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February 11, 2007
SEO Part II (Internal and External SEO Explained)
Disclaimer
This post provides an explanation of SEO as I come to understand it from a number of resources and optimizing and managing SEO campaigns for a number of websites. I believe the information provided is 100% accurate; however, it is important to note that SEO is an incomplete science and very few people agree on the right approach.
Internal SEO
Internal SEO can be a little difficult, but most agree that design and content are your best weapons. In particular, you should strongly consider:
- The placement of keywords in your domain name, title, Meta tags and content.
- Optimizing the design of your website (not how to looks to people, but to robots).
- Linking your pages together (navigation).
- Using sitemaps.
- Using consistent themes.
- The use of Flash or overuse of images and JavaScript (robots can’t read pictures…).
- Duplicating content, stealing images (search engines know when you steal…).
External SEO can be just as important as internal SEO. Effectively, external SEO comes down to incoming linking. The logic is that if people want to link to your site, than you have content that is worth looking at. Furthermore, if a really highly ranked site links to yours, you must have really great content. In short, whoever has the links makes all the rules.
So what can you do to get your links out there? Quite simply, advertise with Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing. These programs are by far the best bang for your buck. They are easy to use and will almost instantly drive traffic to your site. Some SEOs also suggest listing in directories such Yahoo Directory, which can be costly, but effective.
What shouldn’t you do? Buy or exchange links or advertising on ‘shady’ sites. Link exchange sites are not your friends. They will not help you achieve a better ranking. Search engines know that these exist and will knock you down for using them. In short, only work with companies and sites you really trust.
Posted by brackme at February 11, 2007 07:49 PM