 |
Articles on Small Business Web Hosting |
|
|
Navigation |
|
Featured Article |
|
Small Business Articles |
|
The Complete Site Build It! Reference Center... This Link Directory May Change Your Business. Click here now.
SBI Case Studies: Personal, real-world stories told by flesh-and-blood humans. Detailed recountings of individual SBI! experiences, each in their own words, in their own styles. Read them by clicking here now. |
|
Search Engine Optimization Techniques
Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a website by achieving a high ranking in the search results of a search engine (i.e. Yahoo, Google, etc.). The higher a website ranks in a search, the better the chance that a website will be visited. Most Internet users will not click through multiple pages of search results, so a high ranking in a search is necessary to direct more traffic to your website. While a top listing is not guaranteed, there are a number of small steps that you can take to improve your chances of gaining a top ranking. We recommend the following 5 basic steps to produce a more desirable search engine listing: 1. Content Writing/Keywords We’ve found that content targeting seems to be the most successful strategy. Search engines are beginning to use algorithms that identify the main themes of entire websites instead of just single pages. In order to create a main theme for search engine optimization, you must identify a focused group of keywords that exist on and are relevant to the content on most pages of your website. In practical terms, if you’re writing an article, service description or sales copy for your website, focus on creating informative and interesting content, but factor in keyword phrases that are more likely to give you a better ranking with the search engines. Key word selection can be a rather complex process as there are many different factors that come into play when search engines decide the ranking of your webpage and how well your keywords rank. You may wish to spend some time educating yourself about this process. A good rule of thumb is to choose 2 to 3 word phrases from content that appears throughout your website that you expect to have the greatest appeal to the visitors you want to attract. We suggest that you consult with other colleagues as your create your list. 2. META Tags Meta tags are special HTML tags that provide information about a webpage, such as who created the page, how often it is updated, what the page is about, and which keywords represent the page's content. Many search engines use this information when building their indices. Meta tags should contain your basic content terms. We recommend that you do not use too many words (less than 25) and that you do not repeat keywords as this could cause the search engines to overlook your website. You can use Overture Term Suggestion Tool http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/adcenter/tools/index.jhtml to find the highest rated keywords. We also offer a simple free Online Tool http://www.promotionworld.com/tools/meta.html to create your own meta tags. Once you’ve created your meta tags, you can use this Meta Tag Analyzer http://submitexpress.com/analyzer/to see how search engine robots analyze your web site. This data will help you to determine if your web content or meta tags need any changes. Please keep in mind that search engines avoid sites with multiple unrelated meta tags. 3. URL Submission Once your website is complete, its time to submit your site to the search engines. We strongly recommend using Promotion World’s free search engine submission tool. It’s a terrific service that allows you to submit 10 URLs at a time and to receive accurate and descriptive results on the submissions. As you review the results, it’s likely that you will find some failed submissions. For the failed submissions, Promotion World provides information on how to submit your site manually. 4. Site Ranking Search engine optimization doesn’t end with submitting your website to search engines. You still need to determine the popularity of your site and make any necessary changes. In order to check how your site is ranked, go to Alexa.com. If your site ranking is between 1 and 100,000, it has a solid ranking. If you are ranked over 100,000 or you’re just not happy with your site ranking, a popular way to increase your ranking is to trade links to your site with other sites. This typically works because external links are the main criteria for Google’s ranking and Google is being used by such powerhouses as Yahoo, AOL, Infoseek, etc. 5. Website Promotion Your search engine optimization endeavors should always be reinforced by other forms of promotion and marketing. One way to do this is to use a newsletter to deliver useful and informative content that will drive visitors to your website. Other methods of promotion include online advertising, print advertising, a special promotion (i.e. chance to win a digital camera), surveys, and word-of-mouth promotion through friends and family. Website promotion is a crucial part of eBusiness. Success in sales is a numbers game and without serious web traffic you will not have the numbers you need to prosper.
Milena Sotirova is the Editor of DevStart http://www.devstart.com/. To find more articles, tips and tutorials that will help you to find the best hosting and to promote your site, visit HostReview.com http://www.hostreview.com/ and PromotionWorld.com http://www.promotionworld.com/. Discover the secrets for your guaranteed traffic increase. Send to the author your feedback at msotirova@devstart.com.
|
|
Recent Articles Design Your Own Website - My Easy Five Step Formula For Creating Successful Websites For me to demonstrate this, I will lead off with a little story, dating back a couple years. Two years ago, when I first started online, my biggest nightmare was trying to figure out what program to use to build my websites, and which hosting... How to run an e-commerce business on $30.00 per year Lots of people dream of owning a small business and working for themselves. Usually they get discouraged by the high cost of starting a business. However, in today's economy, you don't need a lot of money to start an e-commerce business. In fact,... Web-Site Savvy for Small Business Owners Home-based business owners don’t have an inordinate amount of time or money to dedicate to hosting, building or maintaining a website. But you should note that the internet plays a part in the daily routine of 88% of Americans, and of those, 92%...
Check out the Site Build It! Action Guide. Have a free, "inside" look at the Guide that SBIers actually use. This is the best and most affordable way for you to build a flourishing, profitable small business on the Net. |
|
|