Search Engine Optimization

The secret to free, targeted, and interested traffic flowing to your website is effective Search Engine Optimization. The major search engines—Google, Yahoo, MSN—regularly evaluate websites to determine rankings in their organic (non-advertised) search.

They base their evaluation on two critical elements: first, a web page’s relevance to search queries and, second, its credibility. The keys to relevance are the right words in the meta tags and useful, up-to-date information that satisfies visitors. Credibility is proof of your site’s value thru links with other similar websites.

Search engines determine the relevance of your web page by quickly examining its meta tags for keywords that validate the search query. These are the title, description, header, keyword, and alt image tags. Then, they’ll evaluate the content. The website owner’s challenge is to provide information that answers the query and speaks to what the visitor is looking for.

The search engines evaluate your site’s credibility by looking at the age of your URL and the number, nature, and relevance of incoming links from other websites. These incoming links are “votes of confidence” and they are a major contribution to a successful search engine optimization strategy.

Here’s how you can develop a successful SEO strategy based on improving your site’s relevance and credibility:

Relevance: Keywords and Content

*Know your customer and learn how they search.
-While thinking about your customers, remember in the B2B world engineers need different information than purchasing agents. Therefore, their searches will be different, even if they’re both in the same company.

-If your site is B2C, customers may search differently depending upon age, education, and the nature of your product. Understanding your customer is critical here. Know how your product meets their needs.

*List the words, or keywords, people use to search for your product or service.
-Interview your own employees, especially those who interact with customers. Find out what customers are saying when they call.

-Talk to your customers. Find out what words they use when thinking of your business.

-Your distributors and independent sales representatives are also a good source for keywords.
.
*Use a keyword research tool to validate your list and expand it.
-You can find out how many times people search using the words you’ve come up with using a keyword research tool. Most keyword tools feature a free trial period. Wordtracker, for example, offers a free seven-day trial. While the free version is not as extensive as the subscription, it will still provide valuable information on the keywords and phrases you might use in your content. (You may even consider optimizing for a few common misspellings.)

-We cannot overstate the importance of thorough keyword research. You should consider not only the general words new searchers use, but also what we call long-tail keywords. After a potential customer has already searched thoroughly, he or she will start using more specific words to find what they’re looking for. We call these long-tail keywords because prospects use them late in the buying cycle. They are important because they identify prospects that are qualified and very close to making a purchase. This is where the tail wags the dog!

*Developing vertically aligned, single themed web pages is critical to a comprehensive SEO strategy.
-Title tags, description tags, header tags, and page content should all be in alignment.

-Write valuable and relevant content that satisfies your prospects’ desire for information. Think about the questions your customers frequently ask you and write your pages to provide answers.

Credibility: Link Development

*Incoming link development is an ongoing process.
-Find relevant content on other websites and ask their owners if they would link to you. Be creative and convincing…state the benefits they’ll enjoy by linking to your page. Ideally, get as many one-way links as possible as they rate higher than reciprocal links.

-Research relevant directories and submit your site for inclusion. Expect to pay for your listing on many of these directories.

-Remember, content or keyword or anchor text links carry a lot of weight.

-Links from .org, .mil, and .edu carry weight but are also difficult to obtain.

-Pursue a healthy mix of links such as forums, blogs, directories, and related sites.

-Each page on your site must stand alone so focus on deep links to all pages.

-Avoid link farms at all costs.

Looking for a sound and balanced Internet marketing strategy? Contact Site-Seeker today or call 315.732.9281.

The Point

"The art of search engine optimization is based upon an understanding of how search engines judge content relevancy and content credibility."