Effective Search Engine Optimization Covers All the Bases

Effective search engine optimization requires a carefully planned overall SEO strategy. On page SEO – keyword-enhanced content, META tags and the like – are only part of the equation. Aside from the obvious bits, there are many parts to creating an effective search engine optimization strategy, and each of them is an integral part of the whole. If you slack on just one, you won’t get the full results you could get from an SEO marketing campaign – and that will affect your bottom line negatively.

The Parts of an Effective Search Engine Optimization Strategy

An effective search engine marketing strategy includes three major parts – on page SEO, effective website optimization and offsite link building. Each of these pieces has several other pieces of which you need to be aware.

On Page SEO

Content is king, and by content we mean text. Search engines aren’t impressed with edgy Flash introductions, gorgeous graphics and JavaScript tricks. All they care about is words, so that’s where your search engine optimization efforts should focus. The first part of an effective SEO campaign is choosing the right keywords and using them in the right places.

The right places for your keywords include your page titles, your content, your META tags and your menu links. Using keywords effectively goes far beyond posting content that has the right ratio of keywords in it – it extends to everything the search engine reads. In addition to keywords, effective search engine optimization strategy includes providing good navigation so the search engine spiders can access and index all of the important pages on your website. A site map is another important element to help search engine spiders find all of the pages you want them to find. Equally important is telling the search engines which pages you don’t want them to index and list.

Site Structure

The underlying code for your website also affects how the search engine reads and indexes the pages on your website. Some techniques look great on the page, but are invisible to the search engines. For your search engine marketing strategy to be effective, you need to be sure that the spiders can see the pages you want indexed and ignores the pages you don’t want listed in the search engines. If you choose to use JavaScript or Flash menus, for example, be sure to also include a text menu that the search engine can follow. If you use images instead of text for style reasons, be sure that your image tags accurately describe what the images represent.

Off Site Search Engine Marketing Strategy

In addition to on page SEO and on site search engine optimization, an effective search engine optimization strategy also includes a link building campaign to find high-quality, relevant incoming links back to your web pages. Those incoming links tell the search engines how popular and relevant your site content is to a search engine query. There are many effective ways to increase search engine ranking through link building. Talk to a professional search engine optimization consultant to learn more about building in an effective search engine optimization strategy.

Effective search engine optimization will take all of the important factors into account. Be sure that your SEO consultant covers all the bases to get the best results for your bottom line.