While most SEO’s already know the ins and outs of off-site search engine optimization, but what often gets overlooked is the actual on-site SEO which may be a key reason as to why you are not at the top of the SERP’s. I’ve compiled a list of things the beginner SEO can do to make sure his or her site is fully optimized for the search engines.

1. The Title Tag – Single handedly the most crucial element of on-site optimization. Make sure you have your main keywords in here. A useful plug-in for this if your using Wordpress is optimal title.
2. The H1/H2 Text – Are also extremely important because they show the search engine the main subjects and “table of contents” for your sites content. These should be targeted towards the keywords you want to rank for, and should be indicative of your title tag.
3. First sentence of body text – In terms of advanced SEO tactics, the first sentence for the body for every page on your site will be picked up by the SE’s and more importantly are picked up by Google’s LSI algorithm.
4. Meta Keywords, Description and Robots Tag — The site’s meta tags are always used to place your site in the rankings. As well your sitemap.xml will be looked at by Google on a regular basis so keep it updated.
5. The Body Text – Try to keep your focused body text in bold as this will be more emphatic to the search engines.
6. The URL — The subdirectory folder and page of content should be optimized. A useful way to do this with wordpress is through permalinks. (Settings -> Permalinks -> Custom Structure, and then use “/%category%/%postname%/”) So for http://site.com/SEO-optimization-in-toronto.html would rank higher for a page devoted to “SEO optimization in Toronto” simply due to this structure.
7. Same Site Link Texts — Make sure all your pages of your site are inter-linked or have some type of navigation whereas your main pages you are trying to rank for are linked. Make sense? Having your targeted keywords linked to other relevant pages can go a long way for a little higher rankings.
8. Same-Site Link URLs — Don’t just use keywords to describe pages inside your site, those URLs you link to should include SEO URLs as well. (eg: http://site.com/your-keyword.html)
9. Keyword Density — While this topic is generally up for debate, the general consensus is to have anywhere between 5-8% of your total text. So for a 500 word article you should have anywhere between 25-40 of those words as some sort of derivative of the keyword you are trying to rank for. While this isn’t THAT important for rankings, it should still be considered.
10. Image ALT Tags — Lastly you should always make sure to have your images optimized for keywords you wish to rank for. It wouldn’t hurt to go as far as to change the names of the images to be keyword-rich as well.

By using these simple methods, you can get a jump start on your off-site SEO so that you can focus more on getting inbound, authority backlinks from relevant sites. Then all you can do from there is write viral content and link build like a madman. I will be doing a follow up post on off-site SEO methods so stay tuned.

Earlier today a friend recommended I check out SEO Digger which is a totally free to use competitive analysis tool, which displays keywords your website ranks for. With a massive database of 44 million unique keywords and keyphrases you can see where you rank for your most popular keyphrases in an instant.

I had been using SEO Elite for all my keyword analysis but I feel that SEO Digger deserves a chance, seeing as their interface allows you to conduct analysis from any internet browser, without the need for an external program.

In terms of tracking SEODigger uses Overture and Wordtracker to show keyword popularity, alongside with google to show your current ranking. Other similar sites that achieve this are SpyFu (AdWords & Organic), KeyCompete (AdWords), and URL Trends (Organic).

I often get sidetracked with the multitude of projects I undertake and forget about the real earners that made me most of my money so im going to take a second to reflect on blackhat SEO.

Simplified, Blackhat is valid usable content generation, usually automated.

There are generally two methods you can go about doing blackhat seo, first is spamming other sites with links or generated content… And the second is to generate content, and tons of it. Autoblog’s, comment spam, email marketing, message boards, and social networks (myspace, facebook, youtube etc.)

However if you spam sites with your chosen keywords in order to rank higher in google, you will see a short term jump in rankings, but this will be gone in less than a month due to google’s algorithm picking up on those spammish links you’ve been dropping or automating… which leaves you back at square one. Your not gonna keep buying the bitch drinks if she aint going to put out. So the best method for doing this, which has been tried and tested, is to generate comedy/humor websites based off of feeds and databases that have several entries so that the output is relevant to the keywords for titles and meta tags. I setup a site similar to this and spent less than $50 and in about 2 month’s time I had earned almost $2000, blackhat at its finest.

Personally I don’t think people should sell SEO, but practice it on their own and learn. SEO is an ever developing realm, with the algorithms constantly being updated and changed.. The top blackhats stay ahead of the algorithm either by getting the code or by guessing which methods would go undetected. There are many outdated methods (keyword stuffing, invisible text, doorway pages etc.) that used to make a lot of money, and in order to stay ahead you have to constantly be on top of what works.

While blackhat SEO is unethical, if used properly in moderation (key word here) you can make a pretty penny, and at the same time not get penalized by the search engines as long as you stay within some very specific boundaries, and dont get greedy.

Blogs are quickly becoming one of the best marketing tools that small businesses and even large corporations can use. Whether your business is online or offline you can use a blog to keep your customers up to date on the latest events and generally use a blog as a marketing and advertising tool for extra revenue.

Blogs enable direct interaction with customers and allow them to see what goes on behind the scenes as well as keep up to date with the latest news. Blogs are inexpensive to start and run, enabling you to use thousands of themes to change the look of your site at the click of a button.

Here are a 5 key reasons as to how blogging for your company can be a good thing:

• Direct communication between you and your clientel.
• Blogs are great for SEO, fresh content added daily will bring traffic.
• The more relevant the content the more opporunity for the niche to branch off into other areas which in turn creates more revenue..
• Comments allow direct feedback customers as well as potential clientel.
• Cost effective, low startup cost, high return.

Make sure to give your customers a reason to read your blog as well.  Have them directly interacting with you by using polls, questionnaires, giveaways and contests, and you will see a surge in the growth of your company as well as some added side revenue from your blog.

For the typical forum admin, search engine marketing is a foreign concept. The what-to-do’s and what-not-to-do’s are but a blur. I have found a thread worth checking out and following. It depicts the common SEO (search engine optimization) myths, the things you have heard work but really don’t. I hope this thread is helpful. With insight in to these SEO myths, maybe the blurred vision will be a bit more clear.