For those of you who remember the good ol’ days of search engine optimization, you know how dramatically things have changed. I remember that back in the 90′s, the goal was to jam your keywords in to a particular page as much as possible, as well as blanket your meta tags with every keyword imaginable. Today, the rules are much different.  While there are many techniques  and best practices that you can use to increase your search engine placement, here are a few tips to get you started.

1. DON’T think that adding keyword mega tags to the pages in your website will make a huge different in Google’s eyes.  Google has actually stated on their blog that adding keyword meta tags to your site will not affect your ranking in their engine.

DO created a targeted and description title and description for your website. This information is used to determine how your particular listing is displayed and while it might not help your rankings, it will help the user get a better idea of the contents of your website. Also, just because Google doesn’t use the keyword tag, doesn’t mean that other engines won’t. Try to keep your tag to around 15 keywords to less, with copy targeted to that particular page.

2. DON’T stuff your pages full of keywords from top to bottom. This creates a bad user experience and even if it helps your site move up in the rankings, you may lose the customer because the page is cluttered and unfriendly to use.

DO choose 4 or 5 keywords that pertain to each individual page and work them in to the prominent areas including header and sub header tags and title tags.  Try to look at the page like a consumer and ask yourself, “Would I want to stay on this page or move on to a cleaner site?”

3. DON’T fall for link building scams. Have you ever received any of those random emails which ask you to swap links with a website that little or nothing to do with your website? These emails are typically sent from those who are building links in an intentional attempt to increase their rankings and Google frowns upon that technique.

DO build quality relationships with other websites that may be of use to your website visitors.  For example, we are currently working on some websites for a group of real estate agents. A great way to build a linking relationship is for them to contact some of their partners in the industry, such as mortgage companies, home repair businesses or moving companies, and ask them if they would like to add each other’s websites to their own as a preferred vendor. Not only will your customers appreciate the resources, but you will also show Google that your website is being promoted by another website.

4. DON’T create a blog just because you think you need to have one. Blogs can be a great way to add relevant content to your site but you need to be aware of the purpose of each post.

DO post information that will be useful for customers who could potentially be looking for your company or business type and utilize the post tags function for each entry. Post tags are great way to tell the searches engines about the content of your particular entry so keep your top search phrases in mind as you are writing your copy.

Tags: blogs for seo, can a blog help my search engine ranking, does google use meta tags, how to get your site ranked in google, how to use meta tags, link building, search engine optimization, SEO

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 at 11:47 pm and is filed under SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Website Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.