When it comes to SEO, there really are two things you need.  First you need a well optimized site as we have discussed on several other posts on this site.  The other thing you need is a well rounded variety of inbound links – specifically more and better quality links than your competitors.

The following list is a great synopsis of the types of links you want in your SEO Inbound Link Campaign.

Standard Links

-          Forum Links

-          Blog Comments

-          Web Directories

-          Social Bookmarks

Premium Links

-          Guaranteed Web Directories

-          Similar Sites

-          PR Articles and Submissions

-          Blog Reviews

-          PR News Releases

Exclusive Premium

-          Social Networking Websites

-          Hub-Pages

-          .Edu and .Gov Sites

Search Phrase Sitemap

·         Two primary keyword phrase search terms selected for entire site

·         Home page targets two primary keyword phrase search terms selected for entire site

·         Additionally, one or two keyword phrase search term(s) targeted per content page

On Page Keyword Phrase Integration

·         Page keyword phrase search terms in Title

·         Both keyword phrase search terms in H1 Heading

·         H2 Heading with each keyword phrase search terms

·         H3 Heading with keyword phrase search terms optional

SEO Link Integration

·         SEO Keyword Phrase Text Link Menu on Every Page

·         Hot Links go to a different page on the site. 

o   These are obvious as menu links, but a bit more subtle in content. 

o   Menu link is primary targeted phrase for target page, content link is secondary targeted term

·         House Links point to the same page the link is on. 

o   These are obvious as menu links, less prominent as content links.

Image Alt Text Tags

·         Variety of keyword phrases used in image alt tags

·         Primary targeted keyword search phrases higher on page,

·         5 Keyword search phrase varieties inserted down the page

Meta Tags

·         Different Description and Keyword Meta Tags Populated for every page

·         Primary and Secondary Targeted keyword search phrases included in both on every page

SEO Sculpting

·         Additional steps taken to improve SEO success

·         “NoFollow” Tags used on all image links.

·         “NoFollow” Tags used on all “contact us” and “click here” type vague links

These are things you can do, or have your Portland Web Designer do for you, to your website, to increase its visibility in search engines.  Do you want to know all of them?  A search for the SEO Basics brings us up #10 so we are somebody, but who searches with THE before their real keyterm … nobody.  We have only just begun, to liiiiive!  Wow, it’s late… SOO… We have yet to optimize our site on optimization.  That is the thing with good web designers, they rarely have time to work on their own projects!

The best Internal Website Search Optimizations to make are (from home page click read more to continue):

• Keywords throughout your site, including within:
  • Page Filenames
  • Page Titles
  • Page Headings
  • Image Alt Tags
  • Link Anchor Text
  • Content, bold and italic add further benefit

And then a few more after that:

• If we had to isolate a few two things people can do to get the best highest Search Position ROI, they would:
  • Add a blog and write on it
  • Create a keyword text menu on all/most pages on your website
  • Add fresh content
  • Create a Keyword Domain Website

Why plan?  Planning your SEO strategy before you begin is a great way to ensure that your eventual goals and benchmarks are met.  Building a website and subsequently integrating keyword phrases can leave your site sounding like it had keyword injections, whereas if you plan and execute according to your plan, each page will already be dedicated to a concept so it is more likely to have plenty of on-topic, keyword-rich content. 

While you are very likely to refine your strategy over time, initially planning your SEO Strategy breaks down into a few simple steps.  We have  a site dedicated to the results of this process called Google Debut, that is currently under construction.  This site will be used highlight how the sites we create, with proper planning, will rank well immediately on Google – and hold their rank – for critical search terms.  As one example our keyword domain website dedicated to Web Design Consulting debuted on Google, position 2, for the words ‘web design consultation.’   Planning and executing a great SEO strategy before a website is even birthed, can mean that your site’s debut has it ranking better than long established sites that either have not been improved and/or for which planning never took place.

Step 1 in your SEO Strategy planning is keyword research.

SEO Strategy 101: Keyword Research

While the numbers have proven to be a little less than perfectly accurate, we recommend you use Google’s keyword tool to get a good idea of how many people are searching for particular terms that relate to your business.

A really good resource to utilize for planning is Dan Thies SEO Fast Start e-book.  It is an extensive guide for SEO, from start to finish.  The start begins with planning, and planning with Keywords.

… more later…