This week, I tried something new. Each day, I wrote a post about a topic that I’ve been studying: search engine optimization (or SEO, for short).  In case you missed them, here’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday‘s posts.

When in doubt, “Google It”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to write about today. So, I did a quick Google search for “top SEO tips” as a starting point. It felt like cheating, but at the same time, shouldn’t the best advice on Search Engine Optimization be at the top of the search?

The first result was for www.top10seotips.com. I jumped right to downloading the free eBook, which I found to be really useful. (Note: there are a few hoops to jump through in order to get the book, but I think it was worth it)

From the title, SEO in a Day, I was really skeptical. In my experience, articles/books with “___ in a Day” are usually really watered down, empty content. I was pleasantly surprised. I learned about how to optimize this blog (which is powered by WordPress) by installing a few more plugins and tweaking the settings. I also found his explanation of keywords and keyword tracking to be really helpful. I’d say it’s worth it to download and review the 36 pages.

Make it easy

One other gem I found on the site was this idea of making it incredibly easy to link to your work, and with the link text YOU want. Check out Top 10 SEO Tips. At the top of the page, he wrote the HTML code he’d like people to use when linking to his site. Honestly, it made it easier for me to create the link, and he will benefit more from the link because the link text includes keywords that he is targeting. He didn’t leave it up to me, he did the work for me. Consider adding something like this on your own site.

I don’t necessarily agree with his comments that you should fire your Webmaster, developer and SEO expert and strictly DIY. I think it’s important to have basic knowledge of whatever you’re hiring a professional to do (so you can speak intelligently about what you’re looking for and make sure you’re not being taken advantage of) but a professional can almost always do it better and faster than you can.

Still looking for more tips?

Then you should check out, 55 Quick SEO Tips Even Your Mother Would Love.

Here’s a roundup of a few things I learned:

• Use keywords in the image ALT attributes.
• If you don’t update your content often, you should have blog and update it at least 3 times per week.
• When optimizing blog posts, you should optimize your post title tag independently from your blog title. Use keyword-rich captions with your images.

Let’s get to work.

When I relaunched my site in December 2009, I thought I had a good handle on the basics of SEO, but after this week of researching and writing on the topic, I have plenty of SEO-related updates and maintenance to do. I hope you found this series helpful.

Feedback, Feedback, Feedback!

Did you like the increased amount of posts this week? Do you like the idea of a weekly topic, or were you bored by the end? Comment on this article or send me an email at danielle [at] daniellebaird [dot] net with your thoughts or with ideas on another series. Thanks for reading!

This week, I’m trying something new. Each day, I’ll write about a topic that I’ve been studying. This week’s topic: search engine optimization (or SEO, for short). Check back each day for a new post, or why not just subscribe to the RSS feed?

Many of the factors relating to page rank rely on the talent of your web developer, web designer and/or copy writer. Hiring these professionals requires a budget — but there are things you can do on your own, for free, to help your site’s page rank.

On Tuesday, I shared some tips and resources about how to improve your rank, which included the importance of inbound links. You can ask other sites to link to you, ideally with keyword specific text as the hyperlink, but you really don’t have any control over whether or not that site will actually link to you or how they’ll do it. So, how do you get inbound links?

You can create (some of) them yourself.

1. Create business profiles on sites like LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, etc. and fill out the profile information. Include a link to your business.
2. Publish articles anywhere and everywhere you can. A site like Biznik is a great place to get published. Demonstrate your expertise by writing a helpful article, with an extended byline linking back to your website.
3. Create an HTML signature to use in Web-based discussion forums that uses your name (or business name) as a link to your web site. Every message you post becomes a link to your site that search engines can index.

These tips alone aren’t guaranteed to move you to the top of a search — but they are especially great for increasing the page rank for your name or business name.

Other tips to drive traffic

These won’t necessarily help your page rank, but it will help drive visitors to your site, which will hopefully result in conversions (see Monday’s post).

1. Include links in your email signature. Don’t forget your signature from your Blackberry /iPhone/Smartphone. You send out 300 emails a day? That’s 300 opportunities to share a link.
2. Comment on other people’s blogs. People feel like they need to have a blog or “a Twitter” because “everyone has one.” I have a journalism background and I like to write — but I’ll be the first to say that maintaining a blog is challenging and time consuming. Reap some of the same benefits, with less effort. Read blogs that your prospects read and leave comments. Most comment forms ask you to fill in your web address, which becomes a link back to your site when you comment.

Up next:

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll share some additional SEO resources. Don’t miss it: subscribe to the RSS feed.

This week, I’m trying something new. Each day, I’ll write about a topic that I’ve been studying. This week’s topic: search engine optimization (or SEO, for short). Check back each day for a new post, or why not just subscribe to the RSS feed?

SEO Tools from seomoz.org

A collection of over 20 SEO tools designed to help with a variety of search engine optimization. It groups the tools into different categories, such as Page & Site Analysis Tools, Competitive Analysis Tools, Keyword Research & Discovery Tools, etc.

Free Search Engine Rankings Check from Mike’s Marketing Tools

The site isn’t very pretty, but the tool is pretty awesome. Type in your website, the keywords you are targeting, pick your search engines, and go. A pop-up window appears showing where your site ranks on up to 8 different search engines (if you’re within the top 100 listings, otherwise, it just says “no.”)

I learned that when searching for “danielle baird” my site ranked #1 on all, except for Bing, where it was #3. I was curious, so I did a Bing search, and sure enough, my old, old, OLD portfolio site (which I thought DePaul had taken down and I no longer have admin access to) and someone else’s MySpace account appeared above www.daniellebaird.net. All of the SEO research I’ve done doesn’t mesh with the way Bing is operating…I don’t consider it a credible search engine anyway.

And finally…

The Google Toolbar by Google

Among other things, the Google Toolbar includes the PageRank of the site you are currently browsing. The PageRank isn’t an obvious part of the toolbar – it’s located between the Bookmarks and Translate buttons. If you hover your mouse over the bar, a tool tip appears “PageRank is Google’s view of the importance of this page (X/10)” with X as the numeric value assigned to that page.

Up next:

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll share some ideas on how to build up your page rank, without the help of a web designer or developer. Don’t miss it: subscribe to the RSS feed.