Free SEO Guide and Free SEM Instructions

SEO –Search Engine Optimization and SEM –Search Engine Marketing

How do I get my website to show up on the first page of Google? This is the all important question that everyone who owns a website eventually asks.  There is no guarantee that your site will have the first spot on the first page of Google for a specific keyword search.  If an SEO firm is making that promise,avoid them! Even if you make it to #1,you may find yourself bumped out pretty quickly.  You have to put in a lot of SEM time to keep yourself at the top.  There are several things you can do to your website to help Google’s web crawlers rank your site highly in a search.  The first involves the design and coding of your website called SEO. The second is to perform SEM (see below) and get organic links,click through conversions and traffic/link exchanges.  The third is wait time.

Find your keywords by following the instructions below on getting Google Access under SEM.

Here are a list of SEO practices –somewhat in order of importance:

• Your website Domain (URL) –ex. http://www.mysite.com –should contain your top keyword
• Page URL –ex. http://www.mysite.com/asheville-business –each page should contain a top keyword as its name (check out the name of this page! –http://www.clickabledigital.com/asheville-seo-search-engine-optimization/)
• Title Tag –(within the tags of your code) –up to 60 characters –should contain your top keyword –especially on your home page
• Dynamic Homepage –New information should be included on your homepage at least once a month to show Google that you have good website business practices (you can’t just put up a site and leave it alone)
• Links FROM reputable websites (on their homepage is best) –Reputable = within the same industry and gets a lot of traffic (link to your homepage OR link to a specific page within their text)
• Keywords in your text (in your copy) –keywords in the body of your website should be in H1 and H2 headings (very important on homepage and in the beginning of your copy)
• Keywords in the meta tags of your text –keywords of up to 256 characters (including spaces) using your top keywords with involved cities (most important on homepage but Google does not value these too highly any more)
• Description Tag –up to 150 characters –should contain your top keyword again just as it appears in your Title Tag and describe what you do –do NOT just copy your keywords here.
• Alt Tags to your images –originally used for the blind to describe pictures on the web,Google has incorporated them into their algorithm for keyword use
• Last Paragraph –First and last paragraphs are extracted by search engines,make sure both have your keywords
• Internal Links –make your whole site crawlable by providing text links to all your pages (good to have at the top and bottom of your pages –In WordPress,Google crawls text in the left-hand sidebar first.  Put your top keywords there and create links to pages within your site that also have the keywords in the specific url to that page.
• Links TO reputable websites - yes Google wants to see that you have good information (free is best) within your site for users

DO NOT:

Overuse keywords –

1. Density for a single keyword between 1% and 7%
2. Total keyword density (all keywords) around 15% to 20%,anything less than 5% unlikely to yield results

Use the same meta tags - descriptions,keywords,and title tags should be different on each page.

Copy text from another website –this is a no-no in Google’s algorithm

SEM –Search Engine Marketing

Get Google To Crawl Your Site (only after your site is completed and is Search Engine Optimized):

First –Get Google Access:

Get a Google Gmail account so that you can access Google Analytics,Google Places and Adwords. Start here:
Gmail

Once you have a gmail account,find your top keywords to add to your website:
Google Keyword Tool

After you choose keywords that might apply to your service/product,add city names in front of the top keywords to use in your site for local searches.  You can sort the keywords by clicking on Global Monthly Searches or Local Monthly Searches.  Check to see that these keywords most closely describe what you’re selling.  You can check all that apply and download them to a spreadsheet (CSV means Comma Separated Values and can be opened in Excel or any spreadsheet program)

Second –Get Google Analytics (instructions for WordPress below)

Click Here to go to Google Accounts

Click on Analytics
Add your url (website address) and click finish. This is all you have to do when using the Google Analytics plugin with WordPress (If you are not using WordPress,have your webmaster install Google Analytics for you –you will need a gmail account to access the results). STAY SIGNED INTO YOUR ACCOUNT!

In another tab in your browser,log into your website and click on Settings in your Dashboard then Google Analytics.

Under “Please select the correct Analytics profile to track:”,select your website (usually the same under both drop-down menus)

Click “Re-authenticate with Google”and “Update Google Analytics Settings”

When you want to check on your website’s traffic,simply log in to the Google Analytics page with your gmail account.

Third –Get a Google Place Page

Be ready to answer your business phone and receive a PIN.  A Google Place Page will add your business to Google Maps (when you perform a search on Google —local businesses show up as markers on a map)

Go to Google Places to add your business listing.  Use as many keywords in the description as you can.  Choose as many categories as you can that accurately describe your business.  Make sure you add the correct distance around your address that you are willing to service.  Once you are done and have entered your PIN,you can change any information by logging into your account.

Create a Video

This is VIRAL MARKETING!  Create a video with some key information and promise to reveal more FREE information on your website.  Urge readers to click through to your site and watch your traffic grow!  Obviously You Tube is number one,but there is also Daily Motion,Vimeo,Veoh,Blip TV and more.  Do a search for upload video!

Adwords

A quick way to gain better ranking is to pay for Google Adwords.  These are advertisements you find when searching Google that appear in the right-hand column.  You can choose the maximum amount of money to spend per month,as well as the amount to spend per click for top keywords.  Adwords tells you what your competitors are paying for keywords and in what position your ad will appear for certain dollar (or cents) amounts. Get to Adwords through your Google Accounts.

Click Here to go to Google Accounts

Get Inbound Links from Websites Within Your Industry.

The absolute best incoming link is from a well-respected (highly trafficked) website’s homepage,within the body of text,with a description surrounding your link that includes your best keywords.  Is this a reasonable goal?  Not likely,but people often trade link exchanges on certain pages within their sites and it is easy to do.  Create a template email politely asking for a link exchange.  Do a Google search for your keywords and contact those businesses within your industry who might exchange links.  A website containing a links page is especially likely to comply.

Add Incoming Links to Your Site by Adding Your Business Listings to Search Engines.

1. Submit to Yahoo Directory http://dir.yahoo.com/https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/
2. Submit to Alexa http://www.alexa.com/data/details/editor?type=rl
3. Submit to DMOZ http://www.dmoz.org/
4. Submit to ZoomInfo http://www.zoominfo.com/
5. Submit to Google http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurlAdd

Advertise for Free on the Web and Increase Your Incoming Links

One of the best ways to increase your Google ranking is to place ads on Craig’s List.  You MUST add a link to your website so that Google’s web crawler sees the incoming link.  DO NOT DELETE YOUR ADS!!!!! Each link in each Craig’s List entry counts as a link to your site.  Use multiple accounts to get your ads listed in as many cities as you can.  (you need a different phone number for each account).

Place Ads on Kijiji http://www.kijiji.com/

Don’t forget your local newspapers and publications may allow free listings!

Email Everyone You Know!

After your site has been crawled (after getting feedback from Google Analytics),ask your friends and family to browse your site by finding it through a search.  Do the research yourself first.  Perform a search with your top keyword and find your site. Notate the page number and exact words you used for your search and put them in an email to your contacts.  Ask them to perform the search exactly the way you did through the same search engine (Google is best).  Ask them to click on the correct page number in the search,find your site description and  click through the link to your site.  Ask them to look at every page,not just the home page –and stay on each page as long as they can,the more time spent on the site,the better.  This is known as an “organic search conversion”.

Another way to keep people coming back to your site and gain valuable click through conversion is to send out newsletters.  Do NOT put your whole article in a newsletter,only a snippet with some juicy keywords to entice them to your website.  Have a link to the specific page to read the rest of the article.

Here is a free online newsletter maker/database to use:

http://www.constantcontact.com/

Create Email Marketing Campaigns –Have a subscribe button on your website with your Constant Contact account.

Keep the Ball Rolling with Forums and Blogs!

Search out forums in your industry,create an account on different websites and INCLUDE YOUR WEB ADDRESS IN YOUR PROFILE! Do the same for blogs.

Social Networking and Bookmarking

Visit and become a member of DIGG,FACEBOOK,MIXX,STUMBLE UPON,REDDIT,TWITTER,BOING BOING,NOW PUBLIC

Become an Expert in Your Field!

ARTICLE DIRECTORIES –Write articles about your industry and add them to any valuable article directory –FREE INFO creates traffic to your site!

Here is a recent list of article directories with Google page ranks:

Traffic Exchanges

Google “traffic exchange”and register for the top 5 sites.  Perform the work asked and receive hits/traffic to your website.
Here is one link:

KEYWORD BOOST.COM

JUST10TIME.COM

Link Exchanges:

Link Market

Stay Abreast of the Best SEO Practices:

Top 10 Internet Marketing Blogs

1. My Internet Marketing Blog

2.SEO Book

3.Matt Cutts Blog

4.SEOMOZ

5.Search Engine Land

6.Top Rank Blog

7.V7N Blog

8.Pro Blogger

9.Andy Beard

10.Shoe Money

A Couple of Good Tutorials

1.SEO Tutorial

2.Internet Marketing Articles