Actions for optimizing for organic search engine results

Above all of the actions below, follow the golden rule: Content is king.

Solid organic search optimization depends on it. Not only the quality content on your site, but reflecting its technical aspects, too. When great content from you shows up on a variety of sites, the capacity for search engines to accurately give you high rankings will dramatically increase.

Define and understand your keywords.

Make sure you research and understand the set of keywords and phrases that you’re targeting.  There’s a lot of free tools available to determine what keywords or phrases people are searching for.  Check out www.WordTracker.com.

Make every Page Title work hard.

What we’re talking about here is the HTML title tag. It shows on the top of your browser when viewing a page. Each page title should be descriptive, compelling, and different. Provide a clear indication of the content on the page each time, preferably using under 64 characters.

Exercise - Click through your site and only pay attention to the titles on each page. Are they descriptive enough? Sufficiently different from each other? Can you infer what the page is about from the title?

Give every page a Meta Description.

This is usually what engines will use as a “description” of the resulting page found. Without a Meta description, the search engine will take the first “content” it can find on the page. Unfortunately, this is usually navigation and the like, not content. That’s why results often feature descriptions like “User Name, Password. CLIENT LOGIN. © 2007 All Rights Reserved.”

By providing a clean and accurate descriptor of the page, the Meta description can significantly help a searcher find what they are looking for—and naturally enhance click-through rates.

Insist on displaying solid and readable content on every page.

Flash content doesn’t really apply here. Neither do images of text or titles. Demand good HTML content that the engines can find. Also make sure your content can be linked to other pages or sections of your site.

Always supply Alt tags with every important image.

An alt tag appears in the HTML of a page, furnishing a description of an image. They not only help search engines, but also assist site visitors with disabilities. Screen readers actually read text to visually impaired individuals, as well as read image descriptions

Don’t stress out (or focus) on Meta keywords.

They once were a driving factor in getting good search results. But now, Meta keywords are “valued” less and less as engines become better at reading and understanding the actual content of the page.

Create an XML sitemap.

Previously, sitemaps were primarily geared for users. In 2005 though, Google introduced an XML format for a sitemap specifically designed for the search engines, allowing them to find data faster and more efficiently. This is now a standard for many engines.

Through the XML protocol, search engines could track the URLs more efficiently, optimizing their search by placing all the information in one page. XML also summarizes how frequently a particular Web site is updated, and records the last time any changes were made.

There are many XMl sitemap generation tools out there, including xml-sitemaps.com, that can help with the process of generating an XML sitemap.

Update your robots.txt file.

This simple file tells search engines what to look at and what to not look at. The robots.txt file should also point to your sitemap.xml file.

Ask your IT folks, search partner or Web developer about this. Many search engines have specific “webmaster tools” to help verify that your site is set to be indexed, and also point out any problems or stats.

Focus on ancillary media.

As mentioned, make sure all key images have alt tags associated with them. See to it that corporate videos are distributed over the Web (if appropriate), and tagged accordingly. Make them available on YouTube as well as your site, making sure they’re easily accessible.

Convert PDF files to HTML.

Many MidMarketers think that posting heavy content in PDF format is smart.

Fact is, some of it can be picked up by search engines. But converting it into HTML and making it directly available on your or other sites can multiply your results. If documents are available as PDFs, they’re probably also in some digital format somewhere.

TIP: This job is perfect for a freelancer or intern. Converting PDF files, newsletters, data sheets, etc. directly into your site in good, search friendly formats should be an ongoing process.

Start “smart” linking.

Find an outside resource to find new link opportunities for you. Or assign someone inside. Beware of any “shady” offers to get you links. They may only seriously hurt your search exposure, enough to get you removed from search engines.

Rather than thinking “get rich quick”, concentrate on quality sites or destinations where your visitors will be circulating. Also, consider links to social sites, blogs, or other nontraditional areas—even videos?

Never accept the response “it can’t be done.”

Especially when requesting or trying to get going on the actions we’ve noted here. Share your vision of a truly organic search engine optimization strategy with your team. Push your resources to get the right processes in place to streamline ongoing optimization.

Remember, solid content and solid process is what drives successful organic search optimization.