one of the best:   http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

My technique and philosophy is KISS (keep it simple stupid) without tricks and penalty causing methods. If all web sites were designed with keeping it simple in mind the search engines would be much friendlier and therefore much easier to work with. Find it much more rewarding to work with than against these giants necessary for our survival.

Remember if you use these methods to change your site, have patience, takes sometimes weeks, maybe months for changes to show results. After making changes, re-submit your site manually to the major search engines and wait. When I say simple, take a look at the number one search engine site: http://www.google.com , talk about simple, just maybe they're trying to tell us something?

Like more information about Google's recommendation for Webmasters, just follow this link: http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/ very useful and informative information for Web masters.

While waiting, work on other methods of getting visitors to your site. See my Traffic generating page for more details. In reality, don't wait for search engines, take the "bull by the horns" and go to work.

That's my take on Search Engine Optimization, works for me, hope it works for you. This page has been posted for your use and information. Use it wisely and at your own risk. You may place links to this page, use the information, but not allowed to copy or reprint without written permission.