SEO Tricks When Building Your Site
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of making your website more accessible to search engines so that you will rank higher for your targetted keywords or phrases.
Search engines use algorithms (via robots and spiders that crawl or scan the web for information) to select the websites with the most relevant information to place at the top of their lists. This is an automated process governed by specific rules. And, believe me, the rules vary for each search engine.
The top search engines, being Google.com, Yahoo.com, Ask.com, Live.com, and Alexa.com.
A webmaster can go crazy finding the common ground for satisfying each of the search engines because they each have their own set of rules
For example, Google prefers a certain keyword density (the number of times a word appears on the page versus the total number of words on a page) and would penalize a high percentage as ’spammy,’ while Yahoo can tolerate a much higher keyword density.
Here are some tips for you to try.
1. Plan Your Navigation and Linking Structure
Before building your site, write down your topics and classify them into sections. A travel web site, for example:
Home Page
General Information
- News
- Weather
- History
- Festivals & Events
Trip Planner
- Driving Directions
- Lodging
- Best Hotels
- Business Hotels
- Budget Hotels
Things to Do
- Sightseeing
- Dining
- Shopping
- Recreational Activities
etc, etc.
Make sure that your site has a straightforward and logical linking structure. Your pages need to be linked to each other and accessible no more than three (3) levels deep. Having to travel through six or seven pages to find the one you need is a frustrating experience for the user, who might just give up early and move to a competitor site.
A search engine scanning your site will also simply give up and give your site a lower ranking. Many of those who search the web hardly go past page one of the search engine. And you want to be on page one for your designed keyword or phrase! You don’t want your competitor’s website to be clicked ahead of yours!
A lower ranking can be disastrous for a business. A website that appears on the second or third page of a search engine’s results has far fewer visits than one listed on the first page – it’s a fact.
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