TGP Tutorials & Articles

Search Engine Optimization Tips

by TGPFactory Staff, October 27 2006

Here's what I do when building a new site and optimizing it for search engines:

1. Organize a list of keywords that I want to focus on.
   For a restaurant in town here I chose cafe,restaurant,bistro,duluth,minnesota,lake,view.
   For a lawfirm: attorney,law,lawyer,trial,case,injury,sue
   For my design site: tgp,design,templates,pre-made,cartoon,css,comus
    
2. Use those keywords prevalently in your site, META tags, and title
   My meta tags include each of the keywords I focus on, then after those I add more specific keywords. The title is packed with relevant keywords. Paragraphs of copy include the keywords. Link text includes the keywords. Headers on the page (<H1></H1> tags) include the keywords. Make sure they're EVERYWHERE.
    
3. Build link popularity through in-bound links
   If you have other sites, link to your new site. Ask friends to link to your site. Add your site to directories. Every time you link to your homepage, do so via the full URL instead of just /index.html.
    
4. Enhance your site with Google Analytics
   If you haven't heard of Analytics, research it. It's an invaluable tool that allows you to see, among other things, how people found your page and which visitors visit which pages. You need only add a small Javascript snippet to each page. Following the paths of your surfers will allow you to update your keywords and structure your site based upon their tendencies.
    
5. Create and submit a sitemap
   Google Sitemaps allows you to tell the google spiders what pages are in your site, how important they are, and when they were last modified. Do a google search for 'sitemaps' or 'sitemap generator' and I'm sure you'll find loads of information on how to use the service.
    
6. Update regularly (or trick the search engines into thinking you do)
   Search engines tend to like pages that are updated often. Make changes to your site as regularly as you can. I put a small timestamp on my sites using PHP that says "This page last updated " followed by the date and time the page was accessed.
    
7. Sit back and wait.
   In my own personal experience, letting Google and other search engines "find" your site is more beneficial than submitting to their database. Once your site is online with other sites linking to it and a sitemap submitted, it shouldn't be more than a few days before you're listed. IF you aren't listed within a few weeks, then submit away - but leave that as a last resort.