Eli Explains: Search Engine Optimization
Published April 29th, 2009 by Eli Gundry
Now that is just awesome.
While I do not claim to be an expert in the field of web design or search engine optimization, I do have a fairly neat looking web site showing up on the top of Google. Mind you, this web site has only been up for a couple of weeks and my name is fairly obscure, the tips that I think I can give you can apply to most anyone trying to promote themselves.
1. Meta Tags Are Your Bestest Friend
I am the number one Eli Gundry on Google!
The concept of meta tags are quite simple: give web crawlers a quick way to index web pages with little tidbits of information. These include things like titles, tags, and descriptions. For a more in-depth view on meta tags and all that they are capable of, check out this article at Search Engine Watch. Meta tags go in the head section of your web page.
The main meta tags you want to focus on are the meta elements called keywords, description and title. Your title is the name of your web page that you want Google or any other search engine to show in the link. This title should give users a general idea of what the web page is about and what they will get by clicking on it. Make sure it makes sense, is short and concise, and accurately describes the web page.
Keywords are tags for crawlers to index. If a user types a word matching one or more of your tags, your results will appear higher up in the search results. A word to the wise though, do not go overboard in your keywords, as if you have too many, your results will actually hurt your chances of placing higher in the results.
And the description tag will summarize the content of your web page and will show up below the link in the search results. Like all other meta tags, they should be accurate and short. Most search engines have a limit of 160 characters in the description tag, so make every word count.
Below is a sample of the meta tag in action.
<html> <head> <title>Title of Web Page</title> <meta name="description" content="This is the description of your web site." /> <meta name="keywords" content="tag1, tag2, tag3" /> </head>
Maintaining meta information can be a bit tricky when using a blog, like Wordpress. Luckily for us, the is a plugin for Wordpress called All In One SEO Pack, which is fantastic for tagging all your posts easily.
2. Build An XML-Sitemap
This is where you tell Google to find your sitemap.
When people see “XML”, they tend to freak out just a little. I am here to tell you to calm down and embrace it. An XML-Sitemap is submitted to a search engine, like Google or Yahoo, and each page is then indexed, making it much easier to find. And all you need to do this is an XML-Sitemap and a Google Webmaster Tools Account.
You can write your own sitemap, but why should you bother when great sites like xml-sitemaps.com exist? All you have to do is put in your address and it will index the site for you and spit out a crisp XML-Sitemap.
This is where you make a sitemap.
This site is great for static HTML and PHP pages, but what about Wordpress blogs? You see, sitemaps need to be updated after each post manually, which is a time consuming and unnecessary. Enter the Wordpress plugin Google XML Sitemaps. Install it to Wordpress, point Google to it, and leave it be. It will automatically update after each new post and submit the updated sitemap to all the major search engines.
3. Link It Up
I created this just to improve my SEO.
The way Google determines the order of links is based of a mixture of page visits, relevancy, links go to and from your site. For this tip, we will focus on that last one. All you have to do is make as many pages link to your site as possible, and in the age of social networks, this is easier than ever.
Have a Facebook? Link it to up. Go to forums and use a signature? Link it up. Heck, go out of your way and create profiles on social networks just to point to your site (i.e. Google profiles). The bigger the site you link it to the better, as your are basically piggy-backing off of their SEO-goodness.
4. Make A Decent Site
"If you make it, they will come..."
If the best SEO in the world can’t save you if your web site has nothing of value on it. Sure, those meta tags are nice, but the web site is unreadable and full of blinking text. Poor web design is inexcusable, no matter what the situation, and don’t count on Google to pick up the slack for you. SEO is just here to help people see your informative and elegant web site.
This makes all kinds of sense. Thanks, Eli! MMP
im just a beginner in Search Engine Optimization and i am still doing quite a lot of research about basic SEO.