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Tips for Grabbing Search Engine Attention
During
the past month, several clients shared questions and concerns about
optimizing their websites for search engines. Search engine
optimization, or SEO, has become somewhat of a science, and many
companies spend many thousands of dollars per year on SEO and related
services. Having said that, however, there are several things you can
do as a business owner to raise your standings in search results
without re-mortgaging the house or exhausting your marketing budget.
You just need to know what to do or ask your webmaster to do, for you.
- First, fill your website with original, quality
content that is
valued by your customers and is specific to your business relationship
with them.
- Select search words and phrases that reflect
those used by people
searching for the types of goods and services you provide. Two or
three-word phrases are better than single words because they refine the
potential list of matches and eliminate unwanted competition from sites
that are not as specific a match. Each page in your website can have
its own set of search words and phrases reflecting the content of that
particular page.
- One of the main ways a search engine ranks
pages is by determining
the frequency and location of search words on your web pages. So, use
those search words and phrases: in your meta tags; in your title tags,
in content headlines; and near the top of the page, specifically in the
first one or two paragraphs. Search engines may penalize pages or
exclude them from the index if they detect search engine "spamming."
"Spamming" is when a word is repeated many, many times on a page to
increase the frequency and propel the page higher in the listings.
- Avoid the use of web technologies that prevent
or hinder search
engines from reading and indexing your web pages - specifically frames
and dynamically generated content. Including an HTML site map will aid
engines in indexing your site and provide a comprehensive navigation
aid for site visitors, as well.
- Avoid using graphic files (GIF, JPG, FLASH) to
display key content
- specifically for headlines, customer quotes, and other content-rich
elements; do take advantage of the ALT attributes in every image to
describe the image content, using search words when appropriate. Search
engines cannot "read" image files, so any content contained in the
image itself is lost.
- Do participate in reciprocal cross-linking with
other quality sites
that contain information that would also be of interest to your target
profile of visitor. You want links from good web pages that are related
to the topics for which you want to be found. Every major search engine
uses link analysis as part of their ranking algorithms because it is
very difficult for webmasters to "fake" good links. As a result, link
analysis gives search engines a useful means of determining which pages
are good for particular topics.
To find those good links, go to the major
search engines and
search for your target keywords. Visit those pages that rank high in
the search results and ask the site owners if they will link to you.
Not everyone will, particularly if your site is considered to be
competitive with their site. However, some non-competitive sites will
link to you, if you are willing to link back. In this way, you can
benefit by receiving some visitors from these high traffic sites, as
well. A good, consistent email marketing program will also drive
traffic to your website.
- Take the time to manually submit your website
to leading search
engines and directories, particularly when launching a new site, or
when implementing a major upgrade of an existing site.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barbara_Langdon
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