The first step of your SEO campaign is the proper selection of customer-oriented keyword phrases. See the article Selecting Keyword Phrases for more information on this topic. In the second step, specific pages are chosen for optimization or new pages are targeted for development.
There are a few different ways to go about optimizing a web site. Some companies decide to optimize an entire site at one time. Depending upon the current “search engine friendliness” of a site, the quality of the content, and the overall size of a site, this may or may not be a large project. For most web site owners with a limited budget, a partial optimization will get the site headed in the right direction. Regardless of which method you use or how large your project will be, you still must target specific pages and match them to your selected keyword phrases.
By now your targeted keyword phrases should be determined. If the theme for a page will include more than one keyword phrase, those phrases should be grouped together. Carefully review the pages in your site. If you already have pages that match up well with your keyword phrases, target those pages for optimization. Where pages do not match up nicely, you will have to develop and add new pages. Make a list of targeted pages and the associated keyword phrases.
Every page is a potential entry point to your site
At one time, most search engine results (SERPs) consisted primarily of home pages. Today, search engines seek content, and that is usually found on the inner pages of a site. Depending upon which keywords someone is using as the basis of a search, many SERPs primarily reveal the inner pages of Web sites. As you choose your pages, it is important to remember that every page in your site is a potential entry point. Once a good rank position is achieved in SERPs, it is the title of the page, the displayed description and the quality of your content that will drive people to your Web pages. This also means that your site must give users the ability to easily navigate your site regardless of which page they initially find. Every page with content should give users the impression that the page is as important as the home page.
Don’t forget the home page
Every SEO campaign should include a complete optimization of the home page. Why? Because the home page needs to tell a user who you are and what you do. Plus, the home page is a common entry point for search engine spiders, so it must be designed to be easy for them to crawl and must provide links to the most important areas of your site.
The third and next step in your SEO campaign calls for Developing Focused Content. Read that article for information necessary to continue with your SEO campaign.
