I’ll admit it, I’m very drawn towards Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The idea that you can drastically improve the visibility of your site with a few code and content tweaks certainly does appeal to my lazy bone.

For my experiment this site is currently the perfect candidate; low traffic, and scoring exactly zero in Googles Page Ranking.

However, that’s all about to change.

There are a number of techniques involved in SEO which I’ll cover as I go along.

Okay, first things first; get a Google account. Done that already? Great!

Now what’s needed here is the Webmaster Tools and Analytics. These will show how Google sees this site, help uncover any errors, and measure progress.

Before going any further decide on the url, in my case either:
‘http://matthewbyrne.co.uk’
or
‘http://www.matthewbyrne.co.uk’ – my choice

Whatever you choose, stick with it.

Setting up Google Webmaster tools

1. Enter the URL of your site
2. Click ‘Verify your site’
3. Select a verification method – Here I always choose to upload an html file
4. Make a blank text file on your desktop, and rename it to your unique file name google5b27wb292f65b6.html
5. Upload this to your sites root directory using your favourite ftp program – I use FileZilla
6. Hit verify

Add a sitemap to Google Webmaster tools

If you’re site is built with WordPress, download and install the excellent ‘Google XML Sitemaps Generator for WordPress‘ plug-in. This automatically generates a fresh sitemap each time you add new content taking all the donkey work out of the job. Whilst you’re on their site why not donate a couple of dollars to encourage great software?

1. For everybody else visit XML-Sitemaps.com to build a sitemap.
2. Enter your URL
3. Hit ‘Generate’
4. Download the file to your desktop
5. Upload it to your site root with your ftp client
6. Back in the Webmaster tools hit Sitemap > ‘Add a sitemap’
7. Fill in the sitemap name ‘sitemap.xml’
8. Hit ‘Add general web sitemap’ and you’re done

Now I hop over to the Google account page and select Analytics.

Set up Google Analytics

1. Hit ‘Add new website profile’
2. Enter your URL
3. Hit ‘Finish’
4. Copy the chunk of code into all your pages before the closing body tag and you’re done

I’ll take a few hours/days for Google to process this information, and longer to give you anything meaningful, so don’t hold your breath. Next, determine the Google Page Rank.