3 Basic Steps to Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization or SEO, is the art and science of making your websites pages appear attractive to the search engines. The better optimized your webpages are, the higher the ranking it will receive from a search engines web crawlers and spiders. The higher it ranks, the more traffic your website will receive. The more traffic your website receives, of course, the more profit you will be able to generate. The key to all of this is good Internet search engine optimization.
Why is having a high ranking website so important to the future success of your online business? Studies have shown that consumers seldom view websites that don’t rank a spot on of the first two pages the search engines displays. Websites that receive a ranking that places them on the third page (or any other page subsequent to that) see a significantly lower amount of traffic at their websites then one that is ranked on the second page. There is even a staggering difference between the first and second page. In the world of e-commerce ranking and strong search engine optimization is paramount.
At first, search engine optimization may feel like trying to rappel down the Grand Canyon. There is a huge scary world full of big words like web crawlers, PageRank, Meta tags, and algorithms. You may have never heard of any of these things. A quick internet search of the world algorithm doesn’t help; all you may get is a printout of strange symbols and numbers arranged in complex algebraic equations.
Sit back, take a deep breath, and try to relax. Search engine optimization is much more simple then you may think.
Algorithms really are every bit as complex as they look. Simply defined they are a finite set of carefully defined instructions. Most, if not all, computer programs are designed with strict algorithms.
PageRank is simply the program Google designed to search, index, and rank it registered webpage’s. PageRank operates on a link analysis algorithm. PageRank is credited for Google incredible success.
Web crawlers are tools search engines use to browse the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner. When web crawlers are browsing websites they are looking for algorithms.
Meta tags are special HTML tags that provide information to about a web page. Meta tags are written directly into the title tag and are only visible to the search engine.
The reality of search engine optimization is that you can start to optimize your website without any knowledge at all of the technical stuff involved in search engine optimization. Simply stated the very first step in designing a website that is going to be well ranked by the search engines is to create a content rich site. What this means is that you must cram as much information about your product into your website as you possibly can.
The third step to search engine optimization is to fill your site with keywords that will attract the web crawler’s attention. The final step in a wonderfully optimized website is to submit it to the search engine that will compliment it.
Lastly, there is Link Popularity. What is this link popularity anyway, and why do you need it? Link popularity is a score that is accessed to a web site based on how many external and internal links are pointing or linking to any particular page. External links would include those that come from any other web site other than your own whereas internal links would be those that come from within the same domain name. Link popularity is also based not only on the quantity of links but the quality of those links as well. Therefore, to have a good link popularity score, it is not necessarily required to have a large number of links pointing to your site but rather a good number of quality links.
Pj Germain
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/3-basic-steps-to-search-engine-optimization-130993.html
How do increase my search engine rank for my small business?
I have a roofing business that serves the Bay Area of California and I want to submit my website to search engines. How do I make it so that I show up at or near the top of the ranks when people search "roofs", "bay area roofs", etc.?
I have met similiar problem before, here list of sites http://webbiz3.notlong.com/0AAlCf4
References :
I would suggest a 2 part process.
Step 1, would be to look at your website to ensure that you have implemented basic SEO
Step 2 would be to submit your website to google local business and to directories.
Take a look at your website to ensure that you have implemented SEO (search engine optimisation)
Good SEO should help people or search engines find your information
So if you build a website that is about ‘roofs’, you should ensure that the web pages are optimised for the content displayed and information offered. This includes using "key words" (keywords) for the product.
Some of the basic steps and considerations for SEO would be the following:
1) Using relevant keywords within the website / page content, the content of the website pages is the top priority for SEO, your website pages should provide good information about the product / service or subject.
2) The website name, or domain name, it can help people or search engines find your information if your domain name includes the product / subject / keywords
3) The page names, you may have lots of information about that requires separate pages, using keywords for the page / file name is good practice,
4) Meta tags, these are parts of the html code that are used by Search engines to help identify the content of the webpage. The html code of the page is not visible to the user unless you select view page source within the browser. You can to add important information about the webpage and products on the webpage to the meta tags, this is where you can add keywords about the products on the webpage.
Important html tags include:
<title>This page is about keywords</title>
<meta name="description" content="This is where you have a short sentence that describes the content of the web page and includes keywords" />
<meta name="keywords" content="add keywords here separated by commas,keyword1,keyword2,keyword3" />
5) Images, you can use relevant keywords for image file names on your webpage. You can also add ‘alternate text’ to the image within the html code, this is designed to help users that may have impaired vision and use computer software called ‘screen readers’ which is an audio tool that provides audio description of what is on the screen.
alt tex html tag: alt="This text describes the content / picture on the image and will be read by screen reader and search engines"
Basic Steps to Follow to help improve search engine listings for your website
If your site is for your ‘business’ then you should submit it to Google Local Business: this can help you can gain top search results in Google for your business products or services using the Local Business service from Google. You will need to register for a googlemail account then submit your website / business details to Google’s local business centre.
http://www.google.com/local/add
Marketing your Website using Directories and Website Links
The next step is to get links to your website. This is one of the most important things that you can do to help your website with regard to internet marketing and search engine results. To do this you will need to list your website on as many websites and directories as possible. Directories operate in one of 3 ways: Paid Listing Directory, Free and Reciprocal Link Directories.
Paid Listing Directory: for a listing fee your website is listed, often these are higher quality directories as only serious website owners and business’s will pay to be listed. These are usually the fastest way to get listed and get links to your website, as the paid listing directories are run as a business. There are niche/specialist and general directories.
Free Directories: it can take a long time to get your website listed. As the service is free, there may be little or no control of the quality of websites being listed.
Reciprocal Link Directories: these again can take time before your website is listed and your website will only be listed after you provide a link to them.
Website owners wishing to promote their new website in the search engines are often in a hurry to ‘get results’ so the listing service offered by Paid Listing Directories is the fastest way to get links to your website.
1. You should try and get as many links to your websites as possible (add your website to directories)
2. Try to get keyword links, these are links that use ‘content relevant keywords’ as the anchor text.
Good Luck
References :
Location Specific is easy, if you have a business phone # you will be in directories too, But I think google is pushing them back and letting small business websites up front these days, or that’s what it looks like to me any way. I like the website templates allwebco.com has to offer they are great for html seo and I use siteground.com for my hosting service.
References :
Basic SEO… add your business site to directories…
for a good list go to http://www.directorieslist.com or visit http://www.highrankexperts.com and theyll do it for you..
also add your site to local business directories..
a good one you can use is http://www.localbusinessesusa.com
References :
I specialize in SEO for small businesses. The first thing you need to do, before doing any SEO work, is visit the Google Local Business Center and input the information for your company. That’s how you get to appear on the map at the top of the Google search results. I’ve added a link to an instructional video below. (Sound quality is low, so you’ll have to turn up the volume.) Google Local Business Center is free, and only takes a minute. It doesn’t actually help your SEO, but it will help you get business from Google, which is the point.
Second step: make sure you’re using the same language that people doing the searching are using. For that you need to do keyword research. I’ve added another link for a video that shows how to use the Google AdWords keyword tool.
After that, you get into technical elements, which may (or may not) be beyond most small-business owners, and link building, which is time consuming. In both cases, you may want to bring on an outside SEO service if you’re not happy with your search engine performance.
References :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35rgMiUd9C0
http://torontoseoworkshop.com/blog/2009/10/29/seo-for-small-business/