The Benefits of Doing Your Own SEO and Link Building
By Katy Merrill
After spending thousands of dollars on SEO and finding myself ranked in the exact same spot. I decided to teach myself how to optimize my own site and build links. In this article we will discuss the benefits of doing your own simple search engine optimization.
I constantly hear people talking about how they would love to find an SEO company that would do what they asked. I was in the exact same boat. I'’m not saying I'’m a whiz at SEO, or that SEO companies are a waste of money. However I will be happy to share some simple practices that I use on my own website that are helping me move up in the search engine rankings.
Fist things first. Meta Tags. When building a site you have to make sure you enter your meta tags correctly. I had several SEO companies tell me to stuff as many keywords into every available space possible. This my friends is wrong. Actually doing this hurt my website more than it helped. My advice is to keep it simple. Just a few good keywords will do. I suggest putting the model number in your meta tags because anyone really shopping a specific product will search the model number. Furthermore, with meta tag keywords it seems that google gives the most importance to the first words entered. So, use use your most valued keyword first. For example if you are selling office furniture, that’’s what you'’d put first.
Secondly, I would suggest starting a free blog for your site. A great site to do this is blogspot they are easy to use and ofcourse free. With your blog, don'’t just write all about your sales and your site. Blog about new products and there benefits. This brings me to our next valuable tip. Backlinks
Backlinks have been the saving grace for my website. Once I found sites like distributeyourarticles I was able to write relevant articles about my manufacturers and such that go out to hundreds of sites. In these articles you place links that lead to your site. In the long run the links add up and Google sees how many sites are directed to yours, thus increasing your ranking!
Another great way to optimize your sites traffic is through social networking sites. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are at the top of the list. Set up a few different accounts for your website and begin making friends and posting videos. Once you have a decent friend base start sending links out to your website. You will be amazed how much traffic you receive. This again generates links to your site and looks good in the eyes of Google.
I'’m not saying using an SEO company is a bad thing. I'’m just saying that I was very disappointed when I found out how easy some of the things I was paying to have done, were to do.
I would recommend researching any company you use to build your sites rankings. Try and find an SEO company that specializes in your companies field and that has references to prove it. Hopefully everyone who reads this will be able to learn from my mistakes and save a buck or two.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope it helps you drive some traffic to your site. I am always happy to share whatever I find is working. It seems some people want to keep these secrets to themselves. However I feel that in todays day and age, Helping each other really goes a long way!
About The Author
Thank you for taking the time to read my article. I feel these tips have really worked for my site. Feel free to take a look http://www.officeanything.com/default.asp