The goal of search engine optimization is
to have the search engine spiders not only find your site and pages. The
process of optimization is not a one-time process but requires maintenance,
tuning, and continuous testing and monitoring.
In this week, we will outline a broad strategy for successfully optimizing your website. Below is a broad four-step process for a strategy for search engine optimization. You can use this as your top-level checklist.
Step 1: Target Market Business Analysis
- Website Analysis; Analysis of meta sets/keywords, visible text and code to determine how well you're positioned for search engines. For example, how much code do you have on a page compared to text?
- Competitive Analysis; It is examination of content keywords and present engine rankings of competitive websites to determine an effective engine positioning strategy. Pick the top five results in the Google listing results to begin this process. Expand as necessary.
- Initial Keyword Nomination; Development of a prioritized list of targeted search terms related to your customer base and market segment. Begin with this: What would you type into a search engine to find your business website or page? Then, ask your customers!
Step 2: Keyword Research and Development
- Keyword Analysis; From nomination, further identify a targeted list of keywords and phrases. Review competitive lists and other pertinent industry sources. Use your preliminary list to determine an indicative number of recent search engines and how many websites are competing for each keyword.
- Baseline Ranking Assessment; You need to understand where you are now in order to accurately assess your future rankings. Keep a simple Excel sheet to start the process. Check weekly to begin. At a later time, you can check every 30 to 45 days. You should see improvements in website traffic. Traffic and conversions are more important but, please note that there is an important indicator of the search rankings.
- Goals and Objectives; Start simple, but don't skip this step.
Content Optimization
- Create Page Titles; Keyword-based titles help establish page theme and direction for your keywords.
- Create Meta Tags; Meta description tags can influence click-through but aren't directly used for rankings. Place strategic search phrases on pages. Integrate selected keywords into your website source code and existing content on designated pages.
- Develop new sitemaps for Google etc; Make it easier for search engines to index your website.
Step 4: Continuous Testing and Measuring
- Measuring; Analyze search engine rankings and web traffic to determine the effectiveness of the programs you've implemented, including assessment of individual keyword performance.
- Maintenance; Ongoing addition of keywords and website content are necessary to continually improve search engine rankings.