SEO GUIDE 2012 - Helping you beat the Panda....

With the recent panda update a lot of people have received messages from Google and may have seen a loss in rank. Some of it may be touching on the basics, but it's good to go back to those once in a while.



So now more than ever quality counts more than anything. Gone are the days when you could easily rank a website with over optimisation and back link spamming. So with this in mind I've created a little guide to get the most out of your on-site and off-site search engine optimisation.


First things first with any website you need to start with on-site modernisation, I'll cover everything you can do to give yourself the best chances, however nothing is hundreds and guaranteed in the online world.


Content


Generally speaking content is king, you want to provide the most relevant, quality information in your niche. The aim of the game is to provide relevant to your search engine keywords. Not only will the high-quality content improve your average visitor's time on your website it will also decrease bounce rate. Improving bounce rate and the average time on your website is most definitely a good thing. It's also vital that you try to treat your website as a teaching platform, trying to educate people rather than just out right selling.


Keyword density


One of the biggest mistake people make is over optimisation with their keywords. As algorithms change and progress, we need to become smarter and evolve with change. I would recommend you have a keyword density of between 1 to 3%. It is also a good idea to use long tail keywords as well as synonyms, with recent changes variations in keywords are vital, using synonyms can help you achieve this.


"Since Google is changing their dependency on keyword ranking to include comparable "like" words, webmasters should evaluate their website copy and brand message. Webmasters can now use similar words in context, pulling dependency away from using the same keyword throughout the page."


Source


Although it may surprise you Google is actively aware of your content. Google acquired MetaWeb a few years ago and began researching into semantic search. Google will score your content like this:

• 90.0 - 100.0 understood by your average 11-year-old student
• 60.0 - 70.0 understood by teenagers
• 0.0 - 30.0 understood by university graduate

Generally the lower the score the more difficult it is to read. A good aim would be between 25 to 50. You can find tools that can help you work this out.


Basic practices


I always recommend you put your keyword in your H1,H2 and H3 tags. I also recommend you put your keyword in bold, italics and underline within the first sentence and last sentence. It's also vital that you put your main keywords in your meta tags, descriptions and interlinking.


As mentioned above it is best to avoid over optimisation and keyword stuffing, therefore I would recommend varying your anchors for interlinking, make use of synonyms, and simple anchors such as "click here" etc.


When creating your description make sure it makes sense. It's important to spend a little time treating a good description for your website, that will make people want to visit. Avoid keyword stuffing and you synonyms as well.


The same applies for your meta tags avoid keyword stuffing and overawed motivation. Add lots of long tail keywords, related synonyms and keywords related to similar niches.




Increasing visitor time and decreasing bounce rate


A lot of the time websites with high bounce rate are providing irrelevant information that is of no use to the visitor, therefore they will back out of your website instantly and click on relevant search results. The first step is to provide good content. I'd also recommend adding a video related to your niche, if a person watches the video this will increase overall time spent on the site. I'd also add images, interactive slide shows and anything else that can add value and interaction. The more time spent on the website the better, as a high bounce rate will reflect badly on your site and ultimately reveal to Google that your website has no relevance for the keyword.


Adding related images with the ALT TAG using your keyword is useful as well.


Speed up your site


Quite a while ago Google introduced another factor into their algorithm and that was based on the loading speed of your website. Optimise your website so it loads quicker, there are several WordPress plug-ins which can help you do this. You can increase with this guide from Yahoo.



Other factors


There are a few other things Google might like to see any website these may include privacy policies, terms and conditions, contact page and FAQ. It's a good idea to make a FAQ as informative, direct and as relevant as possible.


Make sure there are no dead links on your site as Google hates these.


Having a site map can also help crawlers keep up-to-date with your content and index pages.


That just about covers basic on-site search engine optimisation, if you search around on the Internet on any of the topics above you can find more detailed information. I will post a list of relevant links and sources at the bottom of the article.


Off-site search engine organisation


Link Velocity


The rate in which you acquire back links can greatly affect the overall outcome of your website. Suddenly building thousands of back links to relatively small site will look a little bit suspicious. It is better to spread out your link building campaigns over time. Naturally most websites will get more more back links as it grows, with little bursts every now and then. For example a popular website may gain several hundred back links a day with a burst of 500 back links. This is just a rough example based on growth patterns. Over time as you website grows you will be to steadily increase the amount of back links you can deliver to your website.


Keywords


Like mentioned before in the on-site section, keywords of Italy pay a big role in off-site back linking. It is important to use your main keywords as anchor texts as well as your long tail keywords. However do not over optimise your anchor text and use the same keyword over and over as this will look unnatural and spamming. In order to create a more natural pattern it is best to use a variety of different anchors. For example:

• main keyword
• longtail keywords
• related keywords and synonyms
• "check this out" and "click here" anchors
• standard hyperlink, like www.google.com

It is important to create a diverse range of keywords, this will create a natural look. Think of it from the perspective of a random group of 10 human beings, how many of them would link to your website with an anchor text?


Social media


Social media is proving to be an important factor in how websites rank, Google is becoming increasingly interested in the social bars around your website. It is a good idea to have an active twitter page and an active Facebook page at the very least. Try to post a regular updates and link back to content on your website. Think of it as the arms to a website, it helps create user interaction as well as keeping users up-to-date with your website and content.


Back links


The total back links to get our important, you want to get as many different back links from as many different platforms and sources as possible. Contextual back links are very important as well as back links from relevant websites and high authority websites. You don't want thousands of back links coming from one source such as blog comments or profile links.


Relevant back links


If you can create relevant back links to your website then great. Some places you might not find relevant back links could be in the form of directories related to your niche, forums in your niche, guest blog posts in your niche, posting valuable blog comments on a related website and lots of other places. This is just to give you an idea of some of the places you can create relevant back links, their aim is to contribute something worthwhile to their website was treating a ballot will back link to your site.

Contextual back links


Contextual back links with properly anchored keywords within a sentence can benefit your website greatly. You can get quality contextual back links from:

• Forum profiles
• wiki websites
• private blogs
• article directories
• document sharing websites
• slide show websites
• web 2.0
• press releases
• social bookmarks

What you want to achieve is content that looks like it was written by someone else and then back link to your website to prove a point or to use as a source, this will look natural.


Other types of back links


There are lots of other back links you can get from various sources and platforms, these play a role but might not be as important as the above. These other back links include: blog comments, Trackbacks, who is backlinks, low page rank forum profiles and forum signatures.


Conclusion


Nothing is ever 100% guaranteed in the Internet world, however by following certain principles and appearing as natural as possible you give yourself the best chances. I would also like add do follow links are of great importance, so get as many of those as possible it will definitely help your ranking. Links from Tumblr are Do Follow.






Quality content, Link Velocity, Keyword variations and link diversification. Will help you rank


PS if you see any mistakes please let me know, I used dragon naturally speaking to create this post.



Useful Links:


Free backlink checker - www.backlinkwatch.com/
Free flash slide show creator - Upload & Share PowerPoint presentations and documents
Free Document sharing site - Scribd
List of Social bookmarks, Article directories and Press Release sites - Social Bookmarks and Article sites
Web 2.0 List - 75 Best Web 2.0 Sites |
Is your website readable - http://www.read-able.com

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