Search engine optimization (SEO) is a buzz phrase of the modern online age that has generated a frenzy of discussion and, more importantly, investment from website owners. SEO, as daunting as it may sound, is pretty simple. It can be translated as improving your site design, functionality and implementation to improve your rankings on search engines. Through several methods, you can make changes to a website in each of these areas to reach your goal of higher search ranks. But why is it so important that you pay extra attention to it?
Search engine referrals likely account for a majority of the traffic to your site, so it makes sense to focus on improving your page rankings. The idea is that the better you rank, the more traffic you will receive and the more effective your site will be at doing whatever it is you designed it to do. Bottom line is that traffic is the name of the internet game, and a good page rank is the key to bringing those valuable visitors to your website. Contrary to what some may say, achieving these page ranks does not require a large investment; instead, smart investments and decisions can yield the same results for much less.
The prevailing perception is that SEO requires a large and/or additional investment on top of your original investment into your website. It just is not true. Some SEO companies/specialists prey on consumers' lack of knowledge to justify high costs of optimizing a site. While they hopefully deliver on some of the promises made, chances are you could have saved most, if not all, of that money and yielded comparable, if not better, results. Do not be taken by a firm promising you the moon-saying they can guarantee top 10 results for 3 years on certain keywords, for example. Even Google cannot promise you that. Do your research, get several quotes and speak with your webmaster, if you have one, before making any additional investment in a SEO or online marketing company.
As the saying goes, knowledge is power. SEO is important, but it does not require you to spend thousands in order to rank well. If you have an unanswered question, take your query to the internet where a great deal of information on the subject is easily found. Careful though! Stick to trustworthy sites that are not aimed at selling you anything. Wikipedia might be a good place to get started. Armed and ready, you should enter the SEO arena confident you can achieve great results and take your website to the next level.
Google accounts for more than 50% of all organic search traffic. Here's how you can use search engine optimization to improve your rank with the king of search engines.
Select the Correct Keywords. Search the keywords you have in mind and see what sites currently occupy the top 10 on Google. Do not target general keywords like "salon" or "beauty products." These keywords may get you some visits, but you will not rank highly since they will be so diluted. Instead, target keywords or phrases that are more specific to your website. An example would be instead of targeting "salon," you should target "cityname salon." This narrows the field and will allow you to rank higher, drawing more valuable hits than a generic keyword would.
Links, Links, Links! Your page rank is greatly affected by the links to your site and within your own site. Gaining links from other websites to yours should be an organic process. Based on the contents of your website, others will link to you. The better your content, the more links you are likely to get, so keep your page updated and interesting.
WC3 Validator
validator.w3.org
Google Analytics
www.google.com/analytics
Page Strength Calculator
www.seomoz.org/page-strength
Internal links are simply links from one page to another on your website. Make sure highlighted text relates to the page to which you are linking. Also, avoid the bad practice of using a generic call to action as the highlighted text. For example: Instead of saying "To see our great products, click here.", say "Be sure to stop by and see our great products." Again, the idea is to have the highlighted text be relevant to the page to which it links.
Keep Using Meta Tags. Meta tags are used to provide keyword data for search engines about the content of your web page. List your strategic keyword phrases up to a maximum of 744 characters. Use keywords that are relevant to the page, with or without commas. While somewhat outdated, meta tags are still somewhat viable and certainly do not hurt your efforts.
Use Heading, Title and Alt Tags. Heading tags are used to emphasize header and subhead copy on a page. A title tag is a descriptive word or phrase for specific HTML elements. Alt tags display when pictures do not show up. Use descriptive, unique and keyword laden tags where applicable on your website. These elements are "spidered" (routinely searched) by search engines and are valuable in helping them determine what your website contains.
URL Structure. Your webpage should have search-engine-friendly URLs (page locations seen in a web browser's address bar). This means no links within your site that have a "?" towards the end or page names that do not relate to the page's content. An example of an ideal link would be (http://www.yoursite.com/products/) where "products" relates directly to the contents of the page.
Design to Standards. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where member organizations, a full-time staff and the public work together to develop Web standards. These standards are considered the "best practices" when designing a website. Adhering to these standards make your site more visible and more readable for search engine spiders.
Avoid Non-Indexable Content. Flash sites, some JavaScript elements and some dynamically generated content cannot be indexed by search engines. Simply put, the search engines are unable to read the content, so anything displayed in those elements is invisible to the search engine. That is not good! Ask your webmaster about the design of your site and how to avoid or minimize content that falls into this category. This is why it might be a good idea to have text-based navigation rather than an image-only navigation bar.
Make a Site Map. A site map is a page that links to all your internal pages, usually sorted by the page title and category. This page will allow search engine spiders to see all your internal pages with a relevant link. This provides the spider with valuable information about what your website contains.
Sign up for Google Analytics. By adding simple, Google-provided code to each web page, you'll receive valuable information about how people came to visit your site, what keywords they used and a whole range of other useful information. Learn more at www.google.com/analytics/. For those interested in online marketing, this service also provides the most valuable information you can obtain in order to create and manage your paid online marketing campaign. (Visit adwords.google.com to learn more.)