Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, is the art and science of making web pages attractive to the search engines. The better optimized the page is, the higher a ranking it will achieve in search engine result listings. This is especially critical because most people who use search engines only look at the first page or two of the search results, so for a page to get high traffic from a search engine, it has to be listed in those first two pages.So search engine optimization focuses on techniques such as making sure that each web page has appropriate title tags and meta tags, and that the keyword or key phrases for the page are distributed throughout the content in a way that the particular search engine will like. Search engines find and catalog web pages through spidering software. Unfortunately, not all search engine spidering software works the same way, so what gives a page a high ranking on one search engine may not give it a high ranking on another. One of the things that search engine optimization specialists do is keep track of all the changes in search engine operations so they can optimize pages accordingly. They also keep up with changes in the different search engine submission policies.When you choose a designer to create a business web site, you should ask him or her about search engine optimization, as search engine optimization should be built into your pages. While it's never too late to optimize or tweak pages that have already been published, it's a lot easier and more sensible to include search engine optimization when the page is first written.
Effective Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is crucial for anyone who wants people to visit his or her Web site. You can place as many ads as you like, but most people are still going to find your site because of its listings in search engines or directories.
Search engine optimization is the process of making web pages attractive to search engines. In my work, I visit hundreds of web sites every month. Sadly, many of them are throwing traffic away; they look fine to the viewer, but ignore the basics of effective search engine optimization.
It's a fact that most people who use search engines only look at the first one or two page of search listings. The goal of effective search engine optimization is to get your pages listed on those critical first pages for particular key terms.
How do you do this?
1) Remember that each page of your site is a separate entity. You need to apply the basics of effective search engine optimization to each individual page. Therefore;
2) Choose appropriate key words or phrases for each page. For instance, although this page is part of the Small Business: Canada site, that's not one of the key phrases I've chosen for search engine optimization. (If you've read this far, I bet you already know what the main key word phrase of this page is!)
Phrasing matters. Many more people search for the term "effective search engine optimization" than for "effectively optimizing for search engines". To find out which key words or phrases are more popular than others, you can use a tool such as Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool; enter your chosen phrases and you'll see how many people searched for that term recently.
3) Give each page an appropriate title that includes the key word or phrase at least once. I so often see sites that use the name of their business as the title of all their pages. Is every page of their site about their business? Probably. But chances are really low that people will be searching for their business' name!
4) Put the key words or phrase that you've chosen in the page's title tag, meta keywords, and meta description. Make sure that the meta description is as appealing as possible, because some search engines actually use this description in the search engine results pages that people will be reading.
5) Be sure your chosen key words or phrase is repeated judiciously throughout the content of the page. You don't want to overdo it, or your page may be rejected as spam, but you need to repeat it enough times that the search engine's software will consider the phrase relevant.
As anyone in the business will tell you, these are the barebones basics of effective search engine optimization. But applying just these five basic rules of search engine optimization will give your web pages a much better chance of showing up on those critical first few pages of returned results.
Search Engine Optimization, Submission and Placement
Often people tell me, "My small business website isn't working. I'm not getting anything out of it."
The trick to getting what you want out of your small business website, such as leads and sales, is to have a small business website design that attracts the visitors you want and encourages them to do what you want them to do. Look at your small business website (or your plans for one) and ask yourself these eight questions to create a small business website that works.
1) Does your small business website have a professional appearance?
Your small business website design needs to look professional. Cookie-cutter website templates and/or home-made websites stand out like sore thumbs, and do nothing to encourage anyone to do business with you. Unless you are an experienced website designer, you should hire one to design a small business website for your company.
2) Does your small business website provide 'real' content?
The endless sales pitch approach is vastly overdone and an instant turn-off for visitors. People come to your small business website to see information about your business, and your products and/or services. They are already interested. So provide more relevant, additional content for them. For instance, if you offer bookkeeping services, additional information on keeping records or tax tips are great value-added content. If you sell tiles, provide not only detailed information on your product lines, but how-to information on installation.
3) Does your small business website make it easy for people to do business with you?
Somewhere on your small business website, you need to have a page that has your full contact information, including your mailing address and your phone number(s). It's not good enough to just have an e-mail address, especially one that starts "webmaster@". Carrying contact information on every page is even better.
4) If you have an ecommerce site, do you provide adequate online payment options for your customers?
If you want people to buy your product, you have to make it easy for them. Invest in a good shopping cart, and make sure that you offer payment options such as credit cards and other online payment options, such as PayPal. People don't want to have to bother to print off and mail in a form and a cheque. (For more on Canadian online payment options, see Online Payment Options for Your Online Business and Canadian E-Commerce Solutions.)
5) If you're selling a product or service online, does your small business website address your visitor's security concerns?
Customers are concerned about transmitting personal information, such as credit card numbers, over the Web. You need to not only have the appropriate technology (such as SSL) in place, but let your potential customers know about it, by putting your Secure Site certificates in prominent locations, and having a page that addresses your visitor's concerns, such as a FAQ.
Now your site showcases your business, and the products or services you offer in a way that makes doing business with your company attractive. What's next? Signage; showing the prospective customer the path to your small business website's door. Click to continue onto How do you show prospective customers the path to your small business website's online door? Primarily through good search engine placement, which means spending time on search engine optimization and search engine submission. Look at your small business website and ask yourself:
6) Have you built search engine optimization into your small business website's pages?
You need to give every page of your small business website the best chance of ranking well in the search engines. Search engine optimization means that every page of your site has title tags and meta tags that are appropriate in terms of the keywords you have chosen for that page (see Effective Search Engine Optimization) - and that you've used each page's keywords or phrases the ‘right’ number of times throughout each page (see Keyword Density Explained).
7) Have you put any effort into search engine placement?
The Web is full of spiders that constantly search for new and updated pages for the search engines. However, as there are millions of pages online, just putting up your small business website and waiting for the spiders to find it is not wise.
While I'm sure you've seen those ads that offer search engine submission to "hundreds" of search engines, this kind of automatic search engine submission is not effective. What works is taking the time (or paying someone else to take the time) to manually submit your small business website pages to a selection of the top search engines and directories.
Some businesses also find that pay-for-search-engine-placement search advertising is an effective way to attract the customers they want.
8) Does your small business website have adequate web hosting?
While there are some free web hosts out there, many visitors will turn up their nose at your site when they see that your business is using one. The assumption is that a quality business will have quality website hosting.
Using a free or 'inexpensive' web hosting service can also cause you problems because of excessive downtime - periods of time when no one can access your small business website at all.
Finding The Best Website Hosting Service, tells how to find the kind of quality web hosting that you need to draw and keep site visitors.
Making Sure You Create a Business Website That Works
The purpose of a small business website is to provide your potential clients or customers who use the Internet access to your business, and make doing business with you, rather than someone else, an attractive proposition. If you can answer "yes" to the eight questions in this article, you have a small business website that will be well on its way to bringing in those leads and sales you want.
31 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Business Web Site
Web site promotion has become a time consuming project and a new position in the web design industry, Search Engine Consultants, has been created. Use the list below to find ways that your business web site will be found by your ideal client, is user friendly and is visited often.
1. Build a strong, solid business foundation. Design a business plan, marketing plan, ideal client profile and 30-second elevator speech.
2. Be consistent and “brand” your company. Use the same colors, logo, motto, etc. everywhere on your business web site!
3. Make your business web site trustable.
4. Create policies that build trust: customer service, code of ethics and newsletter privacy policy.
5. Ask your web master to name each of your pages using a keyword you have supplied them with.
6. Offer added values on your business web site that make sense to your business and ideal client. This can include affiliate programs, books, and recommended links to web sites.
7. Add a “favorites or bookmark this site” script to some of your business web site pages.
8. Add a "Recommend This Site" on your site. If someone visits your business Web site and knows someone else who may appreciate it, this feature will e-mail the page's link to a recipient.
9. If you have pages on your business web site that you update monthly (like an articles page or recommended links page) say so on the page.
10. Join a few Web rings. For additional information, visit WebRing and Bravenet.
11. Provide a subscription box, to your e-zine or business announcement list, on your most viewed business web site pages.
12. On large business web sites, create a "What's New Page" or even better, ask your web designer to design a "Site Map" for your visitors.Much of your business web site traffic will come from search engines. Here are some search engine submission tips to keep in mind.
13. Search engines look for certain things - titles, headings, meta tags - so it is crucial to make sure your site is "search engine friendly". Visit the Search Engine Optimization and Submission page on this site for additional resources on search engines and search engine submission tips.
a. TITLE tags: Title tags should be 60 or so characters and include some keywords.
b. Header tags are numbered from 1 to 7: some search engines recognize Header tags. So make sure you use these tags for each of the titles on your page.
c. Keyword Meta tags: Add no more than 15 to 20 keywords to keep the search engines from flagging your site for keyword spamming. Prioritize your words. The best way to submit to search engines is to submit to each search engine individually.
d. Use keywords in the text area of each page. They are especially important at the beginning of sentences and higher up on the page.
e. To learn more about meta tags and choosing keywords, read "Effective Search Engine Optimization" (from About Small Business: Canada).
14. Search engines do not find your site unless you submit your site's information to them. Below are four ways to submit your Web site to search engines:
a. It is recommended that you submit to search engines individually (this is also the way I do it and it works great, but is time consuming)!
b. Since some people prefer to use a free service to submit their sites to search engines, I recommend that they open a free e-mail address to use when you do "anything" for free on the World Wide Web. Two good search engine submission services are Submit It!, and Scrub The Web. You can pay for a program that will assist you to submit and critique your site such as WebPosition Gold.
c. Hire a Search Engine Optimization Expert to handle your search engine submissions.
15. Visit these search engine information sites: Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Guide.
But search engine submission is only one way to drive traffic to your business web site. Continue on to the next page to read other tips for web site promotion.Making sure your business web site is search engine friendly is only one aspect of Web site promotion. Here are some other web site promotion tips:
16. Find easy and secure ways for your clients to pay you. A shopping cart and a secure way to accept checks and/or credit cards work very well.
17. Check your business web site's links regularly to make sure they all work. Use a free link checker such as Xenu's Link Sleuth.
18. Provide monthly chats or bulletin boards (forums) to build relationships and community.
19. Conduct periodic contests and announce the winners on your site.
20. Offer a free e-book or e-report on your site. Its size doesn’t matter if you’re providing it for free and it’s specifically for your ideal client. Provide permission for the e-book to be forwarded to others for their personal use.
21. Write articles, post them to your business Web site, and submit them to article banks.
22. Design some quizzes or surveys. Statistics show that visitors love quizzes and assessment tools.
23. Participate in online forums as an expert. You get to "quietly" promote your business in your three or four line signature.
24. Place your business web site address on all your printed literature -- business cards, brochures, newsletters, letterhead, e-mail signature, ads - everything!!
25. Promote your web address in your signature for e-mails (change it regularly to highlight something new you're promoting).
26. Teach classes or speak to groups about subjects relating to your products.
27. Network locally to bring people to your site.
28. “Permission Market” by gathering, in writing, the e-mail addresses of students, or an audience as part of your evaluation forms. Create index cards so that you can invite your friends, networking partners or associates to join your list. Keep any papers involved in this process for at least a year or two.
29. When your business web site is launched, updated, or you write a free e-book, send a Press Release to the media, your clients, and friends and associates, too.
30. Want to know more about Internet Marketing? Visit this Internet Marketing Index at Internet.com's Interactive Marketing Channel.
31. If this list of web site promotion ideas seems overwhelming, visit your favorite search engine to conduct a search for Search Engine Optimizers and Consultants or ask others who they use and would recommend.
