Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is the act of making ones website content more search engine friendly to make it rank higher. We will research your keywords and optimize your site based on the most searched keywords in your industry and drive relevant traffic to your site via the major search engines and directories.

Most web traffic comes from search engines. Search Engine Optimization is the process of preparing your website so that search engines can better understand its content and/or purpose.

Each major search engine has a unique way of determining the importance of a given website.

  • Some focus on content
  • Others review meta tags
  • Others use a combination of meta tags, content, link popularity, click popularity, and longevity

 Web optimization ensures that a website has all the necessary ranking criteria to appeal to the individual search engine needs.

  1. If your site has content that naturally uses your relevant keyword phrases, and you follow simple guidelines on how to create your titles and meta tags, your Web site will rank high.
  2.  If your most relevant keyphrases aren't going to bring you traffic, find ones that will, and alter the focus of the site if you can 

Optimize for target audience and not for the search engines.

The search engines can't fill out forms, can't search your site, can't read JavaScript links and menus, and can't interpret graphics and Flash.

Things to Do

  • Label all graphics with ALT tags
  • Label all links with ALT tags
  • Incorporate keyword phrases into page's title
  • create a title tag for any page after the copy on the page has been written and optimized

The optimal approach when writing copy for a Web site is to think of the main phrases that best reflect your business, and then compose the text around them. When you write your title tag, you simply revisit these same phrases, and compose your keyword-rich title accordingly.

It's imperative to think of the search engine optimization process as a long-term investment for your site.

  • Make sure your site is not made up of graphics alone, as these cannot be "read" by the search engine spiders who come a-crawling. (This is especially true of graphics that look like text — these are often used when a particular font is desired.)
  • Be sure to use natural, easy-to-understand language that conveys the message of your Web site, and includes keyword phrases you'd like your site to rank high for.
  • Make sure your TITLE tag, META tags, and ALT tags all jibe with the visible content on the page.
  • Be patient! The search engine spiders are extremely slow to index new information that they find when crawling Web sites. Don't be discouraged if it takes six months or more to see the fruits of your labor.

 Services to offer

  • Professional copywriting
  • Optimizing tags, titles, and other parts of the code as necessary
  • Submitting optimized page URLs to major search engines
  • Monitoring search engines to enures URL gets indexed
  • Eriting copy to ensure proper usage of the most search-upon keyword phrases
  • Rewrite the content on the site by professional writes to incorporate your keyword phrases for high rankings.
  • Website functionality and design consultation to make site meet listing criteria of major search engines
  • Link building
  • "carefully craft directory descriptions that utilize your important keyphrases"
  • Category research to ensure site is submitted to most appropriate categories in each directory
  • Great, professional marketing text, and suggest other changes that may give the site a more professional appearance

All Search Engines value the following:

    1. A simple, cleanly coded design
    2. Well-thought-out, intuitive navigation
    3. Well-written, descriptive copy
    4. Titles and Meta tags that help identify relevant keyword phrases
    5. Links that accurately describe what can be found at the site.

Patience is a Virtue; seo takes time.

Search Engine Submission

  1. Think "specific keyword phrases" not "keywords". Why? Due to the extreme amount of competition for general terms in the search engines, if your keyword phrases are too general it is very unlikely you will rank well in the search engines. You stand a far better chance to rank well for specific phrases where there is less competition. The resulting traffic, since it is more highly targeted, should also be much higher quality too!
  2. Try to think like your target audience. What would they search for when looking for the page you are optimizing? It is very easy to fall in the trap of coming up with a short list of what YOU would search for, but what about everyone else? They will not necessarily use the same keywords as you. You should try to come up with as many keyword phrases as you can think of that relate to the page you are optimizing. Try asking a few friends and family what they would search for when searching for a site like yours.
  3. Check out your competition for ideas. Do a search using keywords that you already know you want to target and click through on the top sites that come up. Once on the site view the source HTML code and view the keywords they have in their meta tags - this should give you many more ideas! Make sure to only use keywords that relate to YOUR site or page. To view the HTML code simply click the 'View' at the top of your web browser then select 'Source', or 'Page Source'. 

SEO Tips from the book Design for Hackers

Choose the right keywords. Your page should be focused on a couple of keyphrases that you want to rank highly on and that people are actually searching for. Spend time searching the volume of keyphrases using a Keyword Tool.

PageRank is affected by the following factors:

  • age of domain
  • authority of pages that link to the page from other domains
  • date of expiration of the domain

There is lots of mystery behind SEO, and the author confirmed what I always say - the field is rife with consultants who overcharge and use tactics that are usually short-term or get your site downgraded.

This page contains information I gathered and thought were very useful. See more notes on programming.

Just to let you know, this page was last updated Wednesday, Dec 11 24