Nerd Thoughts…

Lets break it down.

Optimization is all about keywords. The trick is finding the right ones to target. Picking the wrong ones can be a fools quest either because the word is too competitive or the word is not searched enough to be worth your time.

So how do you choose keywords? Easy, use a tool like Wordtracker to find an estimate of how many times per day a words are searched. Then compare it against how many websites (your competitors) come up under that keyword in a Google search. Then filter your list to find the highest competition keywords that have under 1 or 2 million competitors. Any keyword with more than 2 million competitors will be a costly investment so let’s ignore them for the time being. Take the remaining keywords and find the most highly searched of that bunch. Those are your organic “gem” keywords.

What do you do once you’ve found your keywords? Optimized the site, of course.

How to Optimize a Website:

1. Assign keywords to pages. Each page should have no more than 2 similar keywords and there derivatives assigned to it. The reason being that search engines like “focused” or “themed” content. For example, if you target the word “cat” and “dog” it is too unfocused and looses it’s relevancy strength. However if you target “cat pics” and “cat pictures” on one page and “dog pics” and “dog pictures” on another page then you’re going about it right. Remember, each page needs to have relevancy to a narrow range of keywords… a keyword focus.

2. Plug the keywords in. Once the keywords have been assigned to the specific pages then make sure the keywords appear in the following areas of the pages (Note: In some cases you may end up creating content and new pages to target keywords that don’t fit with any of your current pages or if your current pages are content lite – less than 250 to 300 words):

A. 2 or 3 times in the content for every 250 to 300 words. The key here is to use the words but make it natural. If it reads funny to a human than it can be spotted by a search engine as being unnatural. But using a keyword 2 or 3 times on a page about that topic is pretty natural and should not be difficult.

B. In the page title and meta tags (use in the meta “keywords” and “description” tags) found in the

section of the pages code.

C. In the pages internal navigation. For example, if a page is about “Nokia 7710” then there should be a text link linking to that page from all other pages of the website that use the exact word Nokia 7710 in the link. This is a form of internal link building that reinforces the keyword relevancy of your pages. (hint: if your website uses a java, flash, or graphical navigation you can simply add a textual linking navigation menu to the footer of your pages.)

D. Also, have a text link to a “site map” on every page. If you don’t already have a site map then create one. A site map can work not only as a great way to get all of your pages indexed but also as another chance to reinforce the keyword relevancy of your pages. Each page of your site should be listed on the site map and linked to with the appropriate keyword linking text. Also, next to each page’s link there should be a one or two sentences using reinforcing keywords or derivatives.

3. Some sites have more issues than others. For example, if your website is designed using frames or flash then plan on building a plain HTML version of your site for the search engines or plan on doing a lot of link building. That brings us to the next phase of Organic Search Engine Marketing… Link building.

So you’ve optimized your site as best as you can. You got the keywords, content, code, and site navigation all figured out but that was only half the task… the easy half. What you’ve done is “on site keyword theme reinforcement”. Now you need to do “off site keyword reinforcement and validation”, aka link building.

The goal here is to get “one way” inbound links from other websites. Forget about reciprocal linking. At this stage in the game it’s obsolete. Even “triangular” linking schemes are weak. Search engines can see the “big picture” and are not impressed by the philosophy of “link to me and I’ll link to you” anymore.

So how can you get one way inbound links? Two main ways. One, by hand submitting to “influential” free or paid inclusion directories (more on this later). And Two, buy buying links from other websites (again, more on the details of how and where to buy links will be discussed later). While search engines do not encouraged the buying of links for SEO purposes they are quite comfortable with “sponsored advertising”. Thus they cannot penalize you for buying links as a form of advertising. And it just so happens that if you buy advertising in the form of a text link with your keywords of choice as the linking text then the SEO benefits come along for the ride.

There is, however, a third way to get links. The honest way. The way Google would like you to get links – naturally and through the free will of other sites. And in the “big picture” this is the best long term strategy. So how do you get people to link to your website of there own volition? Easy, provide them something worthy of linking to such as information of value or a free useful tool. Or start a blog and become an expert on the subject of your product or service. The one thing to note when entering the world of blogging is that it’s not just about creating content and posting it, it’s also about joining into the “conversation”. It’s about replying to other people’s posts… and not spam. In fact, put that thought out of your head. Read and leave legitimate comments on other “topic related” blogs. There is a good chance the writer of the other blog will check out your blog and possibly mention your site or pass your site on through word of mouth to others. And you can’t pay for advertising like that.

Anyway, so that’s organic search engine marketing in a nutshell. Have good keyword themed and focused content, good navigational structure, build links and call it a day. It’s not rocket science.