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Search Engine Optimization - A Do-It-Yourself Guide for the Small Business Owner
So your company has a website ? an important step to validate your company, boost its visibility and increase its sales. Now how do you get it to show up on Google and the other search engines like Yahoo and MSN?
A high search engine ranking for your website is essential. At least 85% of people looking for goods and services on the internet find them through search engines.
To increase your website's ranking on search engines, you could hire a company to do it for you. There is a whole search engine optimization (SEO) industry that will gladly take your money. SEO is simpler than it is made out to be, and there are several steps that you can do yourself to increase the rank of your website.
1. The content of your website is key. Search engines check to see if search words appear close to the top of the page and their frequency on the page. You must first determine what the key words that your customers search with. Consider the website from the perspective of a potential customer and try to understand what they would be searching for on the web. Aim to have 100-250 words on each page with those key words used as often as possible. Those same key words should be included in the title tag of your coding, but keep it to six words or less. (this is the coloured bar at the top of the page). The site at http://www.related-pages.com/seoTools.aspx?cb=wgyr has some great tools to help you optimize key words.
2. Link Popularity. This is a factor that is extremely important in search engine rank. Almost all of the search engines use link popularity to rank websites. Inbound links matter most, and highly ranked sites linking to your site are worth more that lower ranked sites. If you can provide content that other sites want to link to, you will move up in the rankings. This means that you may have to actively solicit links to your content and perhaps write articles for other websites.
3. Proper Page Structure. This can be tricky for people who don't know HTML, but it really isn't that complicated. Your pages should be coded correctly so they are easier for the search engines to index. Your site should have easy to follow text navigation, and you should avoid using Flash to build your entire page because it makes the site harder to index. If you want dynamics on your page generated by other languages such as JavaScript, you should have these codes in external files. There is also an html validation tool at http://validator.w3.org/ that is useful. Errors in programming code and incorrect html can keep the search engine robots from indexing your web pages. Keep coding clean and simple.
4. META Tags. This may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but it is very simple code that should be included in your site because its makes it more inviting to the search engine spiders that crawl the internet.
5. Don't Cheat. Don't try to 'spam' the search engines by including invisible keywords repeated hundreds of times or by repeating key words in META tags. The engines are getting smart and will penalize you for this. They may even drop your site all together.
6. Patience, Patience, Patience! It can take weeks for the search engines to re-index and re-rank your site once you have made changes or if you have a new site. Search engines are smart, but they taken time to sort through the vast amounts of information that's thrown at them. If you are patient, you will see results.
7. Many of the major search engines still include a free submission section for their listings. It may take 6-8 weeks (or more) for your listings to show up, but Google, AltaVista and Yahoo still accept free submissions. Since search engine rank is key for success on the internet, you may want to budget for search engine optimization and consider paid listings (Yahoo), or pay-per-click advertising on Google.
Good web design is a balance between what looks great and optimizing your site for search engines. Your content must be good enough so that other sites want to link to it while at the same time include key search words that will draw potential customers. You also need to have your site built correctly and take the time to manage it and keep it fresh. Now you are well on your way to having a high ranking website on Google. Good luck!
Colleen Happ designs effective and affordable websites and graphics. Her portfolio can be viewed at http://www.happconsulting.com. She offers free one hour consultations to show how an effective website can benefit your business.
Google Page Rank - Important Or Just Another Number?
In my last newsletter I wrote about how your websites Alexa rating is not actually that important to the success of your online business. In this issue, I want to look at another popular statistic - Google Page Rank - and ask a similar question - is it that important?
Designing a Better System for Search Engines
Designing a Better System for Search Engines and Information Distribution, information and knowledge are power. Having run out of things to study today, I thought about Researching and Research. Here are some observations on R and R. If you owned a body shop that would be remove and replace. For many Americans it is rest and relaxation, but for Wash Guys it is now researching Research (ing) and/or (ers). I believe that Search engines are getting better as that business model continues to perform before, during and after the Internet Bubble. However I believe they can do better.
Feed me - Satisfy the Search Engines and Your Sites Visitors With Keyword-Rich Content
Search engines love content. Graphics may make your site look great, but a nice picture does not attract a search engine. Or a searcher for that matter. Good, relevant content does.
Finding Targeted Keyword Phrases Your Competitors Miss
Finding Targeted Keyword Phrases Your Competitors Miss
Search Engines 101 - Search Engines Explained
What Are Search Engines?
Tips On Optomizing Your Website For Search Engines
I wish to give a few little tips, about optimizing. You may find it quite useful, depending on the type of website you have.
Making Money with Popular Search Engines
With so many internet and home business opportunities on the world wide web nowadays it is very confusing as to know which ones are scams and which are not.
Use Keyword Articles for Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is very important for your online business if you are interested in staying in business. The reason for this is most of the time the large search engines direct traffic to your website, however your website must include what the search engine is looking for in order for your web page to be returned as a result. It might sound complicated, but it really is not because people use the search engines to search for keyword terms and then the search engines crawl the web looking for web pages containing these same keywords. The most important thing for you as an online business is to know the keywords that apply to your business and then include them on your web page through the use of keyword articles.
5 Simple Steps to Great Search Engine Rankings
Having your website rank well in the major search engines is crucial to a successful Internet business. However, the information on doing so, which abounds on the Internet, can be perceived as complex and contradictive. Many website owners end up overwhelmed by all the data and simply quit and move on to other areas of promotion. By following the handful of steps presented in this article you will be well on your way to solid rankings.
A Way for Search Engines to Improve
Wouldn't it be nice if the search engines could comprehend our impressions of search results and adjust their databases accordingly? Properly optimized web pages would show up well in contextual searches and be rewarded with favorable reviews and listings. Pages which were spam or which had content that did not properly match the query would get negative responses and be pushed down in the search results.
How To Become an SEO Expert - 5 Secrets That Will Allow You to Outperform 95% of All Webmasters
Becoming an SEO expert, or a search engine optimization expert, is something that is worth your while if you are interested in getting your web page noticed and increasing your traffic. It is not hard to become an SEO expert if you simply know what steps you need follow to take you there. As long as you follow these steps and are diligent, you will become the SEO expert you want to be. Read the following topics, then research them more to learn exactly what will put you above the majority of all webmasters.
Dont Get Banned by Google
There are many Black Hat techniques that people use to try and influence Googles ranking of their sites, the simple thing to remember is that THEY DO NOT help your rankings, are simply a waste of your time and sooner or later will lead to a Google ban for your site. Sure there are sites that use these techniques and are getting away with it but they will eventually get penalised as Google always manages to find them eventually.
Search Engine Wars - Quality Searches Vs Quantity!
It is no secret that Google and Yahoo are on a continuous battle to win our hearts and get everyone to convert, but is converting someone really a matter of the quantity or the quality?
21 Search Engine Terms Every Web Marketer Should Know Part 1
1. Search Engine - Is a database of web sites that is ranked according to the computerized criteria that the programmers decide upon called an algorithm. Various search engines determine ranking on their own different factors of importance or relevancy. For the last few years the Google search engine was the most popular search engine supplying the search results for Yahoo and to a lesser extent MSN and AOL. This all changed recently after Yahoo purchased different search engine companies and developed its own search engine. Soon MSN will enter this market with its own search engine algorithm.
Your Search Engine Optimization Strategy: Make Love, Not War
When it comes to search engine optimization strategy, there are basically two camps ? those who view search engines as adversaries to be conquered at any cost and those who regard search engines as partners in their online marketing efforts. Long-time readers of my articles probably already have a good idea of which camp I fall into; however, I believe both approaches can be effective optimization methods.
Its All in the Title
Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world. You may be the most intelligent writer in the world, and have breaking information, which, if people actually read it, would benefit them and their business.
Google Rankings -- Achieve Top 10 Rankings with Free Tools
In order to get a top 10 google ranking it is imperative to not only know how to use the resources that are available to us, but to also know what to do with them. The key is always to find out what tools are the ones to use. In my experience, there are two tools I use almost daily to help my sites achieve top 10 rankings.
The Life Blood of Internet-Based Home Businesses...Search Engines
Anyone involved in an Internet-based home business will soon come to recognize the importance of search engines as a vehicle to attract potential customers.
Internet Marketing and SEO
Have you ever seen any email offers of getting you to the top of search engines guaranteeing top rankings. Like anything in life there is no quick result without hard work. When it comes to designing a website it is the proper foundation principle. Like any great structure you need the foundation built for search engines.
Google Has No Content On Page
One of the post from My SEO world Meet Up Group?.!