Social Marketing Strategies from Social Marketing Expert Peter Lenkefi

A search engine optimization plan can be easily divided into three categories: 1. Keyword optimization How to choose the correct keywords 2. Web page optimization How to optimize pages for selected keywords 3. Quality inbound links The off-site factors

1. Keyword Optimization

The first step of your SEO plan is to create keywords and phrases for each of your web pages. Keywords are the terms that search engine users’ type into the search box in the search engine. Keywords should:

• Clearly describe the purpose and content of your site
• Allow your site to show up as close to the first results page as possible.

A good position does not only depend on your choice of keyword but also where your keyword is positioned within the page and the number of external links to your website.

Also, choosing an incorrect keyword can throw off search engines, so choosing the right keywords is paramount.

However do not limit your keywords to single words, instead use key phrases. Get a list of your key words and phrases and type them in to a search engine and closely analyse the result.

For success you should:

• Best describes the topic and content of your page
• Use a popular search term according to a search term suggestion tool.
• Generates a relatively small number of results after performing your search.

2. Web Page Optimization

Once you have chosen your key words and phrases the next step is to optimize your pages for the terms.

This is done by strategically placing your keywords and phrases within your web pages.

The following demonstrates this technique:

• Key words and phrases in the web page title
• Unless your company is big a la Coca Cola and Microsoft etc, instead of starting your page title with your company name use keywords instead.
• Make the title short i.e. less than 8 words
• Put the main key phrases at the beginning (keyword prominence)
• Keyword met tags
• Search engines rarely use the Keyword Meta Tag any longer, however place some well though out Key words and phrases here in the off chance.
• Keywords in the body of your page
• It is important to use keywords heavily in the body or main text of your web pages.
• Repeat your keywords for keyword density.

Repeating your keywords 5-10 for every 100 words is considered effective. However beware, as your text still has to remain readable and coherent.

• A good resource for this is SEO Writing Report by Jill Whalen.
• Other issues to consider
• You must make your web pages easy to navigate by search engines.
• Use text heavily. Avoid placing text in images are search engines are incapable of reading this.
• Ensure your entire website links back to your home page.

3. Quality Inbound Links

The final step is to ensure you get linked from the best directories. The best search engines “crawl” the web looking for links to your site. They interpret a link to your website as a vote and the more votes you receive the higher your page rank.

The following is the best way to increase links:

• Get listed in DMOZ - The Open Directory Project ( http://www.dmoz.org )
• Get listed in Yahoo
• Exchange links with reputable websites
• Get some articles published and you will become an “expert” in your field and drive quality traffic to your website.