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In these tough recession times any little free tool that you can use for free to implement into your practice is invaluable. After doing some research for the upcoming book on social media for LNCs and LCPs, I came across this little list by Nevil Darukhanawala posted on December 22, 2009 at his blog: http://www.webdesign.org/site-maintenance/se-optimization/seo-expert-success-path.16879.html

These tips can serve as a simple, free building block to help you build a remarkable practice.

The SEO success Path:

1. The first step is to evaluate your current situation. I am assuming you already have a website or are in the process of revamping your website. Either way, now is a good time to start making a long term SEO strategy for your online business.

2. Looking within. The main areas to look into at this phase is the current website structure, page names, content quality, optimization level, keywords used (and why) and their rankings in Google, Yahoo and MSN, other elements like website design, un-optimized database and poor website structure that could be affecting the rankings, current links (internal and external), and the top competitors for your keywords.

3. The path ahead. Once you have a fair idea of the current realities of your website, the next step would be to figure out where you are headed and what path would be best to reach there. Building a road map for your online business is crucial if a website is to achieve success online.

4. Streamline your roadmap. The roadmap identifies the milestones, the hurdles, the steps to be taken, tasks to be completed and the various other elements that need to be in place for ranking success. The main areas of focus in the roadmap are on the quality of content, frequency of updates, and quality of inbound links.

5. It all began with a keyword. Many clients feel they have identified the correct keywords for their business. After all who knows their TG better than them, they argue. On the internet the keyword is much more than a phrase a user would search for, it’s a gateway to traffic to your website. Some keywords are more competitive than others, and may take years to achieve, while some can be easily achieved as they face little competition and yet users are searching for that keyword. A SEO expert uses various tools to identify potential keywords that have a good chance of success.

6. Optimize your pages around the keywords. Once the keywords are in place, the next step is to optimize your web pages around those keywords. What that means is focusing the Meta tags, title, link text, heading tags and body content of that page around a specific keyword. Focus each page around ONE keyword only.

7. Keyword placement is very crucial to the ranking success of your keywords. Place your keyword in the page name, title, description, Meta and heading tags, link text and body content for that page. The title and description should ideally begin with your keyword, and the body content of the page should be keyword rich.

8. Content is the King! Search engine love content that is unique, informative and resolves the query of the user who visits that page. Creating content keeps both the search engines and users happy is the main goal here. The first 25 words of the body content of that page should be keyword rich, and thereafter use the keyword across the page (use keyword after every 100 words). Make the content read as natural as possible.

9. Create content rich gateways to higher traffic. So you have 10 keywords you want to target but have just 6 pages on your website (and we spoke in the Point No 6 that ideally target one keyword per page), so where do you place the remaining 4 keywords. The solution is in creating gateway pages. Gateway pages are content rich and focused around a keyword that you are targeting traffic from. Ideally create a article section, FAQ’s or resources section on your website and keep adding specific pages written around keywords you want to target.

10. Frequency of updates. Fresh content can be added your website in the form of blog posts, article writing, FAQ’s section, user testimonials, how to guides, industry statistics etc. A website that constantly updates their information ranks well, as search engines know that the users will find something new each time they visit the website.

11. The problems with dynamic content. Dealing with dynamic database (CMS) driven web pages can be difficult but well worth the effort. The problem with database driven sites is that they have just one page on which the data refreshes based on the query. So ideally you have just one page to optimize. Optimizing your database includes creating flat static pages from the database with page names around the keyword you want to target, and then optimize the Meta tags for the flat HTML pages. I will not go deep into the problems of database sites as it’s slightly technical and not for this post. One word of advice, hire a SEO expert who has worked with database sites before.

12. A neat solution for SEO of dynamic sites. In some cases where it may be too tough (time consuming or expensive) to modify the database and source code, one can create a article / resources section or publish blog posts/ articles in HTML (static pages) and use these pages to pull in the traffic, and then direct the user to the database section.

13. Create a custom 404 error page. A 404 error occurs when a user clicks on a link that’s not available on the website but still in the search engines index. The reason could be that you moved the page, renamed the page, or deleted the page, but the users still gets a bad impression of your online business. Search engines maintain logs of 404 errors, and could punish your website for the same. By creating a custom 404 error page, the user lands on a page that guides them to the relevant link or page. Neither the users, nor the search engines mind that!

14. Blogging for business. Each blog post is an opportunity to reach out and connect with users. If you plan to start a blog for your business, the good news is that search engines rank blog content high, but the bad news is that if your blog is not promoted properly it will die a slow death. Blogs need to be promoted on blog search engines, blogging directories, and RSS feeds.

15. Syndicate your content. So you are creating new content that’s unique and informative, but unless you are syndicating your content you will not be able to create leverage. Leveraging your content means your content can be promoted across article submission sites, RSS feed aggregators, industry specific sites and social bookmarking sites without fearing the penalty of duplicate content.

16. Write articles and become an expert. Writing articles is a great way to gaining recognition as an expert in your domain, get additional traffic and build quality links back to your content. Submit your articles to selected article submission sites that are relevant to your content, have a high page rank and popularity.

17. Get social and build a network! Promote your content on social networking sites like Digg, Delicious, Stumble Upon to get maximum mileage for your content. If some users like what you are sharing with them they will promote you the good old fashioned way, by word of mouth. You cannot get/buy this kind of advertising. Other than access to the various social user communities and the potential business there, you can also get quality links back to your website.

18. Get linked in! Creating a good link building campaign can take lots of time and effort. Search engines assume that if another website (especially ones that are popular), or a bunch of users (like in social bookmarking communities) deem a site or page to be important, it must be! Is the site linking to you a credible one? What is the link text they use to describe your website or web page? Are your inbound links coming from diverse user and web communities? Is your content relevant to those communities?

19. What is your link building Matrix? A good link matrix includes submissions to web directories, article sites, PR announce sites, discussion forums, blog commenting, blogger reviews, vertical engines, industry specific sites, deep linking blogs, social networking and bookmarking sites, video sites etc. Ensure each of the sites have a good page rank, are popular and relevant to your content. Maintain lists of all sites submitted to, the link, link text and the page rank of that website.

20. Try the local store. People searching for products and services in their vicinity usually search the local search listings. Having your site on Google Maps, Yahoo Local can be crucial to target the local business, even if you are a global player. If you are a local business then don’t forget to use the location as part of the keyword phrase.

21. Fine tune those keywords. The secret to success in keyword ranking is to keep tweaking the keywords and Meta tags. See what’s working with the search engines and what’s not. The mindset of the users change with time and season, are your keywords changing to reflect that?

22. Keeping up with the competition. The competition is not going to sit still, so keep checking to see what the competition is up to. Have they identified any new keywords? Is the competition using any new seo strategies?

23. Battle the recession. The best defense for the recession is a good offensive strategy to make most of the advertising dollars and spending them on more measurable and cost effective platforms like the web.

24. Partner with a SEO expert that’s right for you!

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