I work with small and mid-market businesses each day,
and know how hard it is for small business owners to
optimze their website for the search engines. They all ready
have a full-time job, plus it is a challenge to show up at the
top on Bing, Google and Yahoo. It ususally makes sense
to use someone like TwinEngines to optimize your website and
institute a continuous imrprovement program. After all,
the ROI can be realized in 6-12 months with benefits lasting for
the long-term.
There are some basic tips I share with owners whether it is part
of a new website design or included while enhancing a website to
achieve real business results. These tips will help rank a
website higher in the natural (organic) search engine rankings,
without having to pay the search engines.
First, the reason search engine optimization is important is
that people can find your company when they need your product or
service. Once they land on your website, people become a new
sales lead or make a purchase - two top ways websites can engage
people to increase sales for your business.
All these tips can be achieved using a good content management
system (CMS):
Each page in the website should have a unique meta
title
This is the text that shows at the top of the browser
window. Try to include your company name, the name
of the page and your keyword phrase.
Include a h1 page title in the content area of the
page
This is the title of the page people read in the content area of
the page. It can help if it includes your keyword phrase.
Use a keyword phrase as the anchor text for internal
links on a page
The anchor text in the underlined portion of a text link
on a website page. Instead of a link that reads, "Click
Here", use a more descriptive phrase like "View
our Bar-b-que Ribs". Using a keyword phrase to describe the
link helps.
ALT and Title tags on all images in the
website
Each image on your website should have ALT or title tags
for not only SEO, but for accessibility, too. Search
engines can't tell what an image is; but the tags tell the
spiders.
Content on Each Page needs to be relevant, fresh and
unique
The text (copy) you write on each page is the most important
element of optimizing your site. Use your keyword
phrase throughout the text in a way that makes sense for a
person to read it. Try to place the keyword phrase at the
start of the copy, but always write such that a person will
understand.
Target a single website page for each keyword
phrase
It helps if you follow the tips above so that each page has one
main keyword phrase throughout - in the meta title, h1 page title,
content and alt tags.
Include a site map page in the
website
Your site map is a page with links to all the pages in your
website. Search engines' spiders use it to find and index all the
pages of your website.
Take careful consideration on the main keyword phrases
people use to find your company, your product or services.
Once you have those, then it is a continual process to improve the
phrases based upon web analytics. These search engine
optimization tips are the basics, and are a good starting
point for an optimized website.