So success factors in seo, or search engine optimization has been on my mind so much lately. In fact, I thought I should pull together what my personal ten success factors in SEO are and share them with you. Actually I get asked this often, and here is my personal take on search engine optimization.

1. Keywords in Title Tag – use what you are writing about as your title, writing about mashed potatoes, use Mashed Potatoes in your title – your title tag is what is pulled into the search engines: Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This is what a viewer of a search engine site sees first. Be diligent in selecting your title.

2. Keywords in URL – writing about mashed potatoes, include ‘mashed potatoes’ ex. http://www.yourdomain.com the-best-mashed-potatoes-ever. Using your keywords in the title tag is a boost to the search engines giving out relevant information to the end users. You are helping to tell the search engines what your page is by doing this.

3. Keyword Density – use the phrase in your first sentence, and 3-5% in post, anything over 10% there is a penalty, consider writing posts that are at least 425 words, the more the better. From what I have read, the more words the better, because this is giving you an opportunity to indexed for using a greater variety of words. Keep in mind readers may peel off after a minute or two, but the more you are indexed, the more you have the opportunity to be known for a larger quantity of words.

4. Keywords in headings – use <h1>, <h2>, <h3> tags, make sure you what’s used in the tag is written about, there are penalties here for over use, and content not being used. Overuse of these tags, and not writing about the content of the tag will penalize you.

5. Writing unique and original content – write your own material, be the authority, if you are going to use another recipe, re-write it, write unique commentary, use your own photos. Chances are you are copying material, it was already indexed, and the search engines know you are not the authority on the subject.

6. Keyword Rich file names – if using photos in your posts, rename them what the recipe is about. ex. mashed-potatoes.jpg, when using graphics for the theme, consider naming the graphic files to something that is content site specific, for example, I write about recipes, I should be naming my graphic files to something food related. Note graphic and name must match, google now asks users to identify pictures.

7. Internal Links – link to 2 or 3 posts within your site, maybe you wrote a post about a delicous meatloaf that goes with your mashed potatoes

8. Outbound Links – for me I write mostly about food, linking to fellow food bloggers is where I like to link the most. I stay away from promoting sites like wikipedia, about.com because their content is already well known.

9. Frequency of Content updates – the more you update, the more search engines come to you. Write 2 to 3 times a week at a minimum.

10. Back linking Strategy – write comments on other food bloggers/food related sites, consider sites that are older and more authortative, for example pick 3 different sites to leave comments on each day. I prefer sites that do not use nofollow links, you can check this in more sophisticated software.

So these are my beginning strategies for starting out in SEO optimization. I have covered how to name your files, how to title your postings, keyword density, just to get started. Linking internally is good for you because page rank carries from article to article so you are giving your own posts a boost when you do this. Linking to other related content shows that you know what you are talking about an that you are an authority on the matter. Be original, write your own content, it is important that you show you can generate good quality content! Want to build relationships with other bloggers and build your own authority? Post good quality comments on other related blogs. Oh, is this all, nope, we have just scratched the surface in success factors for SEO optimization.

Search Engine Optimization links

SEO optimization for websites
15 minute SEO
SEO Checklist – slightly out of date but good info.
Seven Tools from Google that save the lives of business owners