The Do’s & Don’ts of SEO in 2014:
The ever-changing nature in SEO industry leaves a lot of confusion for you, as it takes time and effort. The prime (core, major, main) objective of SEO is to attract more web traffic to a website and increase business revenue. Knowing Do’s and Don’ts of SEO will allow you to make effective use of time while optimizing your website.
Here’s a quick checklist for you with all Dos that will affect your rankings in search engines:
1. Do a keyword research:
a. Target the most relevant keywords for you, and list the most potential keywords in a excel sheet.
b. Spy on your competitor’s keyword.
2. On-Page Optimization:
Title Tag: The title tag is the most important SEO element that shows up on search engines. The length of title tag should not be more than 10-60 characters, with spaces.
Meta Description Tag: Add your potential keyword in Meta tag and description, and keep description below 170 characters or less.
Keywords in URL: Your page URL should include your targeting keyword or keyword phrase.
First Paragraph: Include your primary keyword to the first paragraph, so that search engine can understand what the topic is all about.
Content Length: The length of content ideally should be more than 250 words, and preferably should go over 600 to 700 words.
Content Quality: Your content should be unique, and should not be copied.
Keyword Density: The optimum keyword density is to keep it between 2-4% and should not be repeated more than twice or thrice in 100 keywords.
Image Optimization: Use the keyword in image name, add image ALT Tag to every image along with description. Keep alt tag, caption short and descriptive. Please note that the image should match the content.
Avoid Adding Flash and PDFs: Publish your content in HTML format, rather than adding PDFs and Flash. As search engines do not index PDFs and Flash.
Avoid DHTML: Search engines read only HTML.
Text Style: Write your keywords in bold and italic. Use bullet points.
Hyperlink: Hyperlink the keywords in the content.
3. Create High Quality Content
a. The content on a page should not be too long.
b. Add hash tags to distribute your articles.
c. Add bold tag, and internal links, h1 tag on the page.
d. BEWARE of duplicate content. Do not copy content from another websites.
e. Keep on updating fresh content to your website regularly.
f. Write unique content, and do not copy.
g. If writing a guest post on a blog, do not repeat the same content in another blog.
4. Site Submission:
a. Submit your website on major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.
b. Submit your website on major web directories like DMOZ, Yahoo, and BOTW.
5. Build Quality Back links:
There are lots of ways to get back links. The most simple and universal way to get back links is through social network (Twitter, Facebook, Delicious), blogs, forums, article submission.
5. Optimized your website for mobile devices. If it is not optimized, it should not have breaks.
6. Off-Page Optimization: ?
a. Social Media: Promote through social media websites; Google is now giving more importance to social media and content. Market your content on social networking websites like Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
b. Social Bookmarking: Social Bookmarking is a great tactic for SEO. You get a back link with FREE traffic, even though it is labor intensive.
c. Video Submission: Share video on your website, YouTube and to other social media websites.
Don’t Do’s
1. Do not focus on irrelevant, excessive keywords and meta tags, as it will waste your time and effort.
2. Duplicate Content – Don’t publish duplicate content, similar block of content that appear on more than one web page. Publish Quality content with relevant image.
3. Never pay to be in a directory – Forget adding your website to directories by paying them, as search engines don’t like them.
4. Don’t hold your customers to give a review, provide them a link to review your product in e-mail marketing.
5. Black Hat’ Technique: Hiding keywords within the text by setting font color to match the background.
6. Repeated Submissions to Search Engines
7. Article Submission
8. Don’t buy back links to your website
