The ABC’s of SEO: An SEO Guide

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of developing your website so that it performs well in searches on Google and the other search engines. In this SEO guide, the ABC’s are three basic strategies to allow your website to have the best chance for search success!
A – Architecture
The architecture or technical design of your website will affect how easy it is for the automated search engine spiders to read your site. Simple html web code is easy for an automated function like a search engine spider to navigate – if it’s easy for the spider to read the words and the code on your site, then the spider will effectively record the words it finds. If it can record the words on your site, that is the first step to being shown in a search result.
If you are designing a new website, using the blog software from WordPress is an excellent option. The search engines easily navigate WordPress, it is a flexible solution for creating contemporary looking designs and anyone can update a WordPress website.
One of the worst architectures for a website is a Flash design. Flash is very difficult for the spiders to read and it is not read by iPhones and iPods. Two final tips for your site architecture are to use keyword phrases in your site navigation and include a link to an HTML Site Map on each page. From the SEO perspective, ‘Internet marketing services’ is better than ‘services’ in your navigation. And adding a Site Map page with links to all of the other pages on your site makes it easy for the spiders to find and read the entire website for SEO.
B – Backlinks
Backlinks are activated links from OTHER websites TO your website. Each backlink tells the search engines that there is something worth seeing on your site, and this is a virtual endorsement for your site. Backlinks from important sites such as industry associations or media sites are better than links from small sites unrelated to your industry. The best way to get great backlinks is by having compelling content on your site – awesome articles and free tools are the type of things other sites will link to. Can you create a calculator or free guide for your industry that bloggers and the media would refer to via a link? Another great way to get links from relevant sites is to offer to write guest articles and guest blog posts for prominent sites in your industry – making sure to include your site link with your author byline. Google is rewarding sites with a new type of backlink called social signals – when someone on Facebook ‘Likes’ something on your website, ‘Tweets’ about you or uses another signal from a social site, this is a new type of link or endorsement.
C – Content
The C in the ABC’s of SEO for websites is creating lots of great Content for your website. Google reads up to 1,000 words per page and the best way to be found for a keyword phrase is to include it on your site. For example, I won’t be found for ‘internet marketing agency’ if I don’t have the keyword phrase: ‘internet marketing agency’ on my site. For important phrases, I recommend creating a page named with the keyword phrase, the title of the page should use it, and it should be repeated 2-3 times in the copy (words) on the page. In addition, you could name a photo on the page using your keyword phrase (Google can’t ‘see’ photos but it can read the name and alt-tag). Plus, you can use it in navigation and links from other pages on the site.
Google’s search spokesperson Matt Cutts has a great tip for content creation. He calls it the “apple a day” method. The old expression ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ refers to eating healthy fruits and vegetables. Adding a page of content to your website for SEO every day (or at least several pages per month), allows you to add several new targeted keyword phrases on a regular basis, and it tells Google your site is alive and constantly fresh. Adding newsletter articles, press releases and new product description pages is a great way to ‘apple a day’ your site.
Hope you enjoyed our SEO guide. Good luck with your ABC’s and SEO results!