|
  |
Tips for Optimizing Your Web Site
Deep linking. Make sure you have links coming into as many pages as possible. When other web sites are linking to different pages on your site, it tells a search engine that you have a lot of worthwhile content. Conversely, when all your links are coming into the home page, it tells a search engine that you have a shallow site, or that your links were generated by automation rather than by the value of your site.
Newsletters. Offer articles to ezine publishers that archive their ezines. The links stay live often for many years in their archives.
First come, first served. If you must have image links in your navigation bar, also include text links. Make sure the text links show up first in the source code, because search engine robots will follow the first link they find to any particular page. They will not follow additional links to the same page.
Multiple domains. If you have several topics that could each support their own website, it may be worth having multiple domains. Search engines usually list only one page per domain for any given search, though you warrant two. Also, directories typically accept home pages only, so this is a way to get more directory listings.
Article exchanges. Although link exchanges are useless, article exchanges are effective. You publish someone’s article with a link back to their site. They publish your article, with a link back to your site. You both have content and you both get high quality links.
Titles for links. Links can get titles, too. This helps visually impaired surfers know where you are sending them, and some search engines figure this into their relevancy for a page.
Not anchor text. Do not over use anchor text. You do not want all of your inbound links looking the same, because that looks like automation—something Google frowns upon. Instead, use your URL sometimes and your company name at others.
Site map. Every site needs a site map, which can be linked to from every page on the site. This helps search engine robots find every page with two clicks.
Know your target. As with any marketing campaign, the first step to optimizing a web page is to know your target audience. Is your site business to business, or business to consumer? This affects the tone of your site and the keywords you chose. Once you know who your user is, the next step is to choose keywords.
|
| |
 |
Search engines play a dominant role in business and consumer purchases. According to Marketing Today, search engines are used in the early or mid research phase in the buying cycle, at least one to two months before the buying decision, and Google is favored over other search engines.
More than 93 percent of entrepreneurs wanting to purchase a business research the purchase online and 60 percent of them click on the top three listings.
Most internet users looking for business opportunities decide which listing to click on seconds after scanning the page: organic searches get more than 70 percent of the clicks and 95 percent of browsers use a search engine at some point.
Sixty-two percent of Internet users looking for products do not search beyond the first page of results and 90 percent click on hits in the first three pages, according to a study by iProspect. |
|
|
Choose effective keywords. Picking the keywords browsers use to find your site is critical. One option is to hire a professional web developer. The other is to use a tool such as Yahoo!s keyword suggestion tool or Google’s Adwords site. Start with a phrase you know your site is about: for example, if you sell home health care, enter those words in the search box. The tool will return other related words, along with search volumes associated with each for the previous month. Do not be afraid to brainstorm several hundred words to start: you are simply gathering ideas for phrases that could drive traffic to your site, though they are not all necessarily being used by your target customer. Do not worry about the list being unmanageable: you will narrow it down quickly.
Once you have an extensive list of words, use a keyword analysis tool such as Wordtracker. You can subscribe, or pay a one-time fee. It is easy to use and gives you a good idea of how likely your site will be able to compete for a phrase. Choose about one phrase per page. For example, if your site is 300 pages, compile a list of 300 phrases.
Write your content. Once you have identified your keywords, write, or re-write, your content to make it more appealing to the target audience, inserting key phrases you have selected where possible. Do not over do it. Pages should be 400-500 words. If they are 1,000 words or more, divide them into smaller pages. On each page, you should have no more than two or three occurrences of a key phrase. This provides optimal keyword density. Do not optimize for optimization’s sake: content must be readable and compelling. If only one key phrase applies to the page, use only one.
Optimize your pages. To save time, this should be done in conjunction with the writing. Once each page has good keyword density, you will improve that optimization by adding optimized Meta tags and, if appropriate, some image alt tags.
Write a compelling title tag. This is the most important part of your optimization program and can be done at the same time you are developing content and optimizing pages. The importance of the title tag cannot be over-emphasized because it is the tag that is displayed in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). It is the link that people click on, and the tag that is read before they decide to visit. If your title tag is not compelling, it does not matter how well optimized your page is, most likely, it will not get the click. For this step, look at your competition to see what they are doing. If every other site has the keyword as the first phrase on the title, consider moving it into the second or third phrase.
|
|
| |
|
