2. Before Getting Started…
Be Sure You Defined Business Goals
Answer the following questions:
What are my business goals?
What are the basic elements of my Web site that support
my business goals?
What is my overall assessment of my Web site in meeting
business goals?
Who do I want to visit my Web site?
What do I want visitors to do on my Web site?
Which pages do I want my visitors to visit on my Web site?
How do I get started in marketing my Web site to meet my
business goals?
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3. Keyword Selection
Keyword (and term) selection is critical to users finding
your site.
These are the words or phrases typed into search
engines.
They are strategically selected descriptive words or
phrases that
Benefits include:
Increase in click-throughs on search engine results
because key words are relevant to the site content.
Higher rate of conversions once user visit your site
because it is what he or she looking for.
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4. To Do List
Keyword identification.
Keyword resources to expand and validate your list.
Keyword data tools.
Keyword data gathering.
Your short list.
Note: There is no guarantee that your site will rank in the top based
on the name of your company. It is a good idea to include it in your
keyword list.
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5. Keywords
Use your business goal worksheet to drive the
keyword list.
Use the Keyword List worksheet to fill in
keywords:
Partial illustration of the template.
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6. Keywords
These may include:
Company name
Products and services
Generic descriptions
Specific descriptions
Market terms
Customer needs and how they are filled
Unique aspects of meeting these needs
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7. Keywords (cont.)
Fill in seasons, holidays, and other special
occasions that are serviced by your site:
Tax time
Mother’s Day
Thanksgiving
Fill in misspellings, slang, and abbreviations
Fill in Location:
Variations of company name (Toys RUs, Toys Are Us)
Variations of company location (St. Cloud, Saint Cloud)
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9. Keyword Information
Trends:
Google hot trends:
http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends
Yahoo! Buzz:
http://buzz.yahoo.com/overall/
Microsoft keyword forecast:
http://adlab.msn.com/ForecastV2/KeywordTrends
Web.aspx
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10. Ranking
Once you have completed the keyword list, then it is
important to rank them.
Use the Rank Tracking Worksheet to identify keyword
ranks.
Take each keyword on your Keyword List and search for it
using a popular search engine site (e.g., Google, Yahoo!).
Record only listings in the organic ranking area.
Scroll through a reasonable number to find a listing.
Look for your competition as you search through the listing.
Look for any “bad” listing associated with your Web site.
Broken links
Pieces of information that doesn’t make sense
Note on your worksheet the rank (if any) of each keyword.
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11. Indexed Pages
The basic truth is that if your Web page is
not indexed, then it cannot be found.
Check how many Web pages are indexed.
Check how many landing pages are indexed.
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12. Total Pages Indexed
Let’s start by checking your domain name.
Use Google or MSN and type the following string into
the search box.
site:yourdomain.com (e.g., Books4U.com)
Check out www.cwire.org/data-mining-using-
google/1 for more of Google’s search engine query
language.
Note how many pages were found.
Do this for the other popular search engines.
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13. Landing Pages Indexed
Let’s check each landing page to see if it shows up in
search engine results.
Enter the URL into the search box.
If a listing is displayed for the exact URL, then the
page is indexed.
Otherwise, it has not been indexed yet.
In the previous lesson, we learned how to submit the
URL to search engines to get it indexed.
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14. Landing Page Notes
It is often recommended for a Web site to
have no more than ten landing pages.
Web sites with lots of products may choose
to have a large number of landing pages.
Blogs should have every posting a landing
page to drive traffic to the site.
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15. Inbound Links
You want lots and lots of inbound links to your Web site.
Improves your search engine ranking.
Brings users to your site through the link.
It is worth the effort to get other sites to link to your site.
Keep in mind link quality is also important.
Check out article: www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/201
Check out link popularity tool: http://www.marketleap.com/
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16. Site Assessment
For each landing page assess:
Unique HTML page title.
HTML page title contains target keywords.
The number of words of HTML text is 200 or more.
HTML exact on this page contains my exact targeted
keywords.
My home page links to this page via HTML text links
(not pull-downs, logins, or pop-ups).
HTML text links from other pages on my site to this
page contain my target keywords.
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17. Competition (To Do List)
You will perform the following steps in
assessing your competition:
Identify your top five competitors.
Snoop around on your competitor’s site.
Assess on-page factors.
Assess off-page factors.
Check out paid competition.
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18. (1) Identify Top Five Competitors
Try to select the top competitors as follows:
Business competition – keep on top of your competitors as this
may change over time.
Might be a new competitor around the corner.
Existing competitor adds products or services.
Search competition – assess top ranked Web sites.
Take a look at both quality and content of information in the
listing.
Pay-per-click competition – you may want to view the competition
in the sponsored ads.
Check out listings that are not really competition but share the
same targeted keywords.
“Happy days dog kennel” might compete with the TV show
called “Happy days”
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19. (2) Snoop Around
Google Tool Bar – free add-on to your browser. Download at:
http//toolbar.google.com/
Check out the “PageRank” bar.
Gives the page rank value for the current page.
A second option is Fagafinder.com/urlinfo/, which also provides
rank information.
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20. (2) Snoop Around
View Page Source – use browser feature to
view competitor’s HTML code.
Internet Explorer – View and then Source
Firefox – View and then Page Source
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21. More Data
There are several tools that can provide
additional information about your and your
competitor’s site.
Alexa.com
Compete.com
Go to the Alexa tool and check out statistics
on ranking, site traffic, inbound links, site
owner information and related links.
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22. (3) Assess On-Page Factors
Check out your competitor’s site.
Look for:
Competitor keywords
Page content (visible)
Meta keyword tags (invisible)
Record the keywords in the Competition Worksheet.
Basic Optimization:
Assess competition homepage (and a few landing pages)
HTML content.
Competition has its target keywords in HTML page title
Competition has visible content with target keywords
Landing page(s) can it be reached from homepage
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23. (4) Assess Off-Page Factors
Check out factors that competition cannot
control.
Ranks –assess the ranking of each top
competitor on Google, Yahoo!, MSN, & Ask.
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24. (4) Assess Off-Page Factors
Inbound links – Use the same tool that you used
to find the number of inbound links to your site.
Find the number of inbound links on the homepage and
a couple of landing pages.
Record the number of inbound links in the Competition
Worksheet.
Google PageRank – Use the Google Toolbar
(PageRank bar) to find the competitor’s rank.
Record the rank in the Competition Worksheet.
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25. (5) Paid Competition
Check out the top competition in terms of
the sponsored advertising.
Search on company name
Search on product or service offerings
Search on general terms
Fill in the PPC (pay-per-click) assessment
on the Competition Worksheet.
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