Optimize your site and increase your page rank with user friendlyness and informative content.
Optimizing your site prior to SEO can greatly increase your chances of success with organic search engines. When a search is conducted for a specific topic, the sites that are shown within the first few results are the ones which offer the most genuine, informative, and useful content. Other than the "behind the scenes" SEO, these sites are also the most user friendly for browser, screen, and connection speed requirements. Be sure to check your site's compatibility often with the most popular browsers and screen resolutions as your site may be displayed differently for some visitors. Loading time is another important factor as impatience of visitors can increase bounce rates. Test your site's loading time often and be sure to publish updates and changes when they occur. Broken links, large files, and other forgotten factors can increase your loading times. Genuine content reflects site usefulness and can mean the difference between your site and your competitors' showing up first in the same search. Most modern search engine software is designed to recognize the difference between content which is useful and educational as opposed to content stuffed with keywords and phrases for primitive SEO. When optimizing site content, think about what your visitors would want to see and write for them not the search engines. This is the process of keeping your content genuine and informative. Avoid keyword stuffing, an act of filling site content with repetitive keywords and phrases. Tactics similar to this are used for both spam and poorly designed sites. Another area to focus on is user friendliness of your site map and page links. Only main areas of discussion, products, and services should be located within main navigation. Links to resources, definitions, etc, which are page specific, should be located within their given pages of discussion. All pages need at least one working link and typically only main pages should have several links if neccessary. Avoid using hidden links and text, words and/or links that are the same color as the page background. This tactic another used today by spammers as a primitive form of SEO. Hidden links can easily build a bad reputation with search engines and can cause your site to be purged from search indexes indefinitely. Be sure to stay up to date with your fellow competitors' sites. Notice how their sites are constructed from a customer point of view and strive to make your site more useful. Successful sites often possess characteristics which are consistent with age and maturity. Large amounts of inbound links, high volume of traffic, and the site's age itself are considered factors when search engines choose top sites. SEM and paid advertising are ways of acquiring new traffic. More genuine and effective sources of traffic include blogs, forums, social networking sites, and product/service reviews. Be sure to offer a newsletter sign up form for email news and updates. Inbound links aquire new traffic and respect of search engines by reflecting a site's usefulness. This factor should be controlled only by those who decide to use your site as a resource without intimidation and/or request. Requesting inbound links is commonly associated with link exchange, a questionable act which is most viewed as a sole purpose for quick SEO and widely considered not genuine. If there is a site which you would expect to have an inbound link to your site, remain reasonable and possibly request the site owner for a review of your site at their convenience. If your content is useful and informative, inbound links should occur on their own. Other than meta tags and the previously discussed topics some search engine success will simply come with time.
Related Articles and Definitions:
Loading time, bounce rate, broken links, keyword stuffing, spam, hidden links and text, inbound links, SEM, link exchange
Resources and Related Links:
1. http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-Optimization-Help/How-to-Increase-the-Conversion-Rate-of-Your-Website/2/
2. http://www.die.net/musings/page_load_time/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounce_rate
4. http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=81986
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_link
6. http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/three-easy-ways-to-fix-broken-links-and.php
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyword_stuffing
8. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66358
9. http://www.seo.com/blog/keyword-stuffing/
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(electronic)
11. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66353
12. http://www.webposition.com/hiddenlinks.htm
13. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlink
14. http://www.mediacollege.com/internet/search-engines/seo/backlinks.html
15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing
16. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66356