Louisville Search Engine Optimization
Internet Marketing - SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a form of internet marketing which focuses on optimizing your website for improve search engine rankings rather than paying for advertising. When developing a website, it is important to focus first on SEO before moving on to other forms of internet marketing.
Take a minute to examine your current search engine rankings to see if you could benefit from Search Engine Optimization. Open Google's homepage on your Internet Browser and insert keywords which people would use to search for your website (ie: Website Development). Were you able to find yourself or your company on the first page? Next, repeat the same keyword search, but this time add your city or state name to the keyword search to narrow the results (ie: Louisville Website Development). Take a second to examine the results....did you find yourself now?
If you rely on your website to market your business or services and were unable to find your website when both searches were tried, then you could benefit search engine optimization. Without first-page search engine results chances are good that you will not be found by someone searching for what you have to offer. To improve your search engine rankings you can hire someone with SEO expertise to develop a website for you or to optimize your existing website, or, if you make regular website updates, try implementing the techniques below.
Website Mentors has constructed a basic list (below) of what should be considered when developing a website and when hiring a professional to help you achieve higher search engine rankings.
There are 3 main branches of SEO, and each is important in its own way:
1. On Page
2. On Site
3. Off Page/Off Site
On Page
Titles-
Each page title should be unique and include terms for which you want to rank, rather than having the same title for your entire website.
Long tail phrases-
Use longer, wordier terms (e.g. Old Fast Red Car 1961) instead of generic, targeted keywords which are more difficult to acquire high rankings.
Keywords-
Make sure search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN are able to see keywords in the content and text of your pages. When possible, incorporate keywords in the first sentence and last paragraph of the page, remembering to repeat the keywords where appropriate in the body as well. Keep in mind not to overuse keywords so that your page does not appear to be spam. Ensure readability and make it as user-friendly as possible.
Useful Tags-
Tags are useful when emphasizing the subject matter of a page, h1 (header 1) h2 (header 2) and are good ways of indicating key points to your visitors and search engines.
Meta Tags-
This description will be read by searchers when sorting through search engine results and should be catchy enough to stand out and make the user want to view your website. Many feel meta tags are now useless, however, it is still worth taking a few extra seconds to include a good description of the page, even if you leave out the keywords.
Alt Tags-
All images should have an alt tag and title attribute for links and images, so you can give a text description (using your keywords) to your links and images.
Keyword Friendly URL's-
Filenames and page names are another good place for keywords, which many sometimes overlook [e.g. Louisville-business-boots.html is better than boot12467.html].
On Site
Sitemap-
A site map will help inform the search engines about your directories and pages.
Site Structure-
Structure is very important when developing your website. Be sure that your main page (index) links to category pages and, in turn, links to individual pages.
Do not index all pages-
Not all of your website needs to be in Google's cache and indexed. By allowing less important pages, such as your contact form or company policies and procedures, be marked not be indexed, your other pages will have a better ranking.
Off Page SEO
Links-
Off page SEO is about getting links to your pages and your website.
Anchor Text-
Varied anchor text helps rank your site for more keywords, and it looks very natural.
Quality Content-
Everyone loves content. Write, write, write on your website. Google will love it and so will your visitors.
There are many steps to doing search engine optimization correctly, all of which are included in this article. That is why it is important to hire someone who is proficient in SEO, as it will affect your website and visibility on the internet.
Website Mentors is an industry expert and achieves desired results on every project. If you are looking for website development or internet marketing be sure to get a free quote before starting your project!