13 Tips for Complete Search Engine Optimization | TeChZeNe

a Complete Guide to Search Engine Optimization

Google Search Engine Optimization Guide:

Brandon Falls, Google Search Quality Team member wrote a post at the Webmaster Central blog stating that many webmasters often have some basic SEO Questions that go unanswered or they just get confused assuming SEO is an emerging thing & there are lots of resources found on web. So Google has released their own Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide covering common areas that webmasters might consider optimizing. The guide will help the SEO newbies who has SEO related doubts.

A very interesting part of this guide is that Google is using this Optimization guide to optimize their internal sites such as Youtube, Orkut and so on…You can find the guide useful as it is very well written and contains illustrated examples and screen shots.

Below are the basic SEO Tips that are covered by Google in the SE Optimization Starter Guide.

1. Create unique & Accurate Page Titles – Page title is the first thing that every one notices after visiting your site. So it should accurately describe the page’s content. Also, webmasters should make sure that the titles in his website are unique for each page to avoid duplicate content. The Title should be descriptive but cannot exceed the limit. Don’t try to stuff only Keywords in title – write a creative title that will benefit both the user and the search engines.
2. Make proper use of the “description” meta tag – Google clearly states that Meta tags such as (Meta Description) is not dead! Meta description is nothing but describing our website concept in simple sentences with our targeted keywords so that Google identifies the topic of our website easily. So write a description that would both inform and interest users as they will see the description meta tag as a snippet in the SERPs. Also note that description meta tag has no relation to the content on the page. Try to write unique descriptions for each and every page. There are many plugin’s to do this task for you automatically without you having to enter the descriptions manually.
3. Improve the URL structure of your Site – Use words in your URL. – URLs with relevant words to your site’s content and structure are friendlier for visitors navigating your site as well as to rank well. Avoid using lengthy URLs with session IDs and non-readable parameters. Always try to avoid choosing generic page names and using excessive keywords. Publish only single copy of your post, if you accidentally happen to have multiple posts of same version, do a 301 redirect from non-preferred URLs to the dominant URL (or) you may also consider using Canonical URLs.
4. Easy Navigation – Make your navigation as easy as possible for your users to surf from general content to the inner pages i.e., more specific content they want on your site. Make sure you use text for navigation instead of graphical/flash buttons and its a good practice to put an HTML sitemap page on your site, and generate an XML Sitemap file. Use a creative 404 page that is user friendly and give the user the options of entering the site without leaving your site from the page.
5. Write genuine content and Provide Quality Services – Write easy-to-read text as readers enjoy content that is well written with sub-headings and easy to follow. So break your large post into logical parts so that it will be easier to read. Sprinkle relevant keywords in your content to make it natural [take the help of Google Keyword Suggestion Tool] where necessary. Always make sure your content is fresh and unique. Avoid re-writing or copying existing content from the internet. Try to create content for users, not search engines
6. Use keyword rich anchor text – Always try to use descriptive anchor text as the text you use for a link should provide basic idea of what the page is linked to. Also use internal linking i.e., link between your old posts in a natural way so that it will be easier for Google to crawl your internal pages too.
7. Use heading tags in appropriate places – HTML Header tags H1…H6 will help to break down your content which will look good for reading. Divide the large content in to main headings and sub-headings. This will have 2 uses. one is user satisfaction and the other is that it will be easy for you to use heading tags appropriately.
8. Image Optimization – Use descriptive file names and alt-text for all images. Don’t try to stuff keywords in the alt tag.
9. Make use of robots.txt file effectively- Robots.txt will help search robots what to consider and what not to consider indexing.
10. Use rel=”nofollow” for links in requires places – Placing rel=”nofollow” for a link will tell Google that certain hyperlinks on your site should not be followed i.e., your page rank should not be passed to the pages you linked to. Use in places like blog comments, when linking to other sites etc…
11. Promote your website using Social Media – Off-line promotion like participating in social communities will make your blog more popular. Also don’t forget ti add your business to Google’s Local Business Center.
12. Webmaster tools – Google webmaster tools will help webmasters better control how Google interacts with their sites and get valuable information from Google about their site.
13. Make use of web analytics services – Use Web analytics to know the traffic status and other important areas to optimize for better visibility.

Google really is doing a good job trying to help the webmaster who are new to SEO by providing valuable guidance to Search Engine Optimization. Make sure you Download the Full 22 Page PDF of Google’s SEO Starter Guide.

Incoming search terms:

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