Success with new project

First results...
For what it's worth (and it's not worth anything just yet...) I have managed to get ranked for my keyword at No.7 on the first page google.com SERP, and No.6 for a UK search. I am pleased with this result after what is relatively little effort, I have two hopes for the future when it comes to the SERP results:
1) That I can improve the position to the top three
2) That I have correctly identified a keyword that will be useful in terms or traffic and ultimately monetisation.
I will do some more investigation into related keywords to see how well I rank for those too. I usually simply type keywords into google, but there is a tool which will do this search for you called 'SERPsFINDER' - it's a free app that simply searches Google, Yahoo and LiveSearch - it returns SERP for your chosen keyword on your chosen domain - it may deliver different results from your own searching and in this case, it returned a result of postion 17 in google.com for my primary keyword. Doing this type of testing also gives you the chance to run an eye over the sites that rank above your own, giving you a opportunity to get some ideas that you may be able to incorporate into your own site.

I noted that with the hosting package that I bought, I was offered £50 free PPC advertising with bidvertiser which I took in order to generate some initial traffic. The keyword is relatively rare (between 260,000 and 2.3m results in google depending on how the search is phrased), and I am not a huge fan of bidvertiser (except when it is free...) so I am not expecting much traffic from this quarter, but at this stage I am looking for traffic from anywhere... If I were to be actually paying for a PPC campaign, then I would need to have my site a bit nearer to completion stage currently it is really just getting towards the end of the initial build stage.
I have printed out my pages so I can run a critical eye over them - currently five pages are live, there is one that needs editing - this will be like a FAQ or glossary page - these can be very useful for picking up keyword-linked traffic. I find having the pages printed in front of me allows me to see where I can improve the way the site links together, and helps to prevent duplication of content.
These initial results may not be long-term as I have seen freak SERP results from time time with new pages - hopefully I will be back in a few weeks time with a higher search position to crow about and some more content to help keep that position. So far, these results have come purely from on-site optimisation, I have yet to think out an off-page strategy, and quite honestly I am wondering if I can get away without it at the moment.

SEO - New Years Resolution

It's the start of a brand new year - Happy New Year!... and I'm as busy as ever with internet projects. I am halfway through introducing a completely new template on my 'cassette to CD' website whilst still building content on 'livewyre.NET'. On top of that, I have to get properly into PHP and code some new pages on a commercial website which will (hopefully) integrate with a MYSQL database - Oh and I also need to code an interface for the database so that anyone can use it... PHP is new to me, so getting to grips with that little task alone will be a very steep learning curve.
Running through this 'to-do' list in my mind, I realised that while I have been concentrating on getting these jobs done, I have not been as SEO-aware as I should have. The routine (mundane) tasks have been left for later whereas they should really still be a priority. These tasks include:

• When adding pages to a site, make sure your sitemap is updated
• Make sure that new pages are included in your site-wide links
• Make sure that new terms are included in your Glossary
• Make sure new pictures are SEO-friendly with keyword-oriented tags
  

At the end of the day, there is little point adding new material if your visitors can't find it, so my new years resolution (and I don't make them as a rule...) is to ensure that I put my SEO thinking cap on every time I add new content to one of my sites.

SEO - pages to add to your site

I have written before about the importance of having a site-map, whether that be in HTML form,XML or ROR - a site-map helps search bots to effectively index your site. There are two other sections that you also might consider adding to your site:
A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page and a Glossary of Terms. Initially you might see why this helps your visitors, but how does it contribute to SEO?
I have a FAQ section on my cassette2cd website (you can see it here... at the time of writing, this needs a LOT of work..) but I never thought about how it could be optimised. The trick is to phrase the questions to match search terms, so that it's possible for your FAQ section to pick up search traffic that your main site might miss.
I have added some explanation of terms to my site, but have not yet gone along the complete 'Glossary' route.. However I should because again having all these terms that are relevant to my website all in one place, will help the site to appear in search results. Not only that, but by linking from the main site to the glossary and then back again (include a BACK button on the glossary page - or make it pop-up) helps to give authority to your main site too.
If you need some ideas for your FAQ section, just look at any correspondence that you have received from your visitors and use the questions that you really have been asked..

SEO - Google overview...

Google is not limited to business use, but you will get more business than from any other search engine.
Search Technique:
Google is ‘interested’ in density of information and quantity of repeated words – each word is a ‘vote’ as far as the search engine is concerned. Google uses a ‘deep search’ technique requiring substantial information – associated (reciprocal) links will improve your Google. The search engine will follow all the links around the host website looking for links back and forth, and will follow links to other websites – the information which it encounters along the way will add to your rating if there is a return link to your own website.
To improve repeatability and to provide a bigger network of links (and thus a higher rating) include a glossary of terms (ie a page opening links up in a separate window explaining words appearing in the main website). Also use a site map with links to each page and corresponding links on each page back to the site map. This may seem over-kill, but it WILL ultimately increase your rating.
Google will also index the media it finds on web sites, calling the pictures by their proper names rather than default jpeg names. Ie: ‘ford_Capri.jpeg’ rather than ‘SMG0036.jpeg’ - Results of media searches reinforce the overall rating (be careful of using too much media on the homepage as download time will also affect your rating).
The ALT tags (box that comes up when your mouse passes over a picture) can also be scanned by search engines.
It is important that the title of your homepage is relevant to your market – this is what the searcher will see in the search results – Your homepage title should probably read something along the lines of a short ‘mission statement’ otherwise the first x number of words of body text will be displayed which may not capture the essence of the site.