1. Picking the Right Keywords:

The keywords you choose should not only be related to your industry but targeted to a particular niche within your industry.  Most common mistake made by those attempting to market their business without seeking the help of a professional, is picking keywords that are too general but have high search volume.  The reason they have high search volume is because they are too general.   In order to market your site effectively on the internet, you have to think like a searcher.  Even if those keywords or phrases are good at driving traffic, they aren’t driving the right traffic thus not converting into sales on your site.

2.   Picking The Right Domain:

Unless you are Dial Corp or Coca Cola or even Kleenex than it’s always wise to stick with a domain that closest to your keyword.  First, it strengthens the optimization of your site overall since now all the urls associated with your site contain your keyword.  It literally breeds your keyword into the code of your site making your site likelier to be found in relevant searches for your products or services.  So unless you think people will be typing the name of your business into the search bar, there isn’t any optimizational benefit to having your company name as your domain name.

3.  Meta Tags:

I have been reading a lot recently on the arguable relevance of Meta Tags and I have to laugh. The topic is usually about how relevant meta tags are to SEO. Since Meta tags are the difference between getting your site indexed or not getting it indexed, I’d say – CRUCIAL TO SEO. Whether or not they affect any other optimization feature beyond that is irrelevant.  Furthermore it is your 30 second commercial to attract a searcher to click on your site and consequently the only opportunity you get to say “click me, click me”  Your Meta’s should contain, as the very first word or phrase, your main keyphrase .  This is inserted into the header of your page and should exist on every page of your site according to the keyword for that page.  By looking up at the very top of this window you will see the meta’s for this page or in the example below: 

MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERS | MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERS FORUM | READ ABOUT MANAGED SERVICES AND THE PROVIDERS

Note:  Meta tags should also be used for articles or anything else you publish on the internet that you want to show up in search results.  Images can also be keyword optimized.

4.  Content:

Another arguable SEO reference I have been hearing a lot lately is, “write for people not for search engines.”  Here’s a newsflash:  People do NOT read website content.  They read graphics and blurbs of content that stick out on a page but very few are going to read the content you put on your pages so that statement is not entirely accurate.  In fact it’s really not accurate at all. Your content should be relevant, informational, keyword optimized, and should be updated frequently.  By frequent I don’t mean changing weekly or daily, static pages are best for SEO.  You have to give the search engines an opportunity to take in all the information on your site and rate it amongst the others.  This can take a long time, sometimes up to 3 or 4 months to index your entire site.  However, old content that has not been changed or updated in a year is going to lose traction or preferred positioning in search results, eventually.  Content is the most valuable tool in search optimization.  Your content will be the driving force behind your ranking in search results.  The more you have the better.  Articles are an excellent way to enhance the optimization of your site.  The more you give the search engines, the more opportunity you have to rank for your keyword(s).  Comparatively speaking, content is food for the page crawlers or search engines, and by keeping them full with your food is the best optimization technique around.