Designing/Re-designing A SEO Friendly Web Site

Many of you are just starting out creating your first web site and beginning your journey into internet e-commerce. I put together this quick list for those of your just getting started of things to keep in mind from a marketing perspective as you build your site. Keep in mind that you can design the best looking award winning site but if you don't have any traffic coming to the site you won't make any sales.

With that in mind keep these points in mind when creating or redesigning your web site:

1. Create Search Engine-Friendly Content
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Be sure your site is full of Keyword Rich html text content that pertains to the benefits of your web site product or service. Remember that text embedded in images or Flash cannot be read, so make sure keep your most important keywords in html text. Also try and use your keywords as headings, and hyperlinks in plain text form. Graphical buttons may be more appealing for your overall design but be sure to include hyperlinks in the HTML text as well. Never try to hide keywords or text by making it the same color as the page background or shrinking it so it can't be seen. That can get you blacklisted! Make sure the keywords you wish to rank high for are used frequently in the page copy but not forced.

2. Choose Your Keywords Wisely
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is one of the most important steps in SEO. First start by writing down all the terms that you would type into a search engine if you were looking for your web site, product or service. You can also use keyword research services to investigate word and phrase variations. Wordtracker, KeywordDiscovery, and the Google AdWords suggestion tool are good starting points. (you can google those names to find the web sites). Once you have a brainstorm list put together, then put those keywords into an order of importance. These keywords should then be used in your SEO for your site and in the visible text of your web site where appropriate.

3. Get Others to Link to Your Site
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Backlinks are a major key to high search engine ranking these days. The trick is to seek out web sites that have high page rank with Google and then request link trades with those web sites. There is no short cut to developing these backlinks. You have to diligently seek them out and build those relationships. The more unique your site and content and the more value you can provide to your link partner the more apt they will be to trade with you.
* Stay away from link farms that say they will create hundreds of backlinks to your site for you. Usually these pages have low page rank and will not provide you with much value.
Here are some other areas to create back links:

* Submit to free press release services
* Submit to reputable business directories such as Yahoo! and Business.com
* Create a free blog and link back to your main web site
* Ask your clients and business partners to link to your site.
* Participate in relevant forums and discussion boards with a link in your signature
* Submit original articles to article directories
* Get involved in social media and bookmarking

These three points are a general guideline to follow when getting started with your first web site, or when re-designing you existing site. There is a TON more in my Dynamic Web Marketing Secrets E-book.