11 Most Important SEO Tips by the Rich Sage

Internet competition is stiff!  There are around 250 million online properties from blogs to websites to personal pages.  With 1 Billion people using the Internet, it’s still a huge market that Entrepreneurs want to reach to build a business.  The barriers to setting up shop online keep dropping, and the competition for the key phrases that yield more and more traffic keeps increasing.

The key to online success is to drive *targeted* traffic from search engines to your website.  In my case, around 80% of the new visitors to Rich Sage dot com find their way here via searches on Google, MSN and Yahoo after searching key phrases from “make money” to “how to make a quick buck”.  Now i am seeing more and more traffic from Google country specific search engines  -Google.in (Google India) to Google.com.au (Google Australia) are delivering more and more traffic.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Google has around a 100 such search engines that are country specific.  Again, in your search engine optimization work, it’s best to take a wholesome long-term approach to your traffic building success.

Therefore, it is vital that search engines be able to match your sites content while ‘crawling’ your pages.

My 11 Most Important SEO Tips Continue…

If you are in a niche that is not one of the hottest  - Well, I am in a very competitive one –make money online is crowded!  –you’ll find that even a new site can be ranked decently in Google following these 11 suggestions.

1. Keyword Research: Over the years there have been many key word research tools.  However, my favorite is the one offered by Google, via AdWords which now tells you how often a word or phrase is searched and offers many alternatives.  This is a great tool for making key word phrase lists.  Since an AdWords account is free, you have access to these detailed reports at no cost.

Just type in your main key word phrases and Google’s Tool will come up with hundreds of suggestions and show your competition in that key word phrase as well as how often it is searched on a monthly basis.  This is priceless information to get your online success started.

In a side note, you can just as easily see how much traffic you can get for the key word phrases and how much those visitors cost.  Within minutes you’ll be able to see most of the costs associated with your marketing campaigns.

2. Domain name selection: Following the key word research, choose your domain name.  Keep in mind that the more you target your key words, the easier you can select a domain name. For example, if you are researching the key words “home remodeling” but add to that a city location, then you have “home remodeling + some city name”, which makes it a very localized domain name.  The same goes with a broader topic like “make money online”.  Just add the word “fast” or “easy” or again add a city name, and you have a very narrow topic to register your domain.  For other general domain naming tips, see here.

I do suggest that you don’t overlook domain name auction sites which have thousands of domains, with some having been registered for years, available for sale or action at surprising prices.

3. Website Design: For the purposes of search engine optimization this was a difficult subject, until I started using WordPress, which has solved all the problems associated with website design.  WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) that originally started as blog software.  WordPress makes just about all aspects of site design compliant with Internet norms.  And if there is a problem with a few characters, I just “let it go” because it’s a minor issue that I don’t bother with.  Search engine “web crawlers” will find your ‘compliant’ site much easier to navigate and record!

4. On-page SEO:These are elements that are seen on the page that result in better ranking of search results.  They include:

• The ability to add tags in WordPress to each post
• Search engine friendly post names to the naming of the browser window
• Even if you change the name of the page, you can keep the original URL so that old links remain the same.

5. Off-page SEO: When I started working on my off page SEO it was mainly with link building.  Everything I have done from articles to reviews have created links back to Rich Sage dot com.  Just six months ago those links were in the few hundreds.  Now they are over 8,000! And increasing by about 20% every month do to more and more publishing on my part.  This month also launches my Affiliate Program for the Rich Sage Underground, which will also result in thousands more links.

Setting up an Affiliate program is one of the most powerful ways to build links back to your online property. By sharing the proceeds of your product sales, you can build more and more organic traffic to your sales pages.

6. Quality Content: I cannot over emphasize this point  –quality counts!  You need to make sure that everything that you do has *Quality* built into it.  I am not the greatest at it  –especially when I start a new project.  It takes a while to “get going”.  However, after a few updates and upgrades my work shines!  That is what you want to do on a consistent basis.  At all times you must create VALUE for your readers!

This may not appear to make a difference in your first month or two of writing.  It will a year or two later when you see how many people link to your content and advice others to read what you have said, in effect giving you a personal endorsement.  These types of links are very important but take time to deploy, and always depend on the quality of your content.

7. Web2.0: I’ve pointed to about 50 major Web2.0 properties from Digg, Reddit to StumbleUpon to EzineArticles –these are places where you want to publish content on a consistent basis.  Every time you do, there are links created to your site and content, and people get to know you by what you write. This is where my avatar comes in handy.  The Sage is seen everywhere and people get to know that what the “Sage says is true and worth reading” and the rest of the story is that my “Sage association with quality content” creates a base of readers!

At the same time, don’t forget the traditional announcement method –the tried and proven press release! These releases are highly effective when it comes to getting the attention of the masses, search engines and the media.  Don’t forget that with a press release your website can get picked up by the media resulting in an article that gets published in dozens to hundreds if not thousands of sites, all creating links back to your website efforts.

8. Website Analytics: This is not a very difficult step at all.  What you need to do is insert software code from an analytics program such as Google Analytics into the footer of your WordPress theme.  The result is that you can see in your Google Analytics membership account all the details about your site visitors.  In fact, you’ll be able to see a surprising amount of details –everything from the numbers to the locations of your visitors.

Use the resulting data to target your advertising in a very effective manner.  In my case, I try to write with my visitors around the world in mind.  I often reply to comments that they make and do what I can to answer their questions.

9. Be Patient: Don’t try to cheat the system!  There are countless websites pushing their solutions to getting links and building traffic.  I equate that to the old “snake oil” treatments.  My advice is to stick to a game plan where you keep adding value to your readers and building a reader base.  The old “tips and tricks” come and go, but long-lasting philosophies will last a lifetime.

10. Be Passionate: Regardless of the niche that you pick, your passions about that niche will sooner or later creep into your writing.  I know it has here.  I live the Rich Sage.  I think that was not evident when I started.  However, after a year and 3 revisions to the site, I see the Rich Sage Community being what I had intended all along.  I think that shows.

Regardless of the type of niche you have picked do your best to make incremental improvements in your website, your presentation  –even graphic work to display your passion about the subject.  OR you can show at least your willingness to help your readers about a particular niche.  I do realize that it’s rather difficult to be passionate about something like “asbestos”.  But, do the best you can informing your readers. They will appreciate that and return for more help, advice and tell their friends.

11. WordPress: Lastly, I cannot reiterate your best friend in online success  –WordPress!  Learn all you can about it.  Everything from the most essential plugins that make a WordPress installation very powerful, to the possibilities of running many sites with useful content.  Knowing as much as you can about WordPress can turn into a full-time online income very quickly.

The above is the best non-technical advice I can give about search engine optimization.  You may read a lot of advice about various methods of optimizing, but in the end, what it comes down to is that the basic setup I’ve done following the same advice above AND great content has led to great results.

Want proof?  How did you find me?

Success & Carpe Diem,
Rich Sage