20 Search Engine Optimization Tips For Every Small Business

By Brett E. Salisbury, Preferred Marketing Strategies

The minimal fundamentals we suggest you incorporate into your SEO marketing are:

Keyword Research
Web Site Optimization (tags, meta, links, alts, and content)
Web Site Design (validated HTML, site map, site theme, avoid duplicate content)
Build Link Popularity
Monitor Performance

Bonus. Submit your key pages manually as you did with your sites default address

20 SEO Fundamentals Everyone Should Know

1. Write a page title

Descriptive title of 5 to 8 words per page. Remove as many filler words like “the” or “and” as possible. Include keywords whenever possible because the page title is your sites identity.

2. Write meta tag description and keywords

Description should be a sentence or two. No more. Up to 255 characters although only a max of 60 will actually show on search results pages.

Note – meta tag descriptions no longer have the power on page ranking it once did; however, it is still important to include it because the first 60 characters are what will be displayed on a search page for your businesses particular page. Longer descriptions by character spacing are often available through the many directories we recommend submitting your site (See #10 & #11).

3. Include keywords in header tags H1, H2, H3 and so on

4. Keyword in first paragraph of body text

5. Keywords in ALT and Comment tags

6. Keywords in hyperlinks

7. Search Friendly Navigation.

Hint – use Google SiteMap to give you a hand in this area unless you are experienced.

8. Submit your web site URL to the biggies Google, Yahoo, Windows Live Search, AOL, and Ask.com

9. Include your business address, zip and phone on every page (this is essential with Google Maps)

10. Submit your site to key directories like DMOZ.com, Yahoo, About.com and Business.com.

Do not forget to include industry directories that are relevant like education, real estate, and construction where relevant.

11. Build a respectful number of inbound links to your site (the less reciprocal the better)

12. Begin a blog or E-newsletter

13. Issue Press Releases to directories and blogs whenever an opportunity arises.

14. Use Google Groups to promote your site in online forums and blogs.

15. Ask for bookmarks.

16. Check your HTML code with W3C compliance.

17. Keywords used in URL’s are separated by hyphens

18. Navigation doesn’t exceed 3 sub-directories whenever possible.

19. Work smart, not hard.

20. Don’t fall victim to analysis paralysis. It is easy to wander off the task at hand whenever researching keywords and your time is too precious to waste. So…work smart!