Search Engine Optimization
Comments(0) Search engine optimization has been described by many experts as an art and a science, the art/science of publishing information and then marketing that information in such a way that enables search engines to find and index your site and that the information on your website is relevant to relevant searches or queries.
Search Engine Optimization involves more than just repeating a few keywords and hope that the search engines ‘trip’ over your site. SEO is a bit more complicated than that. Search Engine Optimization and how the search engines view your site should be a consideration at all phases of your site’s development.
Your site should include a site map, titles for each page (make sure these are not longer than 64 characters), and descriptions (no more than 190 characters) that highlight the main focus or reason your site exists and why it should be considered relevant by the search engines.
SEO consists of many aspects but the key areas of focus should be keyword research, content writing and page appearance, link building, and site submission.
Keyword research is the process through which you identify 100-250 keywords that are related to or associated with your products or services. Through the review of these keywords you will need to determine what words best represent your site offerings. It is best to not use common words that will be used on millions of sites. The key here is to choose words that are relevant but not dominated by others. You will not want to use generic words like computer or software as searches for those terms will return close to a billion possible websites that include them. Use more focused words such as Austin Computers or Atlanta Software.
Content writing is also a major focus of any good SEO campaign. Your website content should be written to capitalize on your keywords but the site’s content should also be well written and informative. If you are only repeating your keywords several times on the site, your site may show up in the search rankings but your potential customers and clients will click away quickly if you do not keep them interested. Additionally, your site’s pages should be laid out well so that when properly optimized, with the right mix of keywords and relevant content, the images or sight structure is pleasant to look at and keeps the visitor’s interest.
Link building and site submission each have their unique place in SEO and are extremely important in how quickly and for how long a site will be viewed current but more importantly – relevant. I learned early in my career that it was not necessarily ‘who you know but who knows you.’ And in the spirit of who knows you, you will want to link to and have other relevant sites link back to you. Site submission is the act of making search engines and related websites aware of your website. In some cases you do not need to submit your website to the major search engines, they follow links and index content. The best way to submit your site is to get others to link to it.
