How to Master SEO Without Having to Hire an Expert

Most people make SEO (search engine optimisation) out to be complicated. But it only appears complicated because you haven’t been given the necessary information to fully understand it.

Once you have this information, you can make an informed decision about whether you want to handle building great SEO for yourself or hire someone. And, if you do choose to hire an expert, you can be smarter about selecting the right person.

The truth about SEO

If you want clients to find your website so they can hire you, you need good SEO.
To get good SEO your website needs to be respected by the major search engines.
To get respected by the major search engines, your website needs to be built with code and structural integrity.

When your website “breaks the rules” of code and structural integrity, you get graded lower by the search engines. But when your website follows the rules, SEO happens on its own; it’s just that it takes at least 6 months to get that respect, short of buying your way there (which is not recommended).

Get the definitive SEO guide

The first place to go to is Google’s SEO guide. Google is still the leading authority internet search engine, so it’s best to use their guide.

If you are not administering this on your own website, then please insist that the person who is uses Google’s SEO guidelines. A shocking number of website designers either refuse to do this or assume that whatever they learned in a class is still valid. Not true. The rules change year-to-year, so someone has to stay on top of them. It’s kind of like how the rules regarding taxes change every year.

Some website hosting platforms are consciously geared toward maintaining coding integrity (aka standards), so just by choosing them to host your website is half the battle won.

Another reason to keep current, has nothing to do with SEO and everything to do with that feeling you get when you go to a website that loads slow and looks old.

A note about meta tags and keywords, because many people really get this wrong: Most people overdo meta tags and keywords and it degrades their SEO. Again, the free Google SEO guidelines tell you how to do them correctly.

Always update

Always, always, always update your website on a regular basis. There are times when the only thing you could change is the wording of a sentence or a date. But regular changes, at least once weekly, tell the search engines that somebody cares about the website and they will reward you for it by giving you more respect.

You do not need to know how to code to update a website. At most, you may need to learn how to access it and upload your changes safely, but it is really not much different in a way than using MS Word.

The need for regular website updates is the reason that most people, wisely, put a blog on their business website. A blog is a place to add material that benefits your clients without mucking up your website. A blog will entice readers looking for something interesting, and if you add to your blog regularly, you automatically satisfy the “update your website consistently” requisite. But don’t post just anything to your blog. Again, reading the Google SEO guide will remind you that quality of content matters and the guide will explain why.

The power of business directories

Getting listed in the business pages of the major browsers, directories and networking sites and apps is an important side dish to SEO. It is tiresome, tedious work, but well worth it.

The major search engines: Google, Yahoo, etc., have free business directories, so those should be the first ones you set up. Free app directories like Foursquare may also be useful. Staying on top of which directories are on top, is another annual project.

Do an internet search on “most popular search engines with business directories” and read and select judiciously. Don’t try to get on all of them. Be picky and tailor them the best you can to your own business and where you think you will find the clients who are looking for you. If you end up paying for a directory listing service, it would be much less costly than paying someone for your SEO rankings.

A note about directory listings

Make sure your business name and address are identical from listing to listing. Format your address like the post office and carriers expect you to.

How do you know where your website stands?

Numerous websites offer you free analysis with the hope that you’ll sign up with them to get automatically pushed to the various directories. These are the directory listing services mentioned above.

Getting on the big directories means getting on their mailing list, which in turn gets you some pretty good information on current marketing strategies.

SOURCE: Freelancers Union