In my last article I spoke about some of the very basic elements every well-optimized website needs to have in order to be ranked higher up in the search engines’ listings. To sum up that article very briefly, you need to make sure that your meta tags reflect your website’s content appropriately in terms that individuals might use when searching for your website. Also, pay close attention to the titles of each of your web pages. Too many people settle for using the same title for each page. Each page needs a different title utilizing different and appropriate keywords.
This article will take that basic understanding of the art behind search engine optimization to another level. Once you realize the importance of keywords and meta tags, you probably figured out that many of the major search engines rely much less heavily on keywords (they’ve been overused by spammers!) and look more closely at your website content.
“What?” you say. “I just spent all that time researching keywords and injecting them throughout my website!” Well, good. You need to take that first step in order to be able to continue further down the SEO path. Yes, Google, MSN, and Yahoo nearly ignore (yes, ignore!) the meta keywords, they don’t ignore the content in your web pages. And that content needs to be chock full of keywords.
Try this little bit of SEO research. Put yourself in the mind of one of your potential customers. Open your search engine of choice (you should probably be choosing one of the biggies because your customers most likely are) and search for your company using some carefully chosen keywords. Don’t use your website address. While searching for your exact website does provide some important information, that isn’t the focus of this little experiment.
Look carefully at the listings that come up. Who is ranked first? What is in the description next to the website? What keywords keep showing up again and again in your competition’s listings? Now, click on a couple of the top rankings. Look at how their website is designed. Do several keywords jump out at you immediately? They should. Take note of these keywords and their placement. Look at the code behind their websites (with different browsers this happens differently- usually it’s under a menu called view source or view page info). Inspect their meta tags and descriptive keywords.
Your head should be buzzing right now with ideas for ways to improve your website. Remember, search engine optimization is a step by step process. Like many things, it is never done. Right when you think everything is looking great, you’ll learn about yet another way to enhance your website’s ranking. Keep moving forward- a step at a time. Before you know it, you’ll see your website in Google’s top ten!
Make sure you check out our website http://www.creative-emarketing.com for additional ideas on how to use eMarketing to build your business and generate an online community.
