Since long, we had seen and even tested various techniques and guidelines for generating search engine traffic. A decade back, SEO became a full time career for a few years. Since then so many methods have been evolving to control and manipulate the engines to get front page search results. As on date, scenarios have been changed.
Many of these earlier followed practices and techniques are still very much relevant as they were then, so here I am collating the key ones.
Commence with your Domain Name
Select the domain name, relatively short and easy to spell. Avoid hyphens and or unusual characters for branding purposes, than SEO. Search visibility remains there even with perplex, long character riddled domain, but such domain names are hard to remember without the assistance of a search engine.
Build Quality Inbound and Outbound Links
Your site is ranked by search engines based on the amount of inbound links it has from other sites. Spend some time and get authenticated sites linking back to you called inbound links; it influences the search engine ranking.
Google Page Rank
Websites are ranked with higher Page Rank if Google conceives them to be important and influential. Higher Page Rank gives better search results and rankings. Authoritative sites usually have high Page Rank. You should take care of it but do not focus completely on it.
Relevant Keywords on Web Address
Publish content on your site with relevant keywords with headline formatted in the permalink/web URL. For instance, if your site has a page with images on wild animals, format the URL like: http://www.yoursite.com/images/wild-animals.html or http://www.yoursite.com/wild-animals.html Mention the sub-directory with target keyword of the subject matter.
Headlines and Page Titles with Target Keywords
Along with relevant keywords in your URL, place the keywords in your headlines and page titles as well. It would help even if no other optimization is worked out otherwise it would be hard for search engine to spot your existence.
Include Blogs
Blogs are considered to be the major source information for everybody. Search engines give preference to blogs for fresh and timely content. If tweaked correctly it can be a powerful tool for search engine traffic generation. Configure your permalink structure immediately after installing your blog. Install plug-ins like "All in One SEO Pack" available for WordPress. You may also leverage RSS to convert search engine clicks into a return visitor.
Keywords as Anchor text
Generally, anchor text is weighted highly in search engine algorithms and its results since it gives descriptive information to search engines about the content of a hyperlinks destination. Avoid using "click here", it would hamper search engine visibility.
Web Analytics
In order to measure and understand your traffic patterns and behaviors do set up Google Analytics at the very start.
Use Sitemap
Sitemaps list down all the pages pertaining to a particular site that helps to notify search engine about URLs on your website available for crawling and indexing, which might be left undiscovered by Google's normal crawling process.
Google Webmaster Tools
Google's Webmaster Tools helps to see your website the way Googlebot looks at it. It finds out which sites link to yours, also looks for search queries that list your site and which of your site's pages are indexed, and also shows up certain errors (if any) Google encountered while crawling your website. Make your site as Google friendly as possible. This gives higher visibility in search results.
Publish Quality Content Frequently
Publish quality content on a regular basis so as to be frequently seen as more reliable than sites that seldom produce content. Keep on increasing content on your website to yield more indexed pages, in turn more visibility, increasing the quantity of search clicks to your pages.
Headline Tags
Use headline tags (h1, h2, etc.) for targeted keywords and phrases. Search engines recognizes and assigns greater value to keywords found within headline tags.
Do not Forget Other Search Engines
Do not overlook other search engines like Yahoo, MSN while you keep considering Google, the gorilla, that produces the biggest quantity of search traffic. Yahoo has a resource for web publishers, as does Microsoft to help you better optimize your pages for their engines.
Consistency
Keep on testing different permutations and combinations to understand the criteria the search engines looks for when indexing your pages. Focus on what works and run with it.
Last but not the least
If you have active participation in social media, you are already ahead of the game. To have profiles at Social Networking Websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter helps in getting indexed, and always rank on the top of the search results. This is even great if your objective is personal branding. You have to be active and maintain consistency to own your name in Google. Social media is the most invaluable tool for traffic generation, if executed correctly. User generated content and the applications that power them such as, blogs, wikis, videos, social networking sites, bookmarking, microblogging, etc are the leading mechanisms for search engine traffic, and keeps on increasing with time.
To optimize a website to be ranked higher in search engines is not very complex. Use of techniques suggested above will definitely pay off. You must not expect instant results. It takes time to build up content, establish inbound links, tweak and re-tweak.
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
January 26, 2010
Top Social Media Channels to Optimize a Website
Search Engine Optimization is a hypercritical attempt to rank a website higher in the search engines so that with the help of relevant keywords, search engines like Google will find the website on the first page of Google. Further, the objective is to optimize so as to be found online as easily as possible.
You may look at some of the pointers below to optimize top most social media channels greatly in use.
Facebook
You can participate in Facebook by making your personal profile, groups and Pages. As you all are aware that you can promote and optimize your website using Facebook but how you can purpose it efficiently drive traffic to your website is of utmost significance.
To efficiently use Facebook, make a group or page profile for your business instead of personal since they are much more transparent to search engine crawlers. Choose a vanity URL that contains your keywords. When you post content, always include video or imagery because Facebook users like visuals more than plain text. Try to keep updates at least 2-3 times per week. And then using Analytical tools for insights, you may analyze the number of interactions and overall engagement with your page and posts.
Blogs
In order to showcase true commitment and passion via blogs and to stand out from a crowd, you must sustain over long periods of time with good frequency. The initial thing needed would be to buy your own domain name rather than renting one. Keep regular update with new unique new content and also promote your Blog on Twitter regularly since Google now has feature called real time search feed into Twitter API. You may include share buttons to other social media channels also so that visitors can add your blog and posts.
YouTube
The emerging facts and figures showcase the increasing impact of Social Media “Online Video”. Initially, create your own YouTube Channel and mention the link of your blog or website in the description section for your video to link back to your site. Do mention the category and the tags of your video in tags section. Now you may also promote your YouTube video on Twitter.
Twitter
Twitter is a great way to connect, communicate and promote your content from your blog or website. You should add your website’s URL in your profile info. Also, place a “retweet” button on your blog articles and integrate your Twitter URL within your site’s Global Footer appearing at the bottom of every page of your site. This helps to drive your Twitter URL up in the search engines. Do include “Follow me on Twitter” buttons on your emails and blog. Try to shorten your tweets to max. 120 characters so that it allows space for people to “Retweet” your “Tweet” with their comments like “Good post”
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the world’s largest professional networks which is growing rapidly and is considered to be one of the top social media channels. LinkedIn helps to connect to your trusted professional contacts so as to exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals. You must optimize this platform to enhance you and your company’s brand. Initially create a public profile to build an on-line presence for yourself, use its questions and answers feature to start conversations, create community, and position yourself as an expert in that particular subject, start conversations, and answer questions to endorse your candidacy and expertise so that it can drive good traffic. Do activate Twitter and LinkedIn interfaces on the homepage of your website.
Following these top Social Media Channels definitely helps to optimize your website so as to rank higher on search engines.
You may look at some of the pointers below to optimize top most social media channels greatly in use.
You can participate in Facebook by making your personal profile, groups and Pages. As you all are aware that you can promote and optimize your website using Facebook but how you can purpose it efficiently drive traffic to your website is of utmost significance.
To efficiently use Facebook, make a group or page profile for your business instead of personal since they are much more transparent to search engine crawlers. Choose a vanity URL that contains your keywords. When you post content, always include video or imagery because Facebook users like visuals more than plain text. Try to keep updates at least 2-3 times per week. And then using Analytical tools for insights, you may analyze the number of interactions and overall engagement with your page and posts.
Blogs
In order to showcase true commitment and passion via blogs and to stand out from a crowd, you must sustain over long periods of time with good frequency. The initial thing needed would be to buy your own domain name rather than renting one. Keep regular update with new unique new content and also promote your Blog on Twitter regularly since Google now has feature called real time search feed into Twitter API. You may include share buttons to other social media channels also so that visitors can add your blog and posts.
YouTube
The emerging facts and figures showcase the increasing impact of Social Media “Online Video”. Initially, create your own YouTube Channel and mention the link of your blog or website in the description section for your video to link back to your site. Do mention the category and the tags of your video in tags section. Now you may also promote your YouTube video on Twitter.
Twitter is a great way to connect, communicate and promote your content from your blog or website. You should add your website’s URL in your profile info. Also, place a “retweet” button on your blog articles and integrate your Twitter URL within your site’s Global Footer appearing at the bottom of every page of your site. This helps to drive your Twitter URL up in the search engines. Do include “Follow me on Twitter” buttons on your emails and blog. Try to shorten your tweets to max. 120 characters so that it allows space for people to “Retweet” your “Tweet” with their comments like “Good post”
LinkedIn is one of the world’s largest professional networks which is growing rapidly and is considered to be one of the top social media channels. LinkedIn helps to connect to your trusted professional contacts so as to exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals. You must optimize this platform to enhance you and your company’s brand. Initially create a public profile to build an on-line presence for yourself, use its questions and answers feature to start conversations, create community, and position yourself as an expert in that particular subject, start conversations, and answer questions to endorse your candidacy and expertise so that it can drive good traffic. Do activate Twitter and LinkedIn interfaces on the homepage of your website.
Following these top Social Media Channels definitely helps to optimize your website so as to rank higher on search engines.
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