Easy SEO Tips for Non-Techies
Traffic: your website lives and dies by it. And there’s no better way to generate traffic than to rank high in the results pages of the important search engines: Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. There’s a common misconception that to get your site to rank high, you need to be a techie. This isn’t so. It certainly helps, but there are several things you can do to get your site ranked that require minimal technical skill. Here are a few.
Know your keywords. It helps to have a good idea of what words and phrases customers type into search engines when looking for a business like yours. This takes no technical skill at all. Simply write down all the words and phrases you can think of that relate to your business, product, or service. Try doing a search for businesses like yours on the Internet and see what websites pop up. You can discover new words by using a keyword research tool such as Overture or Wordtracker. There are many such tools on the Internet. Some are free, and others require a subscription.
Write and submit articles. Write some informative how-to articles relating to your business and submit them to article directories. Include a “resource box” with links back to your website. Your “anchor text”—the words that people click on to go to your site—shouldn’t simply be your site name. Instead, they should be keywords people are likely to use when looking for your site. Search engines look at the anchor text used on other sites to link back to yours when determining what keywords your site should rank for. Using keywords as your anchor text can raise your rankings for these words and phrases.
Write and submit press releases. Writing and submitting press releases to distribution sites such as PRWeb is another good idea. Like with articles, you’ll need to include links back to your site. Press releases are written in a different style—you’ll have to write with an eye towards what is “newsworthy,” as opposed to what is informative and helpful. PRWeb is not free, but there are some press release distribution sites that are.
Pay attention to your tags. Your metatags—found in each page’s HTML code—can make a big difference in your rankings. Your title tag contains the text that people see in blue when they do a Google search. When you click on it, it takes you to a website. It should be compelling and to-the-point, clearly spelling out what your website or business is while including relevant keywords.
The Description tag usually comes after your Title tag, and it appears as the one- or two-sentence description under your Title tag in the search engine listings. Write it with your readers in mind. Think of one or two sentences that sum up your website information or offer and will get readers to click, and include your keywords.
The Keyword tag includes the keywords you want to list for. Be sure to include your most important keyword first.
Start a blog. Starting a blog about your business can raise your visibility in your industry and introduce you to new customers. Blogs can be easily added to every day, making it more likely for search engines to spot them. If you blog about business topics, you will naturally include and start to rank for relevant search terms. And if you link to other industry blogs in your “blogroll,” you will attract the attention of other bloggers. If they like your content, they may link to you as well—and your visibility and traffic will go up.
Don’t stay away from SEO simply because you’re a technophobe. Many of today’s SEO best practices involve good writing—blogs, articles, informative content, autoresponders, e-zines, and more. Simply put some time into writing these yourself, or if writing isn’t your strong point, hire a professional writer. Your website will start seeing an increase in traffic—without a technical overhaul.