I was giving some free SEO advice to one of my client’s mother-in-laws today and thought I would adapt it in case it’s useful to any of my blog readers out there. I hope it is! Keep in mind that this is geared toward her Hand-crafted jewelry website and is ‘free’ advice to get her started.
Search Engine Marketing & Optimization – the gist of it
KEYWORD RESEARCH
Keywords are the backbone of SEO but should be used with care and always with the website visitor’s experience in mind. The main purpose of the [slider title=”keyword research”]New to keyword research? Try Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery or WebCEO.[/slider] is to determine what people actually type into the search engines and attempt to organically introduce the keyword phrases into your website content to complement these results.
In general, you just want to focus on a few keyword phrases per page – where they make sense in your content. Don’t be overwhelmed by the list – but just keep it on hand to refer to when you are entering a new product, writing an article, submitting your website to a directory or any other number of content and link building activities you’ll engage in over time.
INTEGRATE KEYWORDS INTO EXISITING CONTENT
Title tags, Description tags, Alt tags on images and actual on page content.
Using the keyword research, you will want to review each page individually and incorporate keyword phrases where it makes sense.
Most importantly, make certain that title and description tags on each page are unique. You do not want to duplicate this content on each page.
While crafting the title and description tags, keep in mind that often these are what show up in search engine results. So consider how you can strategically utilize keywords while at the same time entice the click through from the person searching.
Here is an example of how you might optimize your Earring Page:
Description Tag: Unique Designs offers unique handcrafted artisan jewelry. Click here to see our latest handcrafted earring designs.
Alt Tags: On each of the photos you will want to add an ‘alt tag’ that contains a descriptive keyword about the product.
Content: This page doesn’t have much actual content, but the titles under the photos can be optimized better and from a marketing perspective adding a little bit of your personality and flair to the descriptions could make the sale.
OTHER SEO SUGGESTIONS
Add a sitemap
Add a sitemap to the website and keep it updated so that as you add or remove products – Google and the other search engines will find them.
As a general rule you want to be sure that every page is within a couple of clicks from the homepage. A sitemap can make that possible for important product pages that are buried deeper in the site.
Build your links
Search, scour and devour your niche! Look for directories to submit your website to. NOTE: Remember to use some keyword phrases in your links when you can. For example a directory link could read like this: Gemstone Designs Handcrafted Jewelry
Try searching Google for things like ‘add craft link’ or ‘jewelry directory’ etcetera.
Never stop creating links to your website – it will be the deciding factor in how well your website ranks.
Write articles and submit them to article directories – make sure you link to your website at the bottom in an ‘author bio’.
Sign up for accounts with social networking websites like some of the following:
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Flickr
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Squidoo
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Digg
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StumbleUpon
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Facebook
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LinkedIn
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Epinions
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Del.icio.us
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Tribe.net
Blog
One of the exciting things about your niche is that there is tremendous ‘social networking’ potential. Other artisans may not be your most likely customers, but they may very well link to your website.
Get involved with them by starting a blog where you chat about anything relating to your art. Show photos of your latest designs, link to other blogs and artists and rave about their work.
Provide some ‘how to’s’ for beginners and poise yourself as in industry expert.
Join Forums
Do a search for forums with other crafters, or anything that you are interested in. Engage in conversations with people and utilize your profile ‘signature’ as a means to promote and link to your website.
Add your site to local listings:
Search on directories for your area’s local businesses and also consider submitting to:
- Yahoo Local
- Google Local
- Live Local
- Yelp
This should get you started :-) Good luck!
