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Do-It-Yourself SEO - A Beginner's Checklist
By John Metzler (c) 2008

There have always been do-it-yourselfers succeeding at web
promotion and search engine optimization. In fact, many of the
established businesses offering web services today came from
humble beginnings, perhaps nothing more than a college student
with a laptop, an internet connection, and too much free time.
The Web evolves as the result of the innovation and
experimentation of individuals. The sharing of knowledge. The
do-it-yourself attitude.

As text link brokers and mass link networking decrease in value
and use of social media increases, it becomes more important for
companies to have an internal approach and awareness of search
engine marketing. Don't get me wrong; outsourcing to SEO firms
is still a smart option. That said, making the most out of Web
2.0 usually requires some level of cooperation between SEO firm
and site owner. You don't need to be an expert to know the
basics of good SEO practices, and that added knowledge will be a
great advantage whether you're working along side an SEO team,
or promoting your own site in your spare time.

So if you're on a "need to know" basis with SEO, the following
points should illustrate what an overall plan should include:

1. Create Search Engine-Friendly Content

Unique web content is your most valuable asset, and ensuring
search engines can read it is crucial. Text embedded in images
or Flash cannot be read, so make sure you use important
keywords, headings, and hyperlinks in plain text form. Instead
of using images as navigation links, CSS (Cascading Style
Sheets) makes it easy to format those links to look more like
'buttons', thus creating powerful anchor text as well as making
it visually appealing. Use heading tags properly and don't try
to hide keywords or text by making it the same color as the page
background or shrinking it so it can't be seen. Make sure the
keywords you wish to rank high for are used frequently in the
page copy but within reason.

Now that you've created good content, is it actually being
crawled? Copy and paste a page's URL into a search engine to see
if it has been indexed. If you've just created the page, it may
take a few days to show up. Aside from age, many factors can
lead to web pages not being indexed by search engines, such as
duplicate content (ie. a printer-friendly version of a page
might be indexed and the normal version not, or vice versa);
links generated by JavaScript instead of HTML; poor site
architecture (ie. using too many sub-directories); lengthy,
dynamically generated URLs using special characters; and
orphaned pages.

2. Choose Your Keywords Wisely

One of the first steps of SEO, this one needs to be done
properly the first time or all your future efforts and promotion
could end up being wasted. Start by writing down general terms
that describe your products, services or web content. Use
keyword research services to investigate word and phrase
variations. Wordtracker, KeywordDiscovery, and the Google
AdWords suggestion tool are good starting points. The goal is to
find those niche phrases that your target market uses to find
sites just like yours and optimize your site for them. If the
phrases do not get enough use by searchers, your profits from
ranking for them will be low. At the same time, stay away from
general terms that are tougher to rank for (ie. like "art",
"computers", "business", etc.) as a great portion of the traffic
will be irrelevant and you'll break the bank attaining such
competitive phrases.

3. Get Others to Link to Your Site

In theory there are countless ways, some traditional and some
quite innovative, to get other web sites to link to yours. In
practice, it can be easier said than done. Google defines a link
as it pertains to rankings and SEO as a "vote" from one site to
another. The more quality votes your site receives, the greater
chance you have of ranking well. If a well established site
links to yours, that link carries more weight than one would
from a mom & pop shop or less reputable page.

If your site has useful content and is doing something unique,
you're already ahead of much of the competition. People need a
reason to link to your site, as very few will do it out of the
goodness of their heart. Trading links can work, but link
exchange networks have decreased in value and won't be of much
use in competitive fields. Buying links (http://www.freshpromo.ca/
2007/05/buying-links-for-seo_28.html), if you haven't heard, is
a big Google no-no. While entire articles could be written on
this topic, here are a few popular methods of acquiring incoming
links:

- issuing company press releases with a link back to your site

- submitting to reputable business directories such as Yahoo!
  and Business.com

- be active on related blogs by commenting and exchanging ideas

- if you have clients with web sites, ask if they would mind
  adding your link in a "partners" section

- participate in relevant forums and discussion boards with a
  link in your signature

- write and submit original articles to web publications in your
  field with a link in your bio

- get involved in social media and bookmarking

4. Join the Social Media Revolution

The collaboration between Internet users and the development of
online communities is at an all-time high. Social bookmarking
sites such as Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Furl, Reddit, and
Technorati offer users a way to store their favorite pages and
media online, and share it with others. These services also
provide a way to promote your own content or create a buzz over
a product or service. Creating a Myspace page or Squidoo "lens"
is also a way to network and share information.

However, if your goal is to generate sales, then you must offer
something without the promotional hype. The reality of social
media is that popularity is based almost entirely on public
interest. If your information or media isn't unique or of
interest to anyone, you cannot force success using social media
communities.

The key to using social media and bookmarking sites to your
advantage is to not be shy. Getting your entries and content to
the popular pages on these sites requires some hard work.
Network with other users, bookmark and share useful content,
create eye-catching titles for your entries, and tell your
friends and co-workers about the content you have on these
sites. However, don't force your employees to vote your entries
up - this is social media fraud. If you have great content and
simply share it with as many people as you can, it will see
success naturally.

These four points are a general guideline to follow for SEO.
Search engine optimization experts and firms are a good
outsourcing option in competitive markets, while the DIY
attitude can yield great results for web site owners with
smaller marketing budgets. If you're in the latter group,
hopefully this helps get you started.
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John Metzler has held executive positions in the search engine
marketing industry since 2001. He is the Founder of FreshPromo,
a Canadian-based search marketing firm (http://www.freshpromo.ca/)
and updates his blog (http://www.freshpromo.ca/seo_blog.html)
regularly.
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