What is the one thing that sets a Professional SEO Expert apart from someone that is blindly following whatever the newest article tells them to do for their search engine optimization?

The SEO Plan

Set & Almost Forget SEO Basics

1. What makes a word a keyword?
   Your website will be made up of many words, but a keyword is special, it is what your website is about. Take this one step further an define a keyword phrase as a group of words that define what your website is about.
   • Focus on 1 – 5 keyword phrases for your entire website.
   • Focus on 1 – 3 keywords phrases for your each individual page.
   • Keyword phrases need to be in heading, titles, hidden tags, etc.
   • Focus on keywords sounding natural in the text…don’t overuse.
2. Savvy to the Competition
   This is a very important point to understand: all businesses have both competitors on the web and competitors next door. What is your REAL competition on the web.
   • Where do they rank in the search engines?
   • What Keywords and keyword phrases are they focusing on?
   • Who is linking to them and why…what are they saying?
3. Form or Function on Website Design
   Always choose function! You could end up with a very pretty picture, that the search engines can’t see. Remember, search engines see text. How do you know if your web designer is really making and SEO friendly site?
   • Each page has a unique title and unique meta tags that describe the page.
   • Headlines are not in images…important words should always be in text only.
   • The designer has talked to you about unpalatable content or content management.
   • The designer has at least mentioned the word “keyword” in a conversation.
4. Set the Map
   A sitemap is a fundamentally important hidden part of all websites. It is the document that maps out your website for search engines and other spiders. This document controls what pages you want the search engines to find and which ones you want them to consider unimportant. You don’t have to know how to do one yourself, just to this sitemap generator and generate a sitemap for free.

The next article will focus on the tasks that should be done repetitively. These are scheduled tasks that should be done routinely to make sure that your efforts are paying off. Really, what is the point of doing all this work unless you are tracking and refining the process to get more conversions?

You have your work cut out for you…so away you go!