Hi there, I have a very popular website, that we are totally redoing, so I want to start over with SEO, and I did not so much SEO work on the old site, I want to really do a good job this time. Can all you PRO SEO'ers help me out. Can you write up what are the TOP 5 things to do when starting a new site? My site is a MMA/boxing news website. Thanks, cant wait to hear from you!
Since you are redoing the website it would be a good idea to ask developers to write SEO compliant code i.e use of a table-less design. Also ensure that the website passes W3C validation. Not a major factor but sometimes may trip search engine spiders. Abstain from excessive use of flash or AJAX as such websites a wee bit difficult to optimize. Keep the navigation simple and user friendly. If you are using the same content then try and improvise on it to add your targeted keywords. Make sure it looks natural and not stuffed. Have unique 'title', meta keywords and description for each page and judiciously incorporate keywords into it. Here I am presuming that you have done your keyword research. Since the website would have images, adding alt tags to images is recommended. Once the website is ready. submit an xml sitemap to Google webmasters tool. All these on page activities could be supplemented by off page activities like syndication and submission. Having a blog is a good option.
GREAT stuff, thanks. Would submissions to DIGG, Stumble, forum posts be counted as SEO? Sorry, im really new to this. I want to build lots of backlinks, as this is a news site. Thanks!
Confusion - "I have a very popular website, that we are totally redoing" & "I want to build lots of backlinks, as this is a news site." Please clarify which statement is correct Thanks for reminding Lissie, I missed that one. When you say your are redoing the website will you be changing the url structure or keeping it the same. If you are changing the url structure then you would have to implement 301 redirect to direct the link juice and the visitors trying to access the old url to the new one. It is not as simple as it sounds and changing urls would also create additional issues like old url still appearing in search results and similar stuff. Social media websites can be leveraged to drive traffic to your websites. StumbleUpon and Digg are notorious for sending huge traffic in a short period of time. The only drawback, it may not be targeted. Also using them for self promotion is frowned upon so be cautious. Don't over do it. Link is integral to any SEO campaign but then you don't want lots of back links. You should be looking for quality backlinks. I think I am giving away too much. don't wanna run out of business.
I think you missunderstood me - I said because its a "news" site, as the site has lots of "news" on it. Not "new" lol Thanks for the great info!!!! Are directory bulk submission packages a waste of time?
1. Make good Content. 2. Put Mata tags, use target keywords. 3. set robot.txt file. 4. Do bookmarking. 5. Do link building, improve back links.
I missed the 's' and made an as* out of me. ) Directory submissions did use to have some importance but recently Google changed a clause in its webmasters guideline. Previously it said something like this 'submitting to dmoz and yahoo directory is good' but now that clause is gone. left us all confused. I will however recommend directory submissions but not a bulk one. Do thematic directory submission and try to do it in directories where you think your target audience is likely going look for something that you offer. Since Google will not value the directory links the way it used too, you should go for relevance and get visitors. Stay away from crappy links. Google only values links that are thematic, one way and come from unique IP. One more thing, link building is a natural process so don't building so many links in one go. Make it look natural. Read about "link baiting" and you could implement this get one way links.