Title - Many search engines weight the data in your title more
heavily than other data in your page. Make sure that your title has
keywords that represent your site effectively. For the most part the
title should be short but always include your keyword(s). This is
an important factor for search engine optimization.
Keyword planning If your keywords are not suitable
to your website there will be no search engine optimization. Always
go for those keywords which are relevant to your website other cause
you will get irrelevant traffic. Always do keyword planning on both
the search engines and directories to determine the best set of
keywords and keyword phrases your target audience uses.
Alternative text This also a key factor in search
engine optimization. Always put alternative text in your graphic
images that clearly describes the graphic image and use your keywords
whenever possible. Do not put text in a graphic image that has nothing
to do with your web page.
Meta tags Another important factor in search engine
optimization is to use the meta-tag description and meta-tag keywords
on every page of your site that you want the search engines to index.
If you don't want a page indexed, then try the robots exclusion
tag. The robots.txt exclusion protocol has more support with spiders.
Content - Write great content using your most important
keywords prominently throughout your website. Visitors who read
the great content will link to your website and recommend it to
others. Content is the most significant factor in search engine
optimization.
Frame Pages Frame pages always create problems in
the search engine optimization process. Most search engines simply
cannot index a frame page. Consider frames as a big 'GO AWAY' sign.
If your site does use frames, doorway pages are ideal for better
rankings.
Don't try to fool the search engines - This can be your
biggest mistake, people come up with ways to 'fool' search engines,
and they can work for a little while...sometimes. But the search
engines catch on and write routines that penalize sites that use
this practice. Examples of this include, but are not limited to:
repeating keywords over and over; using invisible text (white text
on white background); using very small text to jam the keywords
in a small area etc.
Links to Other Pages - We can't emphasize enough the importance
of links in the search engine optimization process; both from your
page to other pages, and from other pages to yours.
First consider links on your pages - When many search engines
see links, they consider your site more 'real'. It also gives the
search engine spiders a place to go. Make your links meaningful.
Make sure they relate to what you do (and keywords that are important
to you). You can't have too many links on your pages.
Links from others websites - Some search engines place a
very heavy rating of importance on how many other sites in their
index have links to your website. Think of it for a second. If you
knew that a company was only linked by one website, versus a company
that was linked by a thousand websites, which one would you consider
more important? If you were a search engine, you would surely try
to link the more important ones first. You should also consider
this method as a key for the search engine ranking process.
This is where patience comes in again - It can take some
time to get a ton of links to your website. We help quite a bit
here; the fact that we submit to so many sites will help you get
a great head start in this area! This will also result in a good
search engine optimization process.
Consider Banner Ads - These are a very popular method of
promoting your website. They are the little rectangular graphics
that you see near the top or bottom of some popular web pages. If
you click on them, they transport you to another website. You can
make your own banners using one of the many "banner creating"
websites. Most offer free banner making. You can make a page on
your website saying reciprocal links, where you can exchange the
banners with others sites
Keep the important content near the top of your pages -
The actual text on your website is very important. Search engines
(spiders) read this to determine rankings. Some engines will place
a higher rating of importance based on where they find the text
in your page. Closer to the top is usually better. But having keywords
throughout your page develops a "theme" and that too is
important.
Don't stuff the top of your pages with data the engines can't
read - As with the last example, something higher up in your
page can be more important that something further down. Therefore,
HTML formatting, images, scripts, etc. toward the top of your page
can result in lower ratings.
Website Content should be your #1 priority - The most significant
key area in the complete process of search engine optimization is
relevant text. Your quest for high placement must start with a good
website. It is important to have a lot of text describing what you
do. Use your keywords in the content, but don't repeat them over
and over again. Many search engines rate sites based on 'keyword
density'. This is usually a formula that looks at META Keywords,
words in your TITLE, words in a paragraphs text, words in
links to other pages, and even words in the 'ALT' text on your images.
They will even look at different forms of your keywords. For example,
if an important keyword for you is 'FISH', the word 'FISHING' in
the body of your document will raise the confidence in the word
'FISH' on some engines
Keep your site updated - Make sure that your site is up
to date. No one likes to go to a page that never changes or that
is very out of date. Make sure that the data in your page portrays
the message that you want to send. Check the links on your site
every now and again. Make sure the links are still active. Dead
links are not only an inconvenience for the visitor, but can also
negatively influence your search engine optimization process and
rankings.
Don't go image crazy - We have all seen pages that are almost
all images. Usually they are the most beautiful sites. After all,
your artist can make beautiful screens that display your content
in the most eye-pleasing way. However, the search engines don't
have eyes. They don't see the beautifully formatted text in your
image. All they see is 'yourimage.jpg', and 'yourimage.jpg' doesn't
go far in terms of content and relevancy.
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