My target keyword for the Grafixplus promotion will be "web page graphics". I did a lot of research last night and this was the one that I think I have a shot at making the first page of Google results. I contacted the owner and she has added some content to her index (home) page that will help the effort. On site optimization is not the most important aspect of SEO but you want to do everything you can to make it easier for the search engines to find you.
Good keyword targeted content is an absolute must. It also helps to have the keywords bolded and if possible, use them in a <h1> or <h2> tag. You also want your primary keyword in your <title> tag and your meta description. In most cases, your meta desription will be the excerpt that is shown in the serch engine results. It should read like a mini advertisement. There are other things you can do for onsite optimization that involve internal linking structure and the navigation of your site but we aren't going to worry about these now. It requires that you be fairly html saavy and can be a little confusing. The things that I have already mentioned are quick and easy to do.
Last night I set up a quick Hub page using some of the content that I have put together for the article that I am going to submit to various directories. Take a second and give it a quick once over. This web site took me less than an hour to set up. Notice that all of the "capsules" have my target keyword phrase in them. Hub pages calls each section a capsule while Squidoo calls them modules. The only original content on the site is the intro which is a text capsule. I used an image from the Grafixplus protfolio to spruce it up a bit. To achieve the same effect, put a photo capsule above the text capsule and then click on the arrow that says "float right" when you mouse over it.
I checked Google today at lunch time and saw that my Hub page has already been indexed. This simply means that the site is listed in their results now. I published the site last night at about eleven pm. That means I was indexed in less than twelve hours, which is pretty good considering that if you submit your website to Google through the normal channels, it takes as long as 3 or 4 months to be put into the index. If you want to see for your self, go to Google and search for Grafixplus. That is my hubpage in the number 2 spot. Keep in mind that I haven't started with the bookmarking and blog submissions. I did manage to throw together a quick Squidoo lens on my lunch hour today. The next couple of posts I make will explain how I set up the web sites in detail and why I do it that way.
We are going to target one keyword in the initial SEO stage. This will be the keyword or phrase that you have deemed to be your diamond in the rough. Remember that this is going to be a judgement call based on the competitiveness of your particular niche. If you are not sure which one to pick, I would go with one that has a low "allinanchor" number and gets a moderate number of searches per month. You also want to pick one of the top keywords in your niche and one very targeted long tail keyword that suits a product or service that you can promote. We will use these later.
You will see later that once we get your sites, (yes, I said sites, as in plural), indexed in Google, we will slowly change your targeting to more popular and competitive keywords. The main goal in the beginning is to establish a presence in the search engine indexes. The truth is that we are going to target Google and the rest will follow over time. Also, once you become familiar with the different Web 2.0 sites that we are going to use as SEO tools, it will be easier for you to rank your sites for the more competitive keyword phrases.
We are going to have several sites that we will target with several different keywords. First of all you need to decide whether you are going to promote a website or a blog (if you don't already have an existing website). I highly recommend starting with a blog. The search engines love blogs and they are very easy to set up. To narrow it down further, I suggest using a Word Press blog. You can install Word Press from your C-panel hosting account by clicking on the Fantastico button and following a couple simple directions. If you have never set up a web page or blog before and need help, then leave me a comment and I will help you. If you don't have web hosting yet, click here. This is what I use. It's a C-panel account with unlimited everything for $17.95 per month or even cheaper if you pay for longer term.
Now, for those of you who know your way around an FTP program and have put up a few websites, you may want to consider purchasing the Semiologic Pro template for Word Press. It is what I use and it has many search engine optimization features already built in to its internal structure. Word Press is very SEO friendly but all blogs are inherently page rank leaky because of their internal link structure.
OK, let's recap. You need to have your webhosting in place with your Word Press blog set up. You should have three keywords picked out. One high traffic keyword that targets your general niche. Your diamond in the rough keyword which is moderate traffic with low competition, and one highly targeted, long tail keyword that we are going to use to get your blog indexed quickly and totally dominate the top 20 results in Google.
Get all this ready because next post we are going to discuss the three pages we are going to build and how to tweak the structure of your blog to make it a little more search engine friendly. That is only if you are not using the Semiologic Pro template. If you are using Semiologic Pro, then we will talk about which features to enable.
Filed under General, Keywords, Market Research, SEO by 
