~~~High Search Engine Rankings~~~
From: Robert M. Beers
Subject: Getting started
Hi there,
I have been reading as many of the articles on your site as I can and
am left with a single very important question: "How do I get from here
to there?" Here being no experience with SEO and there being skilled
in SEO. I understand it takes time to learn and develop skill and
knowledge in this, and will put in any amount of effort needed. How
would you suggest I ramp up my learning. If you were to coach a
beginner, what are the steps you would give them to follow so that
they too could become adroit at SEO?
I really appreciate you help,
Robert Beers
~~~Jill's Response~~~
Robert,
Great question! We talked about how to start a search engine
optimization company back in issue 040, however, that
discussion assumed one already had some SEO experience. I don't
believe we ever focused on how one can learn SEO from scratch. I'll
have to dig way back into my memory banks for this one!
As I told you last week, when I first started learning SEO, I
approached it as a game, and it became my passion. I believe that
anyone else starting out in this field (or any other field for that
matter) should approach it the same way. The only way to be really,
really good at something is to absolutely love it! Of course, you
can't really know if you love something until you've worked at it for
a while. The best way to get started, as I also mentioned last week,
is to read, read, read and practice, practice, practice. That also
includes going to search engine conferences if possible (although
you may come away more confused than ever!) and possibly taking
online courses. Be sure to find experts who you trust and can
believe in. There is a lot of conflicting information out there. As
long as you know the source is trustworthy, then go ahead and try
out their advice. It's important to remember, however, that courses
and conferences are great, but the only way to really get good at
SEO is to dig your hands right in, and get 'em dirty.
To help you get started, (and since I now make Heather call me a
Goddess), here's Goddess Jill's Ten Commandments for learning
SEO from the ground up:
1. Thou shalt have a Web site to practice with. This can be a
personal home page, a hobby site, or a small business site. If at all
possible, start with a brand new site that has never been submitted to
the search engines or directories. There is some evidence that a
domain name with keywords in it can give you a slight boost. So if
you don't already have a domain name, you might consider going this
route. You might want to try optimizing just the main page at first
to see how it goes. Or if you prefer, you could try different
techniques on different pages of the site, and see which ones work
best for you. If you choose a subject that you know and love, things
will be much easier for you.
2. Thou shalt learn basic HTML. If you can create the site yourself,
all the better, because you will know your pages inside and out. If
you need to use a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor to
create the site, that's okay; however, to truly be a good optimizer,
it's imperative that you know some basic HTML. You may need to make
changes to some of the back-end code by hand, which means you'll need
to know what each code means. Do not be afraid of this, my child!
HTML is very simple when you study it a bit. Even my 14-year-old
daughter understands what most of the basic HTML codes do (and she
figured it out by herself). I'm not saying you have to program your
site in NotePad, just that you should have a basic understanding of
each code's purpose within the site.
3. Thou shalt choose the proper keyphrases. We've talked about this
ad nauseam, so I won't go into it much today. (See our "All
Keyphrases All the Time" special issue for more info.) Just
remember that what you *think* might be the perfect keywords, may not
be what people are actually searching for. I highly recommend getting
a subscription to WordTracker to be absolutely sure you're targeting the best possible phrases for your site.
You can even get a one-day subscription, which may be all you
need if you're just working on one site. As a side note, my good
friend, Mike Mindel at WordTracker has recently informed me that they
are now live with 350 million keywords (searched over the last 60
days), which is up from their previous 42 million keywords. So now
there's no excuse for not finding great keyphrases for *any* Web site!
4. Thou shalt learn about writing for the Web and your keyphrases.
I'm talking about your visible copy here. Again, we discuss this just
about every week, so I won't bore you with the details. If you only
read one thing on this, read Heather's article, "How to Write a
Keyword-Rich Home Page the Search Engines Will Love!". (This happens to be the
most popular article on our entire site!) I can safely say that
Heather is THE one and only expert in this area. Listen to her!
5. Thou shalt learn how to create a killer Title tag. This one is
absolutely critical to your rankings. You simply MUST put your
keyphrases into this tag and not waste space with extraneous words,
'nuff said! (See "All About Title Tags" for more info.)
6. Thou shalt learn how to create great Meta tags. Important, but in
actuality, not quite as crucial as most people think. Read both of my
Meta tag articles at the Rank Write articles page to get started.
7. Thou shalt learn about all the extra "goodies" that can help boost
rankings. Things like keywords in the domain name (as discussed
above), Alt tags, Header Tags (<H1><H2>, etc.), link popularity,
overlapping keyphrases between pages, etc.
8. Thou shalt learn how to submit to search engines and directories,
correctly. This may seem like a "no-duh" commandment, but it's very
important. Read both my "Submitting to the Spidering Search Engines" article and my "Submitting
to Directories" article before you attempt to submit. Making mistakes in the submittal
process could cost you dearly, especially where the directories are
concerned. Quick tip on this...don't over submit!
9. Thou shalt not expect quick results, but shalt check your rankings
and positions weekly or monthly. It's gonna take time; there's no
doubt about that. Even if your site gets into a search engine
quickly, its ranking may start out low and then slowly work its way up
the ladder. For instance, AltaVista seems to give more weight to
pages that have been around awhile. Therefore a brand new page may
not rank well until it's been "aged" for a few months. (I guess AV
thinks Web sites are like fine wine!) The same is true for search
engines that use the Direct Hit technology, such as HotBot. Direct
Hit gives sites a higher rank if people actually click on them. I
find this a nasty, vicious circle in some respects because I wonder
how a site can get clicked on if it's not ranking high. However, in
some cases this technology does seem to work, so just give it some
time. You can check to see if your site is in any given engine by
typing it's URL into the search box; but to check on it's rankings,
you'll need to type your targeted keyphrases into the search boxes.
If you want to save yourself lots of time, purchase Web Position Gold,
and keep tabs on your rankings this way. I highly recommend it for
this purpose.
10. Thou shalt tweak your pages as necessary, but only after they've
aged. After three to six months or so, it's probably safe to tweak
the pages as necessary. Once you've done all of the above, if you
find that your rankings are still nowhere in sight, chances are you
goofed up somewhere. (But that's okay...it's how you learn!) The
first place to check would be the body copy. Did you think you could
skimp on the text? (We suggest at least 250 words, and we're really
not kidding about that!) If you tried to cheat and you see that your
rankings suffered, stand by for your whipping - then go back and do it
right! If your text is long enough, make sure you utilized your
keyphrases enough times, and used them throughout the copy (not just
in the first line or two). Did you target only one or two related
phrases per page? We are able to target three phrases, but I would
suggest that a beginner shoot for only one or two per page. If you
tried to target too many, go back and rewrite. You can always use
your inner pages to target more phrases. Make sure that the phrases
you targeted were not so competitive as to be impossible to rank high
with, i.e., one-word keywords, or even two-word phrases that are
thought of as one entity (e.g., chat room). Beginners may even want
to stick with three- and four-word phrases. You can always work your
way into two-word phrases once you have a better handle on things. If
you're still having problems, reread all of the above articles and
figure out what you're doing wrong. Continue to read, read, read, and
practice, practice, practice. Yeah, it's time consuming, but oh so
satisfying when the rankings come pouring in!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go part some seas!
Jill
~~~Send Us Your Questions~~~
If you have questions about online copywriting or search engine optimization (or both!), just zip us an email to questions@rankwrite.com. We've had some folks ask if their question
was "too basic" to be printed - and you don't have to worry about
that! There are no "stupid" search engine optimization or copywriting
questions, so ask away!
