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Search Engine Optimization for Everyone
There are many facets to SEO and the search engines continually change their methods of indexing sites to help prevent the same sites from staying up in the ranks all the time.
Here are some strategies we have personally used with our web design firm:
1. Google AdWords. This is an excellent and cost effective method of getting good search results. You set the maximum daily amount you would like to spend on your key words and phrases. Within the first month we were getting more client contacts through using AdWords.
2. Overture Keywords. This is a lot like AdWords, but we found that their system did not really allow you to set a daily limit to how much you wanted to spend and it quickly got out of hand with some of the phrases we had chosen! Still, it was pretty cost effective in the grand scheme of things.
3. Yahoo Regional Directories. Once you are able to get your site indexed by the Yahoo Regional Directories, I think you stay in there for good! We've been in there for years now and continue to get clients who found us through this directory. (And it is free to submit your site.)
4. Keywords / Description / Alt Tags / Title Tags / Page Content. All the big SEO companies rely heavily on these 5 things - all of which are contained in the code of your web pages. However, with a little research, you could do these yourself (or have it done by your web designer). A few great tools to help you with this task are: Overture Keyword Selector Tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/), Google Suggestion Tool (http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en), Meta Tag Analyzer (http://www.iboost.com/tools/meta_tag_analyzer.htm), and Keyword Density Analyzer (http://www.keyworddensity.com/).
The main benefit to hiring a professional SEO company is that they work for you to constantly update your keywords, etc. and submit your URL to search engines. They know exactly how many of each keyword to use, etc. And this is often a service worth paying for if optimization is a real concern in your industry. A good SEO company will also stay up on what the search engines are doing and change their tactics accordingly. They will also never use an "illegal" tactics that could get you banned from the search engine. Be wary of companies that "guarantee top 10 placement". I recommend http://www.submitsolutions.com.
5. Online Directories. Submitting your website URL to free online directories is a great avenue of promotion. One way you can find directories is to use Google or another search engine and type in "(type of your business) online directories". Some that come up may ask for a small amount to list your site. If they do, you should always contact them and ask them for more information such as how many unique visits their directories get per month to see if the price is a good value.
6. Open Directory Project. http://www.dmoz.org The ODP is one of the main sources the the Googlebot uses to find new websites. This is a human-maintained directory - meaning that when you submit your URL, an actual person reviews your submission to decide if the site is appropriate, etc. It may take some time to get your site indexed by the ODP, but once it is, you should not have to keep sending your links.
7. Blog. Having a Blog on your website is a great way to attract visitors to your site with fresh content. And the search engines love content rich blog pages. There are free services out there such as http://www.blogger.com, http://www.blog-city.com, http://www.livejournal.com and many more that allow you to sign up for a free blog. Of course the best way to blog to have the blog "software" actually installed on your site. This is something your web designer/programmer could do for you. I highly recommend sBlog (http://servous.se/) as a free php based Blog script (you will need php and a MySQL database installed with your web hosting service to run this).
8. Submit to Google and Yahoo. These two are the top dogs in the search engine world and both still accept FREE submissions. For Yahoo, you must go through the categories until you find the most appropriate one for your website. For Google, you can go to the following URL to submit your site: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
9. Print advertising. Many companies forget that print advertising is still a very valid way to get visitors to your website. Although this can get costly, even having your URL printed on your business cards, letterheads and envelopes is considered print advertising.
10. Be the best you can be. It sounds simple, but a lot of people get so wrapped up in SEO that they neglect the quality of their website. Remember that your website reflects your business and should offer a professional, high quality appearance and useful content. No matter what your business is, your visitors will be more inclined to stick around or make a purchase if your site is easy to navigation, has useful information, and looks professional.
I also highly recommend visiting Site Pro News (http://www.sitepronews.com) and signing up for their free newsletter. They have the most up to date info on SEO.
Sherry Holub is the Lead Designer and Manager at Southern California design firm, JV Media Design. http://www.jvmediadesign.com
Put the Full Power of Google to Work with 11 Google Power Search Tips
Google has many ways to help you find want you want easily. Here are 11 Power Search Tips to make your Google Experience easier and more fun. These Search Tips were found on the Following Google web page http://www.google.com/help/operators.html
3.5 Tips To Help You Avoid Becoming The Next Search Engine Outlaw
Tip 1 - Hide And Seek
Martial Arts Webmasters: Time to Optimize Your Site!
A few months ago I was looking through the search engines to see if my website was even found for certain keywords. Well it wasn't. I knew something needed to be done, because I was losing potential customers to my Martial Art and Self Defense Classes. As the Internet grows exponentially, the important of a web presence is important.
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Onpage search engine optimization are things that you can change ON your webpage.
4 Tricks For Lightning Fast Indexing
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Search Engine Optimization: What Is It?
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HTML and Search Engine Optimization - What You Dont Know Can Kill You
When it comes to search engine optimization there is a lot of information available, some accurate, some not. If you really want to know what is going on regarding your website and how to best optimize it for good results with the search engines, you need to do some SEO research. Review the following suggestions and above all get your information verified from a variety of sites, don't just take one site's information as the truth and run with it because you could be running in the wrong direction.
Search Engine Marketing 101: What Search Engines See When They Visit Your Web Site
If you have a Web site, have you ever wondered what a search engine sees when it visits your site to add the site to its index? Do you know that it doesn't see the beautiful graphics or the fancy Web design? Do you know that it only sees the source code, or the "skeleton" of your Web site?
Answers Count - Matching Keyword and Phrase Density
What's more important to your business success - the question or the answer? Certainly, you want your questions to reflect what you are trying to find out. Obviously, your questions should be easily understood. Most definitely, you're hoping for some positive responses. But, what you really need to do is count repetitive keywords and phrases found in your respondents answers.
Optimum SEO Keyword Density ? A Real-Life Case Study
So you've built your website, you know what keywords you want to target (i.e. what words your customers are searching for), and you're ready to write your copy. You've been told that you should use your keywords frequently so that you appear in search results for those words. But what does "frequently" mean?
Monitor and Increase Your Search Engine Visibility with the DIY SEO Tools
In this three part article, you'll find many tools that any webmaster can use to monitor your site's search engine position, and use to increase the visibility of your site in major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Owning Your Category Online - Is Our Website Broken?
"Owning your business category online is more than just a few keywords... Is your website broken?"
Google Rank Cake
6 cups thick content mix 1 jar word of mouth, whipped 2 tablespoons meta tags 1 cup creativity
How to Develop a Successful ROI for Your Website
Are You Really Measuring for Return on Investment (ROI) with Search Engine Optimization?
Optimize Your Site Pt2
6: The hidden benefits to having the right links. Every site online has an index or default file as its home page file. But outside of that rule you can name the other pages whatever you like. So why not cram the names with keywords and/or keyphrases relevant to that page and your site? We've just scored again ;-)
Optimizing Online Catalog Copy for the Search Engines
It only makes sense. You have an e-commerce catalog site. You want lots of visitors to come to your site and buy. The best (and most cost-effective) way to do that is with great search engine placement. However, search engines are text machines, and most catalogs don't have a lot of text, so herein lies the problem.
What All Top Google Websites Have in Common
While it is okay to admire and envy all those sites enjoy top ranking with leading search engines like Google, it is much more important to study these sites closely. You will definitely end up learning a lot that will prove to be very useful in helping you take your own site to the top of Google rankings. Topping the search engines will mean huge volumes of traffic on a daily basis without you having to do anything. Healthy traffic, as you know almost automatically translates itself to healthy revenue for the site. And when you consider that over 75 per cent of the traffic that finds its' way to websites comes from search engines, you quickly realize how important and crucial top rankings in search engines are to any online business.
Search Engine Metrics: Organic Search vs. Paid Placement
Let me preface this report by citing advertisers in 2004 have spent 4 Billion dollars on search engine marketing according to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO).
Search Engine Optimization - A Do-It-Yourself Guide for the Small Business Owner
So your company has a website ? an important step to validate your company, boost its visibility and increase its sales. Now how do you get it to show up on Google and the other search engines like Yahoo and MSN?
Are You Making These Deadly SEO Mistakes?
Black Hat SEO: Web Spamming and Linking to Bad Neighborhoods