Recently I have been approached by several of our clients about search engine optimization. Specifically I have been asked “How do I get my website to appear on the top 10 search results on Google?” There are two possible solutions:

1. Pay for a sponsored listing (Ad Sense, Google’s Pay-Per-Click solution)
2. Optimize your website (Organic SEO)

Although Pay-Per-Click is a solution neglecting optimizing your site can be costly. In a recent study Google found that search engine users were 72% more likely to click on a natural listing over a pay-per-click listing. In order to make your website Google friendly you must first understand how Google works. Google ranks a website based on relevancy to a searchers keyword in comparison to an ideal website. The algorithm used to determine how relevant a website is has hidden criteria, however by optimizing the following key elements your site will see results:

• Keywords
• Title tag
• Meta data
• Header tags
• Alt tags
• Inward links
• External Links
• Reciprocal Link
• Internal links

Before I dive into detail on each of the key elements it is important to know the current standing of the website you are optimizing. One way to find out what your current standing is to download the Google toolbar. Google’s toolbar is packed with useful information. Although for the scope of this article we are going to focus on:

• PageRank display
• Backward link checker
• Cached pages checker

Download the Google toolbar.

PageRank Display

The Google PageRank is a complex algorithm used to determine the importance of a web page, based on the links they have coming into them, and the rank of those links.The original PageRank algorithm is below:

• PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + … + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

where

• PR(A) us the PageRank of page A,
• PR(T1) is the PageRank of pages T1 which link to page A
• C(T1) is the number of outbound links on page T1
• d is a damping factor between 0 and 1

After calculating your PageRank you will be assigned a number from 0-10 out of 10. 0 being the lowest, 10 being the highest. Once you know what your PageRank is you will then be able to start improving it.

Backward Link Checker

A backward link is a link that comes into your website from another website. By using the backward link checker you can:

• See incoming links
• Assess the quality of incoming links
• See your competition

Once you have navigated to the backward link pay attention to the PageRank of the site and the anchor text used for the link.

Cached Pages Checker

The cached page checker shows the version of your website Google last crawled. This tool can show you whether Google has noticed if your content has been updated.

Now that you know your sites current standing it is time to start optimizing. The first step is to pick your keywords.

Keywords

Keywords must be identified and present through the whole design of your website. One of the most common mistake is using only one word as your keyword (i.e., design) instead of a keyword phrase (i.e., Dallas Web Design).

By optimizing with keyword phrases instead of a single keywords you are more likely to have less competition and a more relevant website. A key tip that will help with your website optimization is picking a domain name with the keyword phrase in it

Consider the fictional company Jay Bean Coffee, a local Dallas coffee shop. The owner Jay decides he would like a website so he purchases the domain name jaybean.com. The problem with Jay’s domain is it does not describe what the site is and therefore less likely to be deemed relevant. Jay would be better to purchase dallascoffeeshop.com. Note the location is first. One of the biggest keywords to use is often the city where the company is, in this case Dallas. Immediately following the city is what the company is, in our case coffee shop.

Meta Data

Although Google ignores meta tags as far as search information the crawler still looks at them, and therefore meta data still has value. The two most important meta tags are:

• Keywords (<META name=“keywords” content=“dallas coffee shop”>)
• Description (<META name=“description” content=“A local coffee shop with urban charm”>)

It is important to put separate meta tags on every page with unique content as it is more likely users will land on the page containing the most relevant content often is not the homepage.

As a best practice remember to place the title tag directly underneath the opening of the <HEAD> tag.

Header Tags

There are six header tags:

• H1

• H2

• H3

• H4

• H5

• H6

A header tag is written as <H1>Content</H1> through <H6>Content</H6> while header tag 1 is the biggest an has the greatest value, and header tag 6 is the smallest and has the least value.

Always try to use an <H1> tag with your keywords as it will increase the relevancy, but do not only use <H1> tags as it will dilute the relevancy. An ideal website will have multiple header tags ranging from <H1> to <H6>. Although a common example is to have a header in a <H1> tag and a sub header in <H2> a tag.

Alt Tags

Alt tags describe an image on your website and make the website more accessible. In addition they allow screen readers and Google to interpret your images. Although many websites do not use them correctly.

Humans see images as:

Screen readers and Google only sees the code behind the image:

<a href=“images/color.png”><img src=“images/color.png” alt=“Example image of how Google reads images”/><a/>

If you fail to use an Alt tag, will not interpret the image and you are missing a chance to add relevance to your site. As an added benefit more people will be able to access your site and you will more than likely increase conversions.

Inward Links

An inward link is a link that someone posts on their website that links back to your website. This form of a link is the most valuable to increasing your page rank.

Building inward links can be a tiring process, but fall don‘t victim to spamming your link all over the web using software. Organic SEO takes time to do right but the rewards outweigh the wait. A few pointers to help you gain inward links are to:

• Join a social network or several ( my favorite for business is LinkedIn.com, but I belong to several others and have had great results with those as well.)
• Create a blog and post consistently.
• Google one of your top keywords with “+directory” next to it. Look for a directory with a high PageRank and see what it costs to add your URL. Most charge a fee, but some are free.

External Links

An external link is a link from your website to another website.

External links are a great to build relevance for your website by linking to other relevant sites.

Reciprocal Link

A reciprocal link is where your website links to another website and that website links back to your website.

Only agree to this link if the website requesting a reciprocal link is relevant to yours and has a high PageRank.

Internal Linking

Internal links are links that link within your website.

Whether you use absolute links (i.e., http://www.mywebsite.com/images/myimage.png) or relative links (i.e., images/myimage.png) the weighing factor of relevancy is the anchor text used to describe the link.

By adding keywords inside your anchor text you will add relevancy to your website. Never use “click here” as the anchor text!

Creating a Sitemap

In order for Google’s spiders to crawl your site easily Google recommends creating an XML (Extensible Markup Language) sitemap.

Although the XML language is beyond the scope of this article, Site Maps Pal is a free resource for creating an XML compatible sitemap for Google. Once you have created your sitemap place, it in the root directory of your site and call it sitemap.xml

After you have created your sitemap it is important to inform Google that you have a sitemap. By using Google Webmaster Tools you can create a profile for website and submit a sitemap. Google will queue the crawlers to check your page. After Google has crawled your page you will be able to review reports that provide valuable information such as broken links.

Measuring Success

Now that you have optimized your website it is important to measure your success. The best tool I have found so far is Google Analytics. Google Analytics gives in depth knowledge of where traffic is coming from, time on each page, goal tracking, and many other useful features.

Next Steps

Be patient. Organic SEO results take time. Be diligent on keeping content current, and blogging consistently. Over time your PageRank will grow, and so will your pageviews.

Should you require professional help Root & Madison employees top SEO professionals eager to help you accomplish your goals.

Happy Searching,

AR