10 SEO Tips For Beginners

Now that you’ve launched your web site, you'll want people to see it, so you’ll need to utilize these 10 SEO tips for beginners.

1. Understand your industry and identify keywords. Keyword research is vital to your search engine optimization (SEO) success. If your web site is not targeting the appropriate keywords, traffic may never get to your site. As the site owner, you are the most familiar with your site; however, you may not know how your audience is searching for a site like yours. Avoid using industry jargon, since your customers likely won’t be using those phrases. Utilize a keyword research generator, such as Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Identify the competitiveness of your keywords. Ultimately you want a list of 10-20 highly targeted keywords or phrases to make this SEO tip work.
2. Use title tags. This is one of the most important factors in improving your organic search ranking through SEO. Title tags can be seen in the top blue bar of your browser, as well as in the link on a search engine results page. Include some keywords or phrases in your title tag, as well as your company name. For example, if you own your own construction company, your title tag might read “Philadelphia Construction & Contractors | John’s Construction Management.” Keep in mind, title tags have a 65 character maximum.
3. Don’t stuff your content with keywords. Now that you’ve generated a list, you will automatically want to fill your site content up with all these terms, right?  Wrong. Stuffing your site content with every keyword in every other sentence will not improve your rankings. In fact, search engines will penalize you for stuffing your content so this is a SEO tip to take to heart.
4. Use keywords in appropriate places. Target three to five keywords per page. Creating an information architecture helps narrow your focus on each page. For example, if you have a furniture web site, dedicate one page to couches, another page to coffee tables, and another page to bedroom furniture. On each of these pages, highlight a handful of keywords which will be different from the other pages.
5. Use alt tags. Search engines can’t tell that your picture of a toothbrush is a toothbrush. Therefore, use alt text to tell the search engine. Here is yet another opportunity to utilize keywords.
6. Use header tags. Search engines recognize header tags as focal points. Include a keyword in your header tags to not only better organize your content, but more importantly, to make your site stand out to search engines.
7. Take advantage of a site map. Ensure search engines can easily index your site by including a site map. Your site map should include a link to every page of your site.
8. Link build. The off-page optimization technique of SEO, link building involves getting other web sites to link to yours. This process is tedious and painstaking, but it is an effective SEO tip.
9. Comment on blogs. Although Google does not index links in comments boxes, most other search engines still do. Comment on blogs that discuss topics relevant to your industry. Don’t comment spam, but check back and comment again. The more fresh your comment and link, the better the chance it will improve your webssite’s search rankings.
10. Drive traffic through social networking. Search engines consider traffic one of the most important factors in rankings. Create a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account to drive traffic to your web site.