10 tips & tricks to optimize your independent creative web site, both on and off page. Organic search engine optimization tips from seOverflow.

1. Optimize Your Independent Creative Site: 10 Tips On SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to Drive Traffic To Your Business presented by seOverflow

2. Who Is seOverflow? seOverflow is a search engine optimization and pay per click marketing company in Denver, CO. We specialize in offering solutions that enable web design companies, marketing consultants, and other solution providers to offer customized, innovative SEO services to their clients. We are a Google Adwords Qualified Company, Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassadors, and SEMPO members.

3. SEO From 30,000 Feet On-page Optimization – research, planning and implementation. Anything and everything that can be controlled on the website. Link Building (Off-page optimization) – the process of getting other websites to link to your website. Think of links as popularity votes.

4. Tip 1: Perform Proper Keyword Research Use the Google Keyword tool combined with brainstorming to figure out what people are searching for in relation to your business. Besides ‘local’ keywords, what other niches can you compete in (e.g ‘legal website designer’, ‘travel website developer’, etc.). Be sure to pick carefully as these keywords form the foundation of your SEO strategy. Assign 1-3 keywords per appropriate page of your site (eg, not the privacy policy). https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

5. Spiderability Accessibility (Broken Links, W3C, File Size etc.) Title Tags H Tags Keyword Prominence Meta Tags Image Optimization Tip 2: Critical On-pageOptimization Components

6. Tip 3: Get More Effective Links From Your Clients and Associates Make sure and get links from all client websites you design or projects you are involved with. Use keywords from research as anchor text (e.g. instead of ‘Firm Name’ as anchor use ‘Denver Web Designers – Firm Name’).

7. Submit your website and your clients’ websites to CSS Galleries. You can find a list of a ton of CSS Galleries here: http://www.webgallerylist.com/ Many offer ‘do follow’ links that count. Submitting your clients’ sites indirectly helps your own site. Tip 4: Submit to CSS Galleries

8. Tip 5: Submit Your Site to Niche Design Directories Submit your website to ‘niche’ or ‘vertical’ web design directories which offer followed links without a link exchange. Where possible, alternate link text and descriptions used in the directories. http://www.webdesigners-directory.com (good) http://www.designdir.net/ (good) http://killersites.com (this site redirects)

9. Tip 6: Create Social Media Profiles Create profiles and add your link on sites like Digg.com, LinkedIn.com, Twitter (nofollowed), web design forums etc. Typically the more you participate in these social networks, the more powerful your link will become from internal linking.

10. Write an article and submit to sites such as ezinearticles.com. Write a guest blog post for a popular blog, search for opportunities like ‘”Guest blog” + “web design”’. Create a how-to article (something about Photoshop maybe) and distribute to site such as Instructables.com. Tip 7: Write And Distribute Content And Articles

11. Tip 8: Join Orgs and Associations Every Meetup.com group you join gives you a keyword rich text link from that profile. Join BBB or Chamber of Commerce if link ops look good. Sponsor events or charities and be sure and ask for a link back.

12. Tip 9: Submit Local Biz Info Be sure to claim your local business listings on sites like Google Maps, Yahoo Local, BOTW Local, MSN. Enhance your profile with photos, coupons, etc where possible. Get clients to leave reviews on sites that accept local business reviews. Check competitors reviews and ‘web pages’ for review and link ops.

13. Having a Flash site doesn’t exclude you from being able to optimize. Use SWFObject to embed Flash and make use of ‘noflash’ div for content. Look into SWFAddress as well to create ‘separate’ urls for each ‘page’ of your Flash site. Tip 10: SEO Your Flash Site