Back to Basics

As we face a blank slate and think about what we want this year to look like, we like to make ambitious, complex New Year’s resolutions.  But one thing I’ve learned through the years is that in order for complex to work, the basics have to be firmly in place.  So today I am going to go back to basics when it comes to having an SEO friendly website.  Yes, I know this is SEO 101 and for those of you who are old-time SEO’s, please forgive me. But sometimes it pays to go back to basics and even I will sometimes forget basic elements that can contribute to the success of a website. Without further ado, here is what I always look at when building or evaluating a site:

SEO friendly URL’s.

It is not always possible to include a keyword in the domain name, but if it is possible, it is very beneficial.  Ever wonder why a site that has the keywords in the URL ranks above sites that have more and better links?  If it is possible and makes sense and creates a brandable domain, try to include your keywords.  If you are more interested in having a brandable domain or the keyword domain is not available, do your best to use keywords when naming the pages of your site.  If you have a category page about Buttons, and the product pages is about Blue Buttons, then the URL’s should read /buttons/blue-buttons.php or something similar.

Incorporate Keywords into your Pages

The following are the areas where you always want to have keywords:

• Meta title
• Outbound anchor text
• At least once or twice  in the body of text
• H1 and/or H2
• Page name (used in the navigation menu)

Having your keywords in these areas of the source code of each of your pages will tell Google what you want to rank for and will increase the density of that page for the particular keyword.  I like to assign a Primary and a secondary keyword for each page that is used in the areas mentioned above.  The primary keyword is the main phrase that I’m trying to rank for, and the secondary keyword is a semantically relevant phrase that supports the primary phrase.  I like to create a site map in excel where I write out the URL of all of my pages, and then I assign a primary keyword, with that primary keyword I write the title of the page.  In this way I can keep track of what words I’m using throughout the site and how often.  Obviously this is only viable with a small site.

You also want to consider density.  For example, if your primary keyword for a page is Blue Buttons, and your title is: BlueButtons.com is your premier source for blue buttons!  The density for the keyword “blue buttons” will be close to 50%.  In some cases where the keyword is competitive this may be perfect, in other cases it may be too high.  Compare the density for your competitors and try to get your density to fall within the same range as your top ranking competitors.  Each area has its own density, so you’re not looking for overall page density, you’re looking for meta title density, body text density, h1 density, bold density, etc. of a single keyword.

Dynamic site map & Google site map

Using some of the tools offered by Google or online, create an xml site map according to Google’s standards and upload it to your webmaster account.   This will help get your site spidered and all of your pages indexed.

Additionally, create a dynamic site map with links to every page of your site using keywords in the link text.  As new pages are created, the site map should update dynamically.  Most large editorial sites using this protocol use the title of the page as the link text, which ideally will have been written with keywords in mind.  If possible, the site map should be broken down so there are no more than 30 links per page.  Then, all of the site map pages should interlink with each other.   You may be wondering why you’d need a site map if you already have a Google site map uploaded to your Google Webmasters account?  Creating an on-site site map creates another opportunity to support internal pages with links and to use keywords in anchor text for your internal pages, so it adds a little bit of extra punch to your SEO.

Anchor Text

This is one of the important areas where Google looks for keywords.  Whenever possible, take the primary keyword for a page and link it to another page.  For example, if your page is about the benefits of blue buttons, you should have the keyword “blue buttons” linked to another page on your site.  Sometimes this gets tricky because the page you are on may be the only page on your site about blue buttons.  In that case, you may want to link that keyword to the same page, although it may not be terribly usable.  My workaround for this is to create a breadcrumb and then link the last link on the breadcrumb to itself.   In any case, the key is to find something that makes sense, and it’s well worth it as this is something that Google really likes.

Pyramid Interlinkage

Determine your main categories and what pages go within each category, and try to interlink categories to categories and subpagese to subpages and categories.  This way, every page is supported by links from internal pages relevant to the same topic.    Based on the size of your site, if possible all main categories should link to each other in the template.  This is a very complex topic and is very site-specific so I won’t waste a lot of time trying to explain; what I will stress is the important of not leaving “orphan pages” on your site – pages that have no inbound links from any other pages within or outside of your site.  My rule of thumb is to make sure every single page of any site I work with has at least 2-3 inbound links from other pages within the site (including the site map).

301 redirects

If at any time you are switching domain names or changing a page’s URL, use 301 redirects to tell the engines where the new page is located. You can read more about this here:  http://www.authoritydomains.com/blogs/seo/how-to-change-your-domain-without-the-pain.php

Also, check to see how Google has indexed your domain name, and if they have indexed both your www and non www version of you domain, do a redirect for the one that has the most pages indexed.

Footer

I’ll often use a footer as a way of including the primary keyword phrase in anchor text.  Footers tend to be out of the way of the flow of the page so it’s a great way to add something that has SEO benefit but doesn’t disturb the user.  If my site is about Blue Buttons, my footer will say: BlueButtons.com – where you can find blue buttons at affordable prices!  It may also work as a way of having an additional set of text links, which is especially useful if you are using images for links as your main navigation.

Main Navigation

Ideally, your main navigation links should be spiderable.  If you are using drop down menus, try to use div tags so the search engines can easily read your anchor text and links.  Google is now spidering and indexing javascript so this is less important these days, but it is generally still simpler to use div tags.

Link Equity

The more links you have the less value each has, so be conscious of not adding too many outbound links while supporting the most important pages of the site.  If you add links that have no SEO benefit, you may want to consider using rel=nofollow as part of the link.

Code

Keep your code clean! Use external JS and CSS  - link to the file – not within the header.  Also, keep the code to content ratio low – as much spiderable content as possible

Content Update Ratio

Try to add content often and on a regular rhythm.  Don’t add 20 pages one day, and none for a month.  It’s best to add a page a day.  Establish a realistic content update ratio and try to maintain it.  To find your ideal ratio, find out how often your top ranking competitors add content, and try to mimic their update ratio.

Optimize your Home Page!

This page has the most potential for rankings, so use it as much as possible with keyword friendly information and optimization.  Of course it needs to be usable so you can’t just keyword stuff it, but try to add links to your most important pages from the home pages, as well as you rmost important keywords within the pages.  Some suggestions that can help maximize the benefit of you rhome page:

a.       Add a box with changeable content so has fresh spiderable content

b.      Add as many keywords in anchor text as possible

c.       Link to popular pages as well as pages that need a boost

Page Titles

Every page should have a unique page title.  This is essential.  Keywords in the meta title of the page is still one of the most important aspects of SEO.  Never repeat the same title on more than one page of your site!!!

Conclusion

If you follow these basic principles, you will have a greater chance of establishing good search engine rankings.  Of course all of this is worth nothing without quality inbound links.  But having quality inbound links without good on-page SEO elements is also counterproductive.  Very large authoritative sites may be able to get away with it, but if you are in smaller competitive niches, you need to cross all your T’s and dot all your I’s and following these simple elements will give you an advantage over other sites in your niche.

Once you’ve covered your bases, you will be free to work on other more important aspects of the development of your business.

If you enjoy our post follow Authority Domains on Twitter @authoritydomain

Share on Facebook

Related posts:

1. The Perfect Keyword Density For Your Backlinks
2. Is Yahoo requiring inbound links from relevant sites?
3. Yahoo’s Ranking Algo Observations
4. 25 Things NOT to Do When You’re Building Links