Monday, September 28th, 2009
What is search engine optimization (SEO)?
- Website can be edited or "optimized" to be more visible by Search engines like Google and Yahoo.
- SEO involves making strategic changes to both the code and content (Website copy or text) of your Website.
Top 3 reasons why your Website needs search engine optimization:
- SEO is necessary if you want your Website to appear on search engine results.
- SEO is currently the most effective internet marketing tool for 2009.
- Search engines view Websites differently than people. If your site has mostly images and multimedia content - and very little text - your Website will look like a blank page to search engines.
5 Steps of SEO
- Get a snapshot of your current Website statistics.
- Who is visiting your site? How did they get there? What are they doing there? Getting initial Web statistics is important so you can measure the results of your search engine optimization efforts.
- Many web site hosting providers have a tool for viewing basic statistics. You can also get your site setup to a use a free, more powerful web statistics tool called Google Analytics.
- Do keyword research.
- This is the "strategic" part. A keyword is one or more words that someone would type into a search engine. Each page of your site should be written with a primary keyword as the main topic. Start with your home page and then do keyword research for the other most important pages on your site.
- Think like a web site visitor - what would they type in a Google search box to find your primary product or service? Come up with a short list of keywords. Make sure the keywords are highly relevant to your web page content.
- Test out keyword performance with a free online keyword tool such as Google AdWords: Keyword Tool. The secret is to choose a keyword that is popular but doesn’t have too much competition from other Websites (Websites that are using that same keyword).
- Integrate keywords into your Website.
- Keywords need to be weaved into both the HTML code and the written content of your site. There are specific strategies involved in both areas – so do some research on your own or hire an experienced Website and SEO copywriter like Mediatrunk.com.
- We will edit your existing Website content and code for search engine visibility, and we will also give you key guidelines on how to write effect search engine optimized content for any future press releases, event notices, and blog articles that you may write.
- Write specific content for each web page, and update your site often.
- Be sure to create a separate page for each of your main products or services. Search engines will rank a page higher if it focuses on just one topic or specific keyword.
- Update your Website often. Search engines tend to overlook a site that hasn’t been updated in a while – making it much less visible on search results. If you don’t know what to update your site with, consider adding photos, blog articles, news articles, event notices, and press releases at least monthly.
- Submit your Website to search engines and local directories.
- Submit your Website to the Open Directory Project, and your site will be listed on Google, MSN, and many other popular search engines – not including Yahoo. Also, consider paying for at least one year ($299) for a Yahoo Directory listing. Good news for non-profits – you can submit your site to Yahoo for free!
- Submit your Website to free local listing Websites like Google Maps and Yahoo! Local – this is especially effective if your physical business address is in the same city as your customer base. Then if someone searches for "your product" + "your location", the local listing results will appear above the regular search engine results.
Keep doing SEO to maintain or improve your search engine results.
- After about 2-3 months, repeat step 1 (Web stats) to measure your results. You should be getting more visits to your Website from search engines. What keywords are visitors using to get to your site? What pages are they visiting? Once a month look up and record your web stats and analyze them.
- Keep your site updated frequently with content that is optimized for search engines.
- Periodically do more keyword research and adjust primary keywords for each page if you find something more relevant, popular, and non-competitive.
- Make sure you’re listed in the search engines, local directories, and other Websites that you submitted your site to. Find more of those sites on a regular basis, and submit your site to them.
SEO can be time-consuming but rewarding. You can do it yourself or hire some or all of it out to a web designer who specializes in search engine optimization.
Good luck with SEO and have fun seeing more traffic coming to your Website!
Tags: google analytics, internet marketing strategies, local business listings, Search Engine Optimization, search engine ranking, search engine results, search engine submission, seo, Web Site Analytics (Statistics), web site content development, web site search engine optimization, web site writing
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Written by Mediatrunk.com - Colorado Springs Website design and Website marketing company produces real results for clients in Colorado Springs and beyond. Our Website services include custom Website design solutions and Website marketing.
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
Too many small businesses have web sites that haven’t been touched since the initial design was finished. If your web site doesn’t need a total redesign yet, you should still be making periodic updates and improvements to it so it can continue to help you support your business goals.
These top 10 web site fixes will be much less expensive than a total redesign, and they will also contribute to your bottom line by:
- Making your site look better
- Help your site be found higher on search engine results
- Get your visitors to contact you or buy your product or service.
Here they are: Top 10 Quick Fixes for Your Web Site:
- Make your web site load faster.
If your web site takes too long to load, they will quickly leave and find another site that won’t waste their valuable time. Your total web site load time should not be more than 100-150 KB. This includes load time of images, multimedia (flash), JavaScript, stylesheets, and text. Here is a useful free tool that tells you how long your web site takes to load.
- Display your logo and contact info at the top of every page.
Visitors are used to seeing the company logo on the top left of the page – so put your logo there too. Also make it easy for visitors to contact you by putting your phone number, address, and/or call-to-action buttons on the top middle or top right of every page.
- Create effective call-to-action buttons.
Wherever you talk about your product or service, display an effective link or button telling your visitors how to buy your product or service. Linked images or buttons are more effective than text links. Include action verbs in your buttons, and make sure all your call-to-action buttons look consistent.
- Shorten your contact forms.
Better yet, put a mini-contact form on your home page or on the top or side of every page so visitors don’t have to waste time clicking on your “Contact Us” link to contact you. Keep the list of items they have to fill out short. Name, email, and one other field (comments or a dropdown menu) should be enough.
- Write unique page titles for every page.
A page title is the top-most text you see in your browser’s window when viewing a web page. It is also the first text that a search engine sees and often displays in the search engine results. Make sure each page has a different title and the text in the title matches the content of the page. Include your top keywords in the title and make sure the title is at least less than 8-10 words.
- Review your web site copy.
Make sure your copy is in text format – search engines can’t see text that is embedded in an image. You should have at least 250 words of text on each web page so search engines will give them credibility. Break up your text so visitors and search engines can scan it quickly: use headlines, bullets, and images to do this. Try to include your top keywords in headlines, sub-headlines, bullet items, and links in your web site’s copy.
- Check your web site for errors.
Make sure your site has no spelling errors, broken links, or invalid code. Both web site visitors and search engines give less credibility to sites that have errors. Go to the W3C web site to see if your site has broken links or code errors.
- Check out your competitors’ web sites.
Make a list of your top competitors, visit their web sites, and write down any good ideas they have for quality web site content that will make your visitors want to do business with you. Then brainstorm for some unique content ideas of your own.
- Create a sitemap page.
A sitemap is an outline, consisting of links, of your entire web site. Put the link to your sitemap page on your home page and every page in your site – the footer (bottom of the page) is a good place for this link. Some visitors also use this as a tool for navigating a web site.
- Look at your web site statistics.
Your web site statistics will show you valuable information about who is coming to your web site, how they got there, and what they do there. Read my previous article, Basics of Web Site Statistics to learn how to get your statistics setup and how to use that valuable information once you have it at your fingertips.
Tags: Web Site Conversion, web site redesign, web site search engine optimization, web site tips, web site updates, Web Site Usability
Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Web Site Analytics (Statistics), Web Site Conversion | No Comments »
Written by Mediatrunk.com - Colorado Springs Website design and Website marketing company produces real results for clients in Colorado Springs and beyond. Our Website services include custom Website design solutions and Website marketing.
