Do-It-Yourself SEO | A Beginner's Guide

In any field there are those who want to dO-it-themselves. SEO is no different and with the information available on the internet it can be done successfully. Many successful web entrepreneurs started by making the effort to learn the right formula for success. The web started and continues to grow from individuals sharing knowledge and experience.

The target for SEO continues to evolve, techniques that once worked, now are less effective. New types of promotion like social bookmarking are growing in importance. If you know the basics of good SEO, then you can promote your site without becoming an expert in SEO. So, if you are looking to start "doing it yourself" keep these points in mind as you develop your plan.

1.Unique Search Engine-Friendly Content

One of the most important aspects is your unique web content that is laid out in a search engine friendly way. Search engines don't read Flash, or the text embedded in images. Make sure your images have alt image tags and that you use your most important keywords in plain text on the site. Use these important keywords in your titles, headings and links to highlight them. Use your keywords as anchor text in links rather than using images. Never try to stuff keywords on your site by making them too small to read, or making it the same color as the background. Instead use your SEO keywords frequently in the page copy, but keep it to 3-5% on the page.

Once you have your copy, check to see if it is being crawled by the search engines. On Google enter "site:://www.yourwebaddress" to verify if your page has been indexed. Brand new sites may take some time to get indexed by the major search engines. There are many factors that play into being indexed including age of the site, duplicate content (copy and pasting content, or cookie cutter affiliate websites), Java script rather than HTML links, bad site layout (too many sub-directories),long dynamic URL's with special characters (question marks or any other database characters, #, &, *, !, %) known as "spider traps," or orphaned pages.

2. Do Your Keywords Homework Thoroughly

Keyword research is the most important step in the process. If you get this wrong you could be wasting all of your time and effort promoting your site. Start your research with the broadest terms to describe your product or service. Utilize the keyword research services that are available to narrow the terms and find variations of those terms. I like to use Google AdWords, Keyword Discovery, and Wordtracker.

Your goal is to find phrases that are highly searched and optimize your site like the top sites in those keywords. If a keyword is not popular, then it will not draw very much traffic. Remember to optimize the most focused keywords; because, general terms will be much harder to gain in rank, and the traffic you get will be less relevant.

3. Get In-bound Links to Your Site

There are many ways to get links to your site, some traditional and others not so traditional. This is very important for SEO and PageRank, even though it may be intimidating at first. When Google calculates PageRank, they cout each link as a "vote" for your site. The more links you have, the more votes you have, and the higher your PageRank. Not all votes are created equal, a link from a higher ranking site will count more than a lower ranking site, sort of like a popularity contest.

If you have taken the time to create unique original content, you are already miles ahead of much of the competition. Most sites wont link to you for no reason, however, if you are lucky and create some unique and original content, you might get many links.

You can try trading links, but the effectiveness of link exchanges is decreasing, and if you are in a highly competitive market they won't help much. Paid links have fallen out of favor with Google recently. Volumes could be written on linking strategies, but for the beginner, stick to these techniques to start.

Issue a press release with a link to your site.

Leave comments on blogs, public forums and articles with related content.

Put links on your other sites leading to your new site, or have a friend link to your site.

Submit articles relating to your niche and include a link in the resource section to your site.

Use the many social bookmarking and social media outlets to link to your site.

4. Ride The Social Media Wave

Online communities developed for networking and socializing is at an all time high. Social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, Technorati and others allow members to store their favorite sites and share them with others online. These sites can also be used to create "buzz" about your own site.

If you are trying to generate sales from your efforts, then you should avoid promotional hype on these sites. The power of the social networking sites comes from public interest and participation. If you don't have anything unique or interesting to share, these sites will not work for you.

Don't be shy on the social sites about the site you are promoting. Network around with other users, share relevant content, be creative with your bookmark title and tell people you know in the real world about the content you have on the social sites. Quality content that you simply share with others will lead to your success on these sites.

Use these points as a general guide to plan your SEO. Whether you are well established or just starting with SEO the advice can be helpful, but keep in mind that perseverance and patience are the biggest assets in promoting your site.