10+ basic but powerful SEO techniques every webmaster should know
May 28, 2011 
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When looking and surfing around, it suprises me how many websites don’t master the basic SEO techniques. SEO is hot, and a lot of people make good money as a SEO consultant, but there are some basic techniques that every webmaster should know. These basic techniques are very simple, but also very effective. Let’s take a look!
Choosing keywords
It all starts with choosing the right keywords. A keyword is a very important word in your page / article, it’s where your page is about. When you just begin with SEO, keep it simple and start with 1 keyword.
If you want to learn more about choosing the right keywords, take a look at my list “10 top articles about how to choose your SEO keywords”.
Basic SEO tips
1. Use your keyword(s) in the page title
It’s important to give every page on your website a unique title. Place your keyword in it, because this is important for Google
2. Use your keyword(s) in the url of the page (and use nice urls)
Make use of nice urls if possible (www.mydomain.com/articles/everything-about-seo in stead of www.mydomain.com?p=125) and also use your keyword(s) in this url. The problem is that not every CMS can handle this, allthough this is very important. Luckily, WordPress can do this without a problem! Just edit the permalinks.
3. Use your keyword(s) in the H1 tag
Every page should have 1(!) title between H1-tags. This is where you put the title of your article. Make use of your keyword(s)!
4. If possible, use your keyword(s) in the H2 and H3 tags
When writing an article, make use of H2 and H3 tags for your subtitles. Also, make sure that you use your keyword(s) at least once in one of these subtitles.
5. Use your keyword(s) in the first sentence of your page / article
Make use of your keyword(s) in the first sentence of your page / article.
6. Use your keyword(s) in the last sentence of your page / article
Make use of your keyword(s) in the last sentence of your page / article.
7. Insert at least 1 image with your keyword(s) in the title and the alt tag
Inserting images is a good idea. It makes your article / page nicer to read. Also Google gives a lot of value at images… IF Google can read those images. That’s why it’s important to fill in the title and alt tag of ervery image.
8. Use your keyword(s) in your article (3%-5%)
I already gave a lot of tips, but we may not forget to make use of the keyword(s) in our page / article. The trick is to use your keyword enough, but not to much. A good “verhouding” is 3%-5% (for every 100 words in your page / article, use your keyword(s) 3 to 5 times). Write at least pages / articles of 200 words. A good help to calculate this is SEOPressor. This is a commercial plugin with a lot of other options. I use SEOPressor for all my WordPress blogs and websites.
9. Put some keywords in bold / italic
It’s important to put some of your keywords in your page / article in bold or italic. In that way, Google can recognize the words that are important (= your keyword(s)!).
10. Create a link to another page (internal or external) with the keyword in it
If your page is about SEO, create a link to another page (internal or external) with the word “SEO” in the title- and alt-tag, and maybe also in the URL.
How to do this in WordPress?
The nice thing of WordPress is that it’s already very good for SEO. But you can make it better by doing the following:
1. Configure your permalinks
This is an easy step, but thanks to the permalinks you will have nice URLs.
2. All in one SEO Pack
All In One SEO Pack is a great free plugin that configures several SEO-issues on your blog / website. For more information you can read a previous article “How to configure All In One SEO Pack“.
3. SEOPressor
SEOPressor is a commercial plugin that has a couple of interesting functions:
- The plugins calculates a “SEO score”
- It puts your keywords in italic and bold
- It calculates the percentage of used keywords in your article or page
- SEOPressor gives advise about what you can do to get a higher SEO score
For more information about this plugin, you can read a previous article “SEOPressor Review“.
Extra plugins?
One extra plugin I also always install, is Google XML Sitemaps. This plugin creates a sitemap every time you create a new page or post, or update a page or post. Google XML Sitemaps also contacts Google so you don’t have to do this. I must say, I have very good results with this free plugin, so I can only advise to install and configure it. You can find more information about it in a previous article “How to configure Google XML Sitemaps“.
Want to learn more about SEO?
When I just started with SEO, I read the following book: Search Engine Optimization by Kristopher B. Jones.
This book guides you in all aspects of SEO and gives you a lot of tips. It’s well written with a lot of examples. It’s not to technical, so if you’re interested in learning more about SEO, this is a great place to start!
Conclusion
As you can see, it’s not that difficult to apply SEO on your website. With the help of WordPress, the right plugins and a good book, you’ll get great results. But don’t forget, it can take some time to get indexed in Google, so don’t give up fast. The tip I can give you is: focus on your blog or website, but don’t forget these SEO tips.
