Basics of SEO:
Contents
Overview
Market Research
Keyword Research
Site Structure
On Page Optimization
Link Building
Brand Building
Viral Marketing
Measuring Results
Keeping up to date
Market Research:
The first step is to search the major search engines to see what types of websites are ranking for words which you deem to be important. For example, if mostly colleges, media, and government institutions are ranking for your most important terms it may be difficult to rank for those types of queries.
Keyword Research:
Keyword research tools are better at providing a qualitative measure than a quantitative measure, so don't be surprised if actual traffic volumes vary greatly from the numbers suggested by these tools.
Site Structure:
You may want to use an Excel spreadsheet or some other program to help you visualize your site structure.
On Page Optimization:
It is hard to rank for keywords that do not appear in your page content, so each page should be organized around the goal of ranking for a specific keyword phrase, with some related phrases and related keywords mixed into the page copy.
Link Building:
Link building tips
try to link to your most relevant page when getting links (don't point all the links at your home page)
mix your anchor text
use Yahoo! Site Explorer and other tools to analyze top competing backlinks
Brand Building:
Brand related search queries tend to be some of the most targeted, best converting, and most valuable keywords. As you gain mindshare people will be more likely to search for your brand or keywords related to your brand.
Viral Marketing:
Link building is probably the single hardest and most time consuming part of an effective SEO campaign, largely because it requires influencing other people. But links are nothing but a remark or citation. Seth Godin's Purple Cow is a great book about being remarkable.
Measuring Results:
Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.
- John Wanamaker
Keeping up to date:
How do you track the changes in the SEO market? In my SEO tools I also offer Google Gadgets that make it easy for you to embed keyword, competitive, and link research tools inside any webpage. You can track your ranking changes using this free keyword rank checker.