Search Engine Positioning
Assistance
Search Engine Positioning must be given serious consideration
if you want a successful online presence.
Search Engine Positioning refers to how well your web site is ranked
in the major search engines for the keywords and phrases related to
your site. This page provides an overview of how to achieve best results
and where you can get assistance with your web rankings so you can
achieve your web
site marketing goals.
In order to achieve good search engine rankings there are several
steps that must be taken including the careful selection of keywords
related to the subject matter of your web site. The integration of
those keywords and phrases into the content of your web site, and
the application of a number of technical steps that ties everything
together. The overall process is referred to as Search
Engine Optimization (SEO) the objective of which is to
assist the search engines with aligning your site with the Internet
users that are performing web searches using those same keywords and
phrases. Although there is no rocket-science involved, in most cases
you will achieve improved rankings in a more timely fashion with professional
search engine positioning assistance.
Let's take a closer look at some of the most important steps that
must be taken in order to achieve good rankings for your site...
Keyword Selection - Choosing the best keywords and phrases is the
foundation upon which you will build in order to achieve higher search
engine rankings. Many web site owners simply make some assumptions
about what keywords and phrases they think people will punch
into the search engines when looking for their products or services.
There are a few problems caused by making assumptions instead of performing
a thorough analysis of what keywords and phrases are best based on
some facts. A thorough analysis that will identify the best keywords
and phrases for your web pages should be part of the services you
receive as part of any professional search engine optimization
help provided to you. A proper analysis will provide you
with the following pieces of information vital to getting better rankings:
- Exactly what words and phrases related to your website's subject
matter are actually being entered into the search engines by Internet
users?
- How frequently are these words and phrases being entered into the
search engines compared to one another?
- How many other web pages appear to be targeting the same terms?
Once you are armed with the facts you can proceed with selecting the
best keywords and phrases for your search engine optimization. The
best keywords and phrases are the ones that strike a balance between
being used most frequently and being targeted by the fewest other
web pages. This is because is it is much easier to get high rankings
in the search engines when there are fewer other web pages competing
for the same keywords and phrases.
If you decide to tackle your SEO project yourself instead of getting
some SEO assistance there are a couple of excellent online
resources you can access that will assist you in your research for
the best keywords for your web pages.
The "Search Term Suggestion Tool" at Overture.com
is free tool that is somewhat limited in terms of its functionality
but is helpful and... Free!
A more powerful and comprehensive suite of keyword research and analysis
tools are provided by WordTracker.com.
The service they provide is not free but is certainly affordable and
in the end will prove to be an excellent investment. This tool is
used frequently by professional search engine optimizers.
Web Site Content - Once you have completed your analysis and have
decided on the best keywords and phrases next step is to include them
in the main content pages of your site. Many of the major engines
appear to favour web pages with a minimum of 200 words of text. Your
carefully selected keywords should be sprinkled generously throughout
the body copy (text) of your pages. They should not be repeated over
and over again relentlessly but used as frequently as practical without
adversely affecting the quality of the content or the readability
of the page.
Technical Steps - There are a few things that can be done as part
of the programming of the site that will help raise your search engine
results. We touch on the most important of them below:
Page Names - Whenever possible, the name that you give each page on
your site should be relevant to the content of that page and include
the keywords you are targeting for that page.
- Page Titles - Each page on your site should be labeled independently
and the title should be relevant to the content of that page and include
keywords you are targeting for that page.
- Keyword Meta Tag - Although declining in importance with many of
the major search engines they still contribute to a site's search
engine rankings and should be utilized according to current guidelines.
Of particular importance is the "Description" Tag.
- Image ALT Tags - You have the option to include descriptive text
that will be visible to anyone that holds their mouse over images
on your web pages. The text should be relevant to the image and its
purpose on the page. You have written a good ALT image tag if the
text is helpful to anyone viewing the page but was unable to see the
image itself. Whenever practical, work your keywords into the alt
text, this will add, however slightly, to your ranking in the search
engines.
These steps above are by no means a complete list but they are considered
by most experts to be some of the most important technical steps that
should be taken as part effort to improve the search rankings of any
web page. If the technical aspects are beyond your area of expertise
you should consider getting some search engine optimization
help.
List Your Site - The process for getting listed in the major search
engines varies depending of the engine in question. Many of the majors
don't allow you to add your site to them yourself. Instead, they add
your site automatically over time after their automated web-surfing
"bots" visit your site and "read" it to determine
what it is about and how to rank it vs. other pages for certain keywords.
These bots most often get to your site from other sites that contain
a link to your site (more on linking below). Some search engines do
allow you "add your site" to them by completing an online
form. Some allow you to do this at no charge others require you to
pay. Still others will allow you to list your site for free but provide
an option to have your site listed with them more quickly for a fee.
It is very important to also add your site to the relevant cateogories
in the major "directories" on the web such as DMOZ,
Yahoo
and others. Not only do Internet users visit them to look for web
sites in a categorized fashion but many of the search engines use
the listings in the major directories to generate their listings and
search results.
Reciprocol Links - Arguably one of the most important and cost-effective
methods of driving targeted traffic to your site and the your site's
search engine rankings. This refers to the process of getting the
webmaster of another site to place a link to your site from their
own in exchange for the same from you. The effect of a reciprocol
link strategy is improved exponentially when the site you are exchanging
links with is related in some way to the subject matter of your own
site. There are two major benefits to this. The first is that visitors
to the other site that click on your link to visit your site will
be more qualified and highly targeted. The second key benefit is more
directly related to your site's search engine rankings. Some of the
most important search engines count a link to your site from another
to be a sort "vote" for your site's relevance and importance.
More weight is given to links that are located on other web sites
that the search engine considers relevant to the subject matter of
your site and the perceived "importance" of that site which
again is related to the number and quality of related links pointing
to that site. An ongoing link building campaign should be part of
any web site
marketing strategy and Search
Engine Optimization effort.
This web site is owned, operated and managed by IQNetCom Corp, a full
service provider of successful e-business
solutions. IQNetCom provides the entire range of services
needed to launch and maintain a successful online presence and can
help improve your positioning
in search engines.
Other services provided
by IQNetCom Corp are:
Website
Design
Web
Hosting
Shopping
Carts and Storefronts
Online
Payment Processing
Website
Accessibility
E-Business
Strategy Development
Marketing
Consultation
If you would like to discuss how we might help your organization put
the power of the web to work please contact
us.
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