SEO Ranking 101: The 6 Steps

SEO is mainly about content and inbound links. More to the point, it’s about good content, and good links. Ultimately, it’s about a lot of good content, and a lot of good links. Fine-tuning is useful, but it should be the last on your list. Here are the 6 steps for building a strong SEO program.

1-Get your website up and running.
2-Let the search engines know you’re there.
3-Start building good content.
4-Start letting others know you’re there.
5-Optimize
6-Patience Daniel –San

1- Get your website up and running.
The beauty of Search engines is that they only care what’s on the inside. So don’t worry if your website looks that C-grade HTML 101 final you were so proud to submit, but wouldn’t be caught dead with today. Chances are, after 6 months of extreme makeovers, you’ll still feel you have room for improvement. Get something up and running so you can move on to the next step…

***Make sure you have 1- Google webmaster tools and 2- Google Analytics (installation instructions here) or another web analytics program installed.

2-Let the search engines know you’re there.
Search engines (certainly Google) favor websites that have been around for awhile, so don’t wait 6 months down the road when you feel your website is ready to let the search engines know you’re there. Either submit your website to Google, or, better yet, get some links pointing to your website and let the search engines find you on their own.

If you own other websites (or have friends who do) then getting links to your new website will be easy enough. Otherwise you can purchase links from directories (though I caution you not to depend on paid links). Here is a list of link directories.

Another option is to write some articles for article directories like Ezine Articles, which allow you to post link back to your website at the end of your article. However, since Google doesn’t like duplicate content, there’s no point in posting the same article on multiple article directories. Here is a list of article directories.

3-Research popular keywords
Allow user search behavior to affect the way your content will be written (though not dictate what will be written). So if you’re a Mercedes-Benz enthusiast, then by all means write about Mercedes-Benz. But you may occasionally just use the words Benz or Mercedes, in which case it’s useful to know that, according to Google’s Keyword tool, more people search for Mercedes than Benz. Here is a list of SEO research tools.

4-Start building good content.
Now that Google and the others know you’re there, your website will start to build credibility over time. So use this time to get some good content on your website based on the research you’ve done. The trick is to have content people will enjoy reading, and tell their friends about. Why? Because if your content is that good, then people will link to your website.

What this means is you don’t want to keyword stuff your pages with the phrases your research led you to prioritize. Use them of course, and feel to throw them in a little extra here and there, but don’t sacrifice your content. If your content is lacking, people won’t link to you voluntarily and you won’t be getting any links from credible sources (why would they send their readers away on a useless page?). Without credible links, your SEO efforts will always be handicapped, and all the keyword stuffing in the world won’t make up for this disadvantage.

4-Start letting others know you’re there.
Now that you have good content, start making your presence known in the web community. If your content is good enough, you may be able to get free links from online trade publications or information sources like About.com. Make yourself active on blogs and social networking mediums, especially within circles that relate to your niche. The more people know you’re out there, the more that will link to you.

Some directory links that are certainly worth getting are: DMOZ (free), Yahoo! Directory ($199.99/year), Business.com ($199.99/year), Best of the Web ($79.95/year) . It may be worth your time invest in a few others (certainly look for directories that are specific to the subject or industry of your website) but make sure the majority of your links aren’t directory links. Google doesn’t like anything artificial-looking, and if the only websites linking to your website are paid directories, then your site’s quality may come off as such.

If you feel you have newsworthy content, then get some press releases pointing to your website. A PR Web press release may not be free, but it’s worth every nickel. Your press release could end up on major websites if your press release makes for a newsworthy item to their readers.

5-Optimize
This is where I would say you should start to worry about the fine-tuning: 301 redirects, XML sitemaps, healthy internal linking, title/alt tag optimization, a robots.txt file, etc. These are all topics I will cover in future articles.

6-Patience Daniel –San
Getting great website rankings (or making money online for that matter) is not an overnight matter, so be patient. Expect up to a year or so of dedication before your website really begins to have a strong presence in the search engine world.