Search Optimization

Search optimization is a process of helping your web site perform better in the major search engines by taking certain steps to change the way your site is organized and the marketing of your site.

On Site Factors

It's best to organize search optimization into two basic categories. On-site and off-site. We'll start with on-site search optimization tactics. These include the organization, architecture and content of your web site. There are certain number of search optimization best practices that have evolved as people have experimented with their web sites and learned what works best for getting well ranked in the major search engines. Here is the top list of on-site search optimization activities that you need to do:

1. Title tags
2. The first H1 tag
3. The name of the page itself
4. Keyword meta tag
5. Description meta tag
6. Keyword density
7. Outbound links
8. Original content
9. Appropriate amounts of content

Each of the topics above could have an entire entry written about them. If you don't know what they are, do more specific research on each. But my intent is to give you a quick search optimization punch list that you can use to make sure you are following the best practices.

Off Site Factors

Moving away from your web site, let's now discuss the important off-site search optimization factors. It is no secret that the number and quality of inbound links to your site is critical to your performance in the major search engines. But how exactly does that work and can we develop a similar punch list for off-site factors? Sure. Here goes:

1. Anchor text of inbound links
2. Global link popularity of linking site
3. The age of your site
4. Relevance of inbound links to your site
5. Link popularity of site in specific topic
6. Global link popularity linking site
7. Topical relationship of linking site

You can see from this list that the best links are those that are from powerful sites (in general) as well as those from sites that are topically similar to yours. These two factors are both important and are independent of each other. Yes, that means that one can make up for the other. But, it is best when a link is both from a powerful site AND from a site that is very similar to yours. Additionally, those anchor text that are used in the links is critical. Again, I could write an entire search optimization book on each of the topics listed above. But the purpose here was to give you a quick punch list and send you in the right direction. Similar to the on-site factors, study this list and make sure you understand each. If you don't you will easily find information on those that you don't.

Conclusion

I hope it is clear that there is a critical list of activities to be done both for on-site and off-site search optimization. If you follow this list and accomplish this list with any success, you will find your site ranking well on the desired terms.