Is your site stuck on the 27th page for the keyword you are targeting for? Have you been hoping, praying, or possibly saying bad words to your computer in hope that your efforts will generate better search engine rankings? Take a moment and reflect on the top 15 SEO elements needed to achieve top search engine rankings.
CONTENT
Content is KING in SEO! Post quality non redundant content on your page. Update your content frequently so your visitors have a reason to come back to your site. If you update and post quality content, one of the hardest SEO elements has been accomplished.
INCOMING LINKS
If content is KING, then incoming links are Queen. You cannot have success in the search engines if you do not have quality links pointing to your web pages. Notice that I said pages and note site. Each page within your site has to have links pointing to them. This will generate page rank which is an authority measure that search engines keep in consideration when generating search results.
Receiving a link is not enough; make sure it’s a contextual link that includes your keyword within it. These links will be more valuable than a link that is just your URL.
TITLE TAGS
Create unique title tags for all your pages within your site. Try to include your keywords in your title tags whenever possible. Readability should be priority and SEO second however, most of the times you can create a mixture of the two.
XML Site Map
Create an XML Sitemap. What better way to have your pages found and indexed by search engines than to hand them a list of your pages on a silver platter?
INTERNAL LINKING
Links from other niche related sites might be the most valuable, but don’t forget about adding links within your page. Contextual linking from one of your pages to another can help increase your link count. Don’t forget that these links will also be valuable to your visitors as they navigate around your site.
URL STRUCTURE
Dynamic URLs are better than Static URL’s. In other words would you rather look at a url that has a lot of Id#404&-393 or a URL that is easier to read such as dkssystems.com/top-15-seo?
Use a URL re-write and use your keywords in the URL when possible.
META DESCRIPTION
Use a meta description that includes your keywords. This is your selling point and will show up underneath your link in the search engines.
NAVIGATION AND MENUS
Make sure all your navigation and menu links work properly, nothing will frustrate a search engine spider more than a broken link. Also, make sure your menus are search engine friendly. You can do this by viewing your Google cache and seeing if the links show up. Flash is a common navigation error that results in search engines no being able to see the links.
HEADER TAGS
This one is simple, USE THEM!
IMAGE ALT TAGS
Image alt tags should be included in some of the images on your page. These image alt tags should contain keywords if it’s appropriate to the picture. Do Not stuff your keywords in image alt tags as it will have no benefit to you or your site.
404 ERROR PAGE
Create a custom 404 error page. If the search engine spiders are scanning your page and reach a broken link, they have no way to get back to your site. This will result in pages not getting indexed.
META KEYWORDS
Search engines don’t really place a value on Meta Keyword tags anymore; however I like to use them as a reminder to which keywords im optimizing for. For the people who are thinking users will come and steal your keywords… your probably right. HOWEVER, any SEO can easily see which keywords are being used by looking at all the elements on this list. It’s really not worth the anxiety to worry over.
ROBOTS.TXT FILE
This file tells the search engines what to not index. If you have a TOS page or a check out page that you do not want indexed under any circumstances, then you need a robots.txt file.
I hope you enjoyed reading the Top 15 SEO Elements Needed To Succeed in Search Engine Rankings. If you include these elements, you should hopefully see some more success in your search engine rankings.