If you’ve ever worked really hard on a website, tried your hand at internet marketing, and failed this article is likely for you. In this article I’ll discuss how you can build a quality search engine optimized or SEO site that continually ranks above the others. Keep in mind all sites take work, but that work also requires the right leverage to take you that 10% above the rest.

The first rule of SEO is posting really unique content that not only inspires people to come back but also is more than the main key words people are searching for.

The second rule of SEO is that you need a properly built site that’s W3C compliant because if it’s not chances are that not only can metacrawlers not see it but it likely won’t be cross browser friendly or across multiple mediums.

The third key to SEO is being consistently posting new content because lets face it if there’s nothing new then why would people bother coming back?

To start any site design I always start off by assessing the clients target market, and usually they provide me with a bunch of key words that describes what their clients are looking for. We then take that information, and create informative pages above/beyond what we feel the client will be searching for. It used to be that you could just look up the key words, hide words by having the same colour as the background, and post a bunch of words that describe your business in nonsensical dissaray. This is not the case anymore with Google’s Page Rank algorithm that looks for original unique content. Even if you did manage to trick and lead people to your site if the content they were looking for isn’t there your bounce rate will sky rocket. So with that said…

The fourth rule of SEO is don’t mislead or cheat people with false content as you’re only cheating yourself.

When building a site it’s so important to make sure that you use all the appropriate meta-tags, and have your site crawl friendly. You can check if your site is search engine, and meta-crawler friendly by entering your site into Lynx. The other reason for the appropriate meta-tags is that there is a large amount of blind people out there who navigate the web, and if your site has tons of misleading or incorrectly entered information they will not accurately get what your site is about.

Cross-browser compliance is a really, really big deal these days. People’s browsers vary, and more importantly their screen size varies from 60″ home theater screens to 1″ screens all trying to view your site. Guess what if your site isn’t cross-browser compliant and not designed right you just lost out on a lot of potential traffic. From experience as an IT business professional I can tell you that most people do not keep up their browsers, and updates so leave your options open. One of the best ways to tell if your site is cross-browser compliant is to see if it’s W3C compliant by visiting http://www.w3.org/ . There is no way to 100% check sites other than using multiple browsers, and quite often that’s one of the reasons why it’s best to leave it to a web developer or web designer to see that your site is built right.

The fifth rule of SEO is to create a sitemap so that both search engines, and users can easily navigate your site for content they might not otherwise find.

Once you or a web professional has properly followed the above rules it’s extremely important to make a sitemap. A sitemap directory, and a sitemap.xml will literally triple your traffic almost immediately. Search engines use sitemaps to find all the rest of the links on a site that aren’t otherwise physically linked from main pages. I always notice dramatic results once I’ve created a sitemap.

The sixth rule of SEO is to get out there, and market your site with affiliate marketing.

It’s really important to link yourself with relative credible sites with content similar to your own to compliment your own. A lot of people are convinced by so called SEO experts wanting to post you on thousands of their domains for a ridiculous fee but guess what folks that doesn’t work as well anymore. If the sites you’re posting to don’t have quality pertinent content relative to your own, and they don’t have a good page rank then you’ve probably just wasted a couple thousand dollars plus a month of your hard earned money. Examine top ranked sites, and get them to link back to you so you get a bite out of their traffic. If you post on relative sites to your own, and write articles for press etc you’ll be on top of your game in no time. Just like a house your site appreciates by location, location, location so pick good affiliates, and domains!

The seventh rule of SEO is that there is no easy solution, but there is smart leverage that also comes with consistent content.

Most people think that if they just post a site on the web they’re going to generate thousands a year, and probably even become rich. Those guys that post the sites about becoming millionaires from a simple adwords setup etc are quite laughable because what they don’t tell you is that they actually made their money by selling the dream to people. This is unfortunately a typical scheme for many sites on the web. Don’t be mislead a website takes work, investment, and consistency just like you show up to work every day.

The eighth rule of SEO is don’t cheap out on your site design, and content. A good site is media rich, with web 2.0 content such as photography video, and well written full articles of your target market audience.

Your site design over all should be redone at least once a year especially if your a design/marketing type business, and your content absolutely must be updated regularly for best results. You wouldn’t spend $1000 on an employee for a year so why would you cheap out on your website online that not only broadens your market but works for you 24/7, 365 while you sleep? The good news is you can outsource that help from professionals such as myself, and article writers in your target audience. While some of us are not as cheap as others you usually get what you pay for in results. If you pay for a weeks work in web design, and web development you’re probably not going to get too much back than that in earnings. If you take the time to recognize that a website is a business investment that works for you all the time, and you’re willing to invest in the graphic designers etc who work on your site’s content then you are well on your way to success.

The ninth rule of SEO is submit your site to various search engines, and sites.

Google, Yahoo, MSN, and ASK amongst many other search engines allow you to submit your site for indexing rather than potentially waiting a year for possible indexing. If you follow all the above steps there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to rank at least top 20.

The tenth rule of SEO is key word analysis, Google analytics, and webmaster tools to assess your site’s progress.

If your site isn’t in the top 5 ranking take a look and see what common factors those top sites have in common that yours does not. Chances are the way you worded your site is reason enough to rank you lower. Remember being on top is going the extra mile to do what your competition is not. The top sites always do more than the next guy, and some are just established enough to get the affiliates that you do not. To get the results you want and leverage yourself ahead of them you’ll likely either have to invest your time or that of different web professionals such as myself.

Thanks for reading and should you have any questions or require assistance please feel free to drop me a line. I’d be happy to help you meet your dreams and goals.

Regards,

Adam J. Humphreys

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