Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Beginners


Do I really need to pay attention to my keywords and SEO?  Explaining why a website needs keywords is like explaining why a bird needs wings.  Although some designers will tell you that keywords are ‘not that important anymore’, a quick check of Google’s help section will tell you that they are still very important.  Google is a great source of information on it’s own search engine.  I suggest you read the Google documents regarding search engines.  While there are other engines out there, Google is the most used and is a benchmark for search engine optimization.

Search optimization should be an integral part of web design, just as it has been since the first search engine started indexing the very first website.  As always, your site should be designed first and foremost to inform and entertain your human visitors. Happy humans and happy search engines have lots in common.  First, they like clear simple navagation, lots of descriptive pictures and text that expounds on the theme of the page.  There are many ways to  make it user friendly while making your site easy to find by Internet search engines. Isn’t that why you have a website in the first place?   The following are some tips to help you design a pleasing site for humans (and search engines)..

For demonstration purposes, imagine you are creating a website to promote your farm. You give riding lessons and sell horses. You want people in your area to know what you do, where you are and how to contact you.  Here are 11 steps to take to help get your site off on the right foot with visitors and search engines.

  1. Read the articles on this site regarding domain name selection, how to figure out who your audience is and your purpose for the website.  Write this information down in detail.  This should provide you with some keywords to start with.  Make a list of them.
  2. Find some pictures for your site.  They should be photos you own the copy rights to.  They should be related to the keywords you listed above in number 1.
  3. Name the pictures using your keywords and underscore between words in this format:  girl_taking_beginner_horse_riding_lesson_at_ABC_farm.jpg.
  4. Write a couple paragraphs for your home page.  They should describe what you do (or what your topic is) and if your research is correct, will contain many of your keywords. By this I mean, they should be naturally included in the paragraphs your wrote.  If they are not, go back and review your list of keywords and research and try to refocus on those items when you revise the text.
  5. Now you have your home page text and a few pictures to put on it. Use the pictures to help tell your story on your home page.
  6. Make sure your meta tags for the home page include the keywords specifically used on your home page.
  7. Consider information for your other pages, and what they should contain.  They should be focused on a particular topic and have pictures and a title that relates to that topic.
  8. You will want a page with contact information, business hours and possibly a map, a phone number and email address.
  9. You will probably want to add a page for your riding lessons.  Include photos of students having fun on their horses(with their permission and appropriate captions and meta tags). Include your lesson rates on this page, a paragraph or two about your philosophy and how close you are to your potential students.  You can include a down-loadable form with your insurance release so parents can review and sign it before they come for their first lesson.  You might want to include information on the boots and helmet you expect each child to bring to their lessons or possibly where they can purchase these items.  Again, all this information is supported and illustrated with great pictures with the correct tags and captions.  You should include your business name and what the students are doing in the captions!
  10. Do you sell horses?  Pictures, pedigrees and videos all help visitors from all over the web find the horses you have available.  All these resources need to be tagged, labeled and rich in descriptive keywords to help search engines find them.
  11. What other services or products do you offer?  Each service or category should have it’s own page with accompanying pictures, text and meta tags.  All this goes together to create a tight vision of the subject.  This does two things.  First, it will give your visitors a great concise description, full of the information they are looking for.  Second the search engines will love it because it gives your readers great information they are looking for in a way that the search engines can understand.

These things will get your website off to a great start.  There are of course many, many other ideas to make your site a resource viewers will turn to again and again.  These are many of the same ideas that will make your site more attractive to search engines.  In deciding which of these ideas to use, first think if they contribute to the content and user appeal of your site.  If they do, they are worth considering.  If not, best to leave them on the table.

Beware:  Anyone who says they can guarantee you Google rankings may also be selling beach front property in Arizona!  Our next article will discuss ‘white hat’ SEO theory versus ‘black hat’ theory and how to stay in good graces with search engines.