Getting your website found on search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN is a critical marketing issue. Unfortunately it is often a mystery to many site owners and, sadly, to many web designers also.
That's why I want to start this blog talking about Search Engine Optimization or SEO, for short. SEO is the art and the science of getting high ranking in the search engines by using specific strategies in the construction and content development of your website and its incoming links.
If the Wall Street Journal can get it wrong, so can you. In the November 2006 issue of Website Services magazine, a comparison was made between the websites of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The article detailed the website mistakes that resulted in the Wall Street Journal website having fewer pages found on Google...394 to be exact, whereas the New York Times have 2.96 MILLION pages indexed on Google. Whose site do you think is going to be easier to find?
Just to test this out I typed "financial newspapers" into the search feature on Google. The Wall Street Journal ranked at #21 on the search engine results. That's 3 pages into the results. Most people don't look past the second page of search engine results.
What the Wall Street Journal web developers didn't know or do amounts to simple search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.
The first step in SEO is a marketing question: Who is your audience or target market? From this knowledge you create a list of keyword phrases they are likely to type into a search feature hoping to find your site. See my newsletter articles on Writing Well for the Web and Selecting Keywords for how to research keywords.
The second step is proper placement of those keywords in your site content, metatags, alt-tags, links and heading tags.
Feel free to comment or ask questions.
Show and Tell: Go to Google and type 'girl geek" in the search box. My website Girl Geek Web Designs has held down the second spot in the rankings for at least 2 years. go to MSN and enter "south Florida criminal defense attorney" and you should find my client www.JoffeLaw.com ranked #1 there.
How'd I do that? Stay tuned!
Annette Vaillancourt
Girl Geek Web Designs: Custom Websites and SEO for Small Businesses on a Budget
1-877-866-GEEK
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