Article printed from SEO-News: http://www.seo-news.com
  HTML version available at: http://www.seo-news.com/archives.html

SEO Intervention: Stop Driving Yourself Crazy and Start Getting Results!
By Scott Jason (c) 2008 

Do you drive yourself crazy trying to keep up with the
latest SEO trends? If so, Stop! Please. You have enough to
worry about already. Quit running yourself ragged or
spending a fortune trying to keep up with the latest and
greatest SEO tricks and tips. The truth is search engine
optimization has not changed nearly as much as experts
(trying to sell you something) might want you to think.

To be perfectly honest getting to the top of Google, Yahoo,
MSN or any other search engine is largely dependent on the
quality of your Web pages. There's no magic formula you
must follow to the letter but there are a number of simple
things you can better understand and do to help get you to
the top of ANY search engine. It's a lot easier than most
people think.

First and most importantly, remember that search engines
only care about your Web pages, NOT the whole site. If you
end up with enough high ranking PAGES from a single site on
Google, you can become a what it considers to be an
"authority site" which can automatically double your top
ten rankings. Here's what I mean...

If you do a search on http://www.Google.com and search for
"SEO partner" (without the quotes) you will see that number
one looks like a normal return while number two is
indented. You have just witnessed an authority site's
usurping of an extra top spot. There is a good chance that
the indented one was actually number six or even fifteen.
But since it is from an authority site it got to cut the
line and push everybody else's listings down one.

Secondly, the biggest and most important search engines use
something called a natural text algorithm. This means they
can tell when you are writing text that is intended more
for search engine spiders than for actual people, and they
will ding you for it. So to keep quality high, simply write
your page text as if you were describing your goods or
services to a good friend. Let the words flow and don't get
hung up on things like keyword density and ideal placement.
We've got a great technique for that coming up next.

Keyword density is an outdated concept for the most part.
As long as you don't spam the text by having your keyword
blatantly repeated or inserted in areas that don't make
sense, you will be OK. If having a guideline helps, plan to
use each keyword about five or six times on each page and
no more than twice in a single paragraph.

Keyword proximity is another concept that is a bit outdated
but still somewhat valid. What that means is you should be
aware of where your keywords go but you do not need to
follow a strict formula of placing them in exact locations.
Just be strategic. Put them where they make the most sense
in context. Don't force them to fit in one location just
because it is the first sentence of the third paragraph or
whatever. It helps the reader and the search engine if you
can mention your main keyword toward the beginning of the
page text and toward the end, but this is not a hard and
fast rule. It's just a suggestion.

As for the number of keywords you optimize a single page
for, do what makes sense for the page length. If the page
is really long and you have room for several keywords to be
featured with good natural ext, go for it. As a rule of
thumb I try to limit each page to about three keywords but
that's just because it helps me stay better organized and
does not confuse the readers by splitting their focus too
much. The other reason is because I really want it featured
prominently in the page title.

Speaking of the title, this is one of the few META tags we
care about and it's a pretty big deal. Use the title as
your chance to show off your keywords. After all, this is
what your visitors searched for. Don't feel that a page
title needs to be clever and captivating like a book title.
In fact this is probably the easiest part. Just take your
keywords, in order of importance, and separate them with a
comma or pipe (the vertical key over the enter key.) That's
it! Just remember most search engines will only count the
first 64 letters.

So if you did a page on search engine optimization tips
with the following keywords: "SEO, Search Engine
Optimization, SEO Tips" your title could be just that. Or
you can use my favorite and it would look like this "SEO |
Search Engine Optimization | SEO Tips."

And by the way, when Google sees "SEO Tips" it is counting
the word SEO and Tips as individual words so the title text
"SEO, SEO Tips" has the word SEO repeated. Just two
instances of one keyword so close is not really SPAM but
it's good to be aware of.

I mentioned that the Title tag is one of the few META tags
we care about. Another is the Description tag. No magic
here. Just be sure to write it naturally and include a
couple of your keywords if they fit in well. And you can
make this as long as you like but most search engines don't
use more than the first 250 characters. Most importantly,
think of the Description as your big chance to get people
interested enough to visit your page. This is sales copy
first.

Once someone lands on your page they will be looking for a
little guidance. Give it to them with Headings (H1, H2,
etc.) Think of a heading as an on page title using a similar
keyword strategy, just not as cut and dry. Here it is a
good idea to have not only your keyword but also some
descriptive supporting text. Something like "SEO Tips That
Really Work" is a good example. We have our SEO Tips
keyword and reinforce it with a statement that the
information they are about to read actually works. Too
simple? Yes. It really is.

While headings are your first visual cue to the reader,
links are the ones that really draw them in. Make sure your
on page links stand out and contain relevant anchor text
(clickable keywords.)

If you really want to get the most out of your online real
estate, consider dedicating one page to each major keyword
and linking to it from the anchor text on another page. For
example, the words SEO Tips would be great anchor text to a
page titled "SEO Tips | Search Engine Optimization
Strategies."

The final piece of this SEO puzzle is linking. Quality
inbound links will account for most of your success on
Goggle and several other top search engines. You need to
get the highest quality links possible and build optimal
reciprocal linking partnerships. This is HUGE!

You can do it all manually or use an inexpensive SEO
software tool like the one found at http://www.SE0elite.com.
I've done it both ways and find that good software saves me
about 10 to 15 hours each week, per site. But either way,
manually or with a tool, focus your efforts on linking as
much as possible. While onsite optimization is a one time
(or at least limited) thing, linking should be part of your
weekly routine.

Good luck!
===========================================================
With 10 years experience under his SEO belt, Scott Jason
started http://www.BestSEOcopywriting.com in 2006. Since
then he has helped dozens of client as an SEO copywriter
and specialist with hundreds of top rankings to his credit
on Google, MSN and Yahoo.
===========================================================

Copyright © 2008 Jayde Online, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

SEO-News is a registered service mark of Jayde Online, Inc.