When most people think of SEO, they think of keyword-loaded articles, and content that’s intended to push the website up higher on search engine rankings so it’s easier to find. They assume that, the more targeted keywords and backlinks that are used, the more attention and the higher ranking a website will get. However, this is no longer the case. SEO requires a little more finesse since the changes of Google Panda and Google Penguin. There are ways that you can still use it to get business, but you’ll need to do it a little differently now.

Tools

• Keywords: These are the words that describe your company or what you have to offer. They can be phrases rather than just one word but they should be simple phrases and more generalized. You want to choose a few different words or phrases that someone would search if they were looking for what you have to offer.
• Content: You’re going to need some information to include on your website and in all of your SEO. That means you need to know what you want to say and how you want to say it. Make sure your content is useful and has high quality with headings and a lot of different keywords so search engines find it easily.
• Google Keyword Tool: This is going to help you decide on your keywords and phrases. This tool allows you to put in words that you think relate to your business and it will spit out some other words or phrases you can use. It will also tell you how often people search for those terms.

On-Page SEO

This type of content goes on your website. That means you’re going to create it and you’re going to make sure that it’s directly on the different pages. This is where information about what you have to offer will go and you’ll use your keywords throughout this section.

• Meta description: Your meta description is a short little sentence that tells people what they will find if they come to your website. You have to keep it very short because this is the sentence that is going to pop up on the search engine under your link. You’ve seen them before no doubt. You’re going to need to create one with information that draws someone in. In 160 characters or less.
• Title Tag: Now your title tag is the one that goes at the top of the web browser. This isn’t the title of the actual page. It’s the title of the entire website. The one that appears as a link on the search engine and appears at the top of the web browser when someone clicks on it.
• Page Title: The page title is different for each page of course. This should pertain not only to your keywords but specifically to the information contained on that page. Try to include some subtitles within the page as well.
• URL: This is your website address. That’s what people type in to come to your website. For example, www.google.com is a URL. You want your URL to reflect what your business is about and what it does. Make sure you don’t have a computer generated URL with random letters and numbers. Those are not easy to remember and you want people to remember your address.
• Keywords: Of course the biggest thing you’re going to need for on-page SEO is your keywords. Don’t forget all the words you came up with from the Google Keyword Tool and make sure you’re looking for new words all the time.

By Candy Lowe