Search Engine Optimization Plan in 6 Easy Steps

Part of your website marketing plan must include search engine optimization. You’re probably thinking that seo is either extremely difficult, or extremely expensive. But as a small business owner, there are several steps you can take to improve your seo that aren’t overly complicated.

1. Create a Google Webmaster Tools Account

Google Webmaster Tools offers incredible insight into the “behind the scenes” workings of your webmaster, such as the search terms that are bringing visitors to your site, any crawl errors that Google might have encountered when spidering your website, missing pages and broken links, incoming links, and more.

The information supplied is extremely useful to improving your website performance, and the best part about it is that Google offers this tool for free. Now, I don’t want to get involved in the “Big Brother is Watching” discussion, but do keep in mind that once you start using Google’s Webmaster Tools, Google will have information on all the ins and outs of your website, including your bounce rate, clickthrough rates, and other information that may or may not be used to affect your PageRank. I’m not getting involved in the conspiracy debate, but I do suggest that once you start using Google Webmaster Tools, you spend the time it takes to put the information to good use.

2. Create a List of Keywords

It’s not at all unusual for a small business owner to think he knows the exact keywords that his website should be ranked for. But more often than not, those keywords are vastly different from what the clients or prospects would actually use to find that business in the search engines. Because your keywords are so critically important to the success of your website, it’s not an exaggeration to say that this is a make-or-break step in your search engine optimization plan. It’s important that you brainstorm an exhaustive list of keywords and then par down from there.

Your keyword research is the most important aspect of your search engine optimization plan, so don’t try to rush through it. It’s going to be a very time consuming process, but in the long run it will be well worth it.

Start by sitting down with your staff or co-workers and simply asking them what words your customers or prospects use when asking about your business. You might be surprised to find out that your clients don’t actually use the words you thought they use. If you’re a solopreneur, review the email messages and phone calls you receive from clients and prospects. Then jot down a list of often-used terms.

Next, refer to your Google Webmaster Tools account. You’ll be able to access a list of keywords that prospects are currently using to find your site. Keep in mind, these are keywords that your site is currently ranking for. There is more than likely a whole slew of great keywords that your site is not ranking for, but could actually provide very targeted, relevant traffic.

Use the list that you’ve just compiled to brainstorm other keyword possibilities. There are online tools that can help you with this step. Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery and the Google Keyword Suggestion tool are just a few. The Google Keyword Suggestion tool can be a bit confusing, since it does not output raw numbers. But since it’s free, it’s a great place to get started.

3. Par Down Your Keywords List

Now that you have a list of keywords, it’s imperative that your website content actually reflect these keywords. This is where you need to take a very objective look at your business and your website and try to put yourself in the web surfer’s shoes. If a web surfer has entered the search term “emergency tooth extraction” does he honestly want to be taken to your web page about cosmetic tooth whitening? No. Either create a page around your emergency tooth extraction services, or, if you don’t offer those services, don’t include this as one of your keywords.

Take an unbiased look at your keywords list and ask yourself this question: “If someone types this phrase into the search engine, what are the chances that he would be looking for my product or service?” If the chance is less than 80%, cross that word off your list.

4. Create Content Around Your Remaining Keywords

Now that you have a list of accurate keywords, you need to create content that pertains to these keywords. Having a “services” page that includes a bullet point mentioning “emergency tooth extraction” is not enough. You need an entire page devoted to emergency tooth extraction. Have a headline that reads “emergency Tooth Extraction” and a page title of “Emergency Tooth Extraction”. Include the keyword phrase “emergency tooth extraction” throughout your body copy. And then add a few blog posts about emergency tooth extraction.

Follow these same steps for every keyword on your list. And then create a calendar outlining how you will add additional content for each of your keywords. Next, create an internal linking plan to maximize your content and your keyword phrases.

Make sure your meta page description contains your keyword phrase and is enticing enough to encourage web surfers to click through. And, while your meta keywords won’t really affect your Google rankings, it’s still a nice way to keep yourself and your webmaster (present or future) organized, so be sure to keep those up to date.

5. Create an XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your website that are available to be crawled. It also lists when the pages were updated, how often the pages are changed, and how important each page is. The search engine spiders will look for this file when they land at your site, because it basically provides them with their crawling instructions. This file is used in addition to, not instead of, a robots text file. The file is written in the XML language and is mostly for search engine consumption. Do not confuse an XML sitemap with an HTML sitemap, which is used to help organize your site layout for your human visitors. If your site already has an HTML sitemap, you will still need to create an XML sitemap.

Once your XML sitemap is created, it’s very important to keep it updated. You’ll need to remove any invalid or obsolete links and add new links as your content changes or as new content is published.

6. Map Out Your Incoming Link Campaign

Links coming into your website are extremely important for search engine optimization. Again, please don’t confuse this with a page of “useful links” that you might include on your website. Links leaving your website do not help, and might actually harm, your search engine optimization program.

You want links coming into your site that pertain to, and, whenever possible, contain your actual keywords. Sources of incoming links might include:

• Other pertinent websites
• Article marketing
• Press releases
• Social media
• Social bookmarking
• Other blogs

When mapping out your link building campaign, it’s necessary to keep relevancy in mind. Links from websites that have nothing to do with your product or service really won’t help much. And reciprocal links really aren’t very helpful. So, for instance, if you own a dog grooming business and your best friend owns a flower shop, linking back and forth to each other’s websites really won’t help at all as far as search engine optimization goes.

Don’t ever use a link farm and do not buy links from a link broker. Both of these techniques can actually hurt your search engine ranking. Instead, you want to start visiting relevant websites, commenting on blogs, distributing appropriate articles, sending out press releases and encouraging social bookmarking on your website. And always keep your keywords in mind.

After your keyword research, your link building campaign is the second most important step in your search engine optimization plan. So be sure to devote the time to getting this right.

By spending just a few hours every week, you can create and carry out a search engine optimization plan that will increase your website traffic, increase your conversion rate and increase your bottom line.

You might also be interested in:

• How To Get Listed In Yahoo Without Getting Banned By Google
• Want a Better Search Engine Ranking? Follow These Easy Tips
• What is Search Engine Optimization
• Affordable SEO – Optimizing Your Website for Google
• Using Anchor Text to Draw in Website Visitors

This entry was posted on Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Affordable SEO. 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.