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Improve search engine rankings – 12 tips for getting started - Part 2

This is the final article in a two-part series written for people who have a web site and want to improve their rankings in major search engines like Google and Yahoo, but are new to the world of “Search Engine Optimisation” (SEO).

The following 6 tips complete the list of 12 basics that you want to get right before you invest additional time and money into improving your search engine rankings. Will following each of these tips send your web site to the top ten ranking of major search engines? No (it’s possible, but unlikely). However if you don’t do the basics well, it will be difficult to secure good rankings for your site.

Following the twelve tips will help you get your website into a good condition for inclusion in search engine results.

For Tips 1 to 6 read Part 1

Tip #7 - Use HTML H1 and H2 heading tags

Tip #8 - Name your file names along the lines of your keywords

Tip #9 - Build a site map

Tip #10 - Use ALT text on all images

Tip #11 - Identify back link opportunities

Tip #12 - Submit your web site to search engines

Tip #7 - Use HTML H1 and H2 heading tags

Most search engines pay attention to the <H1> and <H2> heading tags on a page. These are suspected to be substantial ranking factors. For many web site creators it can be tempting to embed your site headings in flashy graphics – or even Adobe Flash files – to create really compelling user experiences. Unfortunately, search engines cannot see inside graphics files (or Flash files) – and you will reduce the ranking value of your content by not having clear headings that map to your keywords.

So this tip is really simple – use HTML <H1> and <H2> tags to create your content headings. Use your targeted keywords in these headings. Focus on using <H1> and <H2> level headings – don’t worry about <H3> and beyond – conventional wisdom suggests that search engine pay little or no attention to <H3> and below.

Tip #8 - Name your file names along the lines of your keywords

There are different schools of through as to how influential the filenames of the various content items on a site are for search engines. The majority views is that it does positively influence your ranking – if you use your selected keywords.

There are two categories of items that we suggest you name in line with your keyword choice are your web pages and any graphics files your pages use.

Web pages: Name web pages using your most keywords. Separate the keywords using hyphens or underscores.

For example, if the keyword phrase is "black leather ladies shoes," then name a page:

Black-leather-ladies-shoes.html or Black_leather_ladies_shoes.html

Graphics files: Name graphic files using your keywords. Again, separate the keywords using hyphens or underscores.

For example: <IMG SRC="Black-leather-ladies-shoes.gif">

You will no doubt have many graphics files on your site, so you can use this name as a prefix for more specific names that help you manage the site content.

For example – if you have multiple graphics files showing different styles of shoes...

Tip #9 - Build a site map

A site map is a document that helps search engines understand the structure of your site. With a site map, a search engine can potentially do a better job of indexing your content. Site maps can also be used to provide your users with a guide on where to get what they want from your site. So, for both humans and search engines – site maps are a useful thing.

A site map is a single document that you load up onto your web server – and as you change your site, you will need to reflect these changes in your sitemap. You can create a site map manually, or you can use a variety of tools to generate a sitemap.

Below is a list of a link that can help you build a site maps:

· Google’s Webmaster Help Center – Creating and Submitting Sitemaps

· Google’s Webmaster Help Center – How to create sitemaps in a variety of accepted formats

· XML Sitemaps Toolset for generating sitemaps (include free online tool to help you do this)

Tip #10 - Use ALT text on all images

Most websites include a large amount of information in the form of graphics files. Search engines can’t read these graphics files – and so cannot assess whether the information presented in these graphics should reflect positively in your ranking. The HTML standard provides a way for you to supply supplemental information with a graphic file – describing what it is – the “ALT” tag. This tag stands for “Alternative” and is designed to be an alternative text description for images. This “ALT” text displays before the image is loaded in the browser.

Here is an example of using the ALT tag within the HTML reference to an image file:

You should ensure that all graphics on your site use this ALT tag – and the descriptive information in these tags uses your keywords.

Tip #11 - Identify back link opportunities

All major search engines in part assess the importance of a site by the number of other pages and site that link to it. The logic is that that sites that have a larger number of inbound links are more important, more popular, more authoritive – in their respective topics. As a consequence, search engines will rate sites with more backlinks higher in their search results.

Developing backlinks for a site is an extremely large and potentially complex topic – as there are dozens of strategies and tools available to help people with this task. In this tip, we will only just scratch the surface of this topic – helping you understand some of the simple things that you can start doing. Other articles within the www.rankangel.com library will delve into the more advanced means of creating backlinks.

So, what are the simple things that you should consider doing to create backlinks? Here is a list of four simple things that you can start doing today that will help build up your backlinks.

· If you or your business belongs to an association, club, group or community that has a web site already – you can ask them to include a reference to your site.

· Read and contribute to the blogs of people who are active in the online community related to your site. As topics come up that you have a view or experience on – make a contribution by posting a comment – and provided your site offers something relevant to the topic – include a link to your site.

· Submit your site to web directories that are related to your industry / business / web site topic. You can find web directories by searching for “web directory <topic>” in Google.

· Create and submit a press release article on www.pr.com This is a form of web directory that is used to post announcements and news in article form.

A common question is “how many backlinks do I have today?”. The Google, Yahoo and Live search engines each support the “link:” query command. This works by typing “ link:<your url here>” in at the search window. The results from this query will show you the inbound links that the search engine currently knows about. It’s interesting to note that each search engine can provide you with very different results. Another way to answer this question is to use this free online tool for checking how many backlinks you have

Tip #12 - Submit your web site to search engines

Each of the major search engines routinely crawl the web – and will ultimately “stumble” upon your site in time. It pays however to get on the front foot and tell the search engines explicitly about your site. You do this by going to the search engines “site submission page” and typing in your URL. This won’t result in your site being crawled instantly – but it often happens within a few days. Below is a list of the web site submission pages for the three most popular search engines.

· Add your website to Google

· Add your website to Yahoo

· Add your website to Live

For Tips 1 to 6 read Part 1