Optimizing your website takes a little work, but the result—dominant Search Engine Results Placement (SERP)—is worth the effort. While there are fee-for-service SEO tools, there are many resources, which can put SEO at your (or your website developer’s) fingertips, at no cost. Search engine results depend upon where your website is placed. A good goal is to maintain placement on the first page of any search. Because Google is the most widely used search engine (about 80%), with Bing coming in second (about 9%), followed by Yahoo (about 7%), AOL (about 1.8%) and Ask (about 1.5%), this article focuses on optimizing your Google searches.
In order to gain a more thorough concept of Search Engine Optimization, it’s important to understand how Google has evolved over the years. It used to be, that simply purchasing an URL, and using a specific keyword in that URL, would get you the search results you desired. But that is no longer the case. Search Engine Optimization is less about getting one site ranked as number one, than about acquiring as many listings as possible, on the search results page.
Google has a unique algorithm, referred to as Google PageRank. PageRank utilizes a sort of voting system to weigh the importance of a web page. Every link that you place on your website, which directs users to another site, can be considered “a vote.” The more “votes,” the more important the website. Be sure the links to your site are well-optimized, well written, and direct the user toward meaningful information (in other words, don’t link junk). You are better served to generate less links from sites with higher PageRank, than more “junk” links. To view the PageRank of your site, or linked sites, download the Google toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com) and click the “display PR” option.
Article usage: One of the most effective ways to increase your SERP is article links. Submitting professionally-written articles can maximize your SEO in two ways: 1.) Originally-written articles posted on your site can be copied (with your permission and disclaimer) and used by other sites, creating a link. 2.) Originally-written articles can be submitted to article directories, which will “market” the articles for placement on other sites, creating additional quality links to your site. Hint: Be careful to submit original articles (not the same article) to the article directories. A couple of directories to try: www.Goarticles.com and www.eZinearticles.com.
Press Releases: A press release is an announcement or news story related to your site, which contains links back to your site. This is a terrific way to build inbound links to your website, and increase your Google Page Rank. If used efficiently, this strategy can get your website linked to hundreds of websites. Be sure to “spin” or modify press releases before you attempt to gain quality links with them.
Blogging: Maintaining your own blog can significantly increase your SEO, as well as, help you develop a credible resource, which will lend authority to your link-building. You can use other’s blogs to establish links back to your site. Though blogs are time-intensive, there are few less expensive, straightforward ways to enhance your SEO efforts.
Some additional suggestions to ensure your content is SEO-optimized:
• Ensure your web-copy is optimized with the use of strategic keywords. There are a few great keyword tools you can utilize, including Google’s Adword tool.
• Use a Robots Tag: This tag lets you use a granular, page specific approach to controlling how and when a page should be indexed. It signals the Googlebot, Google’s search engine spider, to crawl your website every few days.
• Search engines read from left to right and top to bottom. Using a left hand column for navigation links, permits Google to read that text first.
• Control “keyword density,” or, the number of times your keywords are used on any single page (a rule of thumb: keep keyword density to 2-3 percent of copy).
• Use “headers” (e.g. <h1>) to emphasize text on a page. Include keywords in header tags.
• Avoid Flash or Javascript (If you do use Javascript, place the code in an external file. This will help your page load faster).
• Use a Sitemap: a sitemap is a single page on your site that provides access to all other pages on your site. A Sitemap serves dual purposes. One, it makes it easier for visitors to find your content. Two, it helps search engines crawl your site more efficiently.
For more tips on SEO, Web-copy, articles, press releases, or other SEO or copy-related information, contact RolandWrite Copywriting Services: www.rolandwrite.com.
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