SEO and Online Marketing

The Web does not guarantee visibility. You have to go after it and claim your position by optimizing code, offering solid content and develop an ongoing SEO campaign. The seven steps below reflect the main methods to achieve great search engine visibility and rankings by understanding how search engines really work.

1. Phrases and Keywords

People search the Web using particular words and phrases they hope will lead them to the sites they want. To be sure they find your site, select words and phrases that are simultaneously popular enough to use, but unique enough to your business to help your target customer find you. A popular phrase that brings up millions of pages will be useless, as will a phrase that might find only your business, but that no one knows or would ever think of when searching.

2. Tempting the Googlebot

All search engines use armies of small programs called “bots” that search the Web, read pages, analyze contents and place their findings in various indexes that supply results to searchers. Your job is to provide the bots with a sitemap and to use files, such as robots.txt, to limit where they search your site. Choosing the right hosting service for a new site is also important, as is understanding the crucial role that bandwidth plays in site performance.

3. Getting Your Pages Right

Writing the appropriate keywords and phrases for your site is decisive. Remember Google parses websites differently and presents them with less priority if their pages are very similar to many others. A professional copywriter may be useful to ensure you’re making the best use of every element. The challenge is that your pages must be accessible to search engine bots while remaining user-friendly and readable.

4. Linking So that It Counts

Google does not publish its exact algorithm for ranking websites, but it does pay attention to the sites that link to and refer to your site. The route to a good Google ranking is to get a high quantity and quality of links to your pages from important, relevant and reliable sources. Make sure you have not inadvertently created suspicious-looking pages or traffic.

5. Google’s Paid Ads

Keep in mind that a lot of the cost of Web advertising is wasted. If you decide to pursue it, be sure the material is written correctly. To put paid ads in perspective, see them as a useful adjunct to a solid campaign for good organic search-result rankings. Be careful which words you purchase and how much you pay. Don’t get stuck in a situation where you pay for hundreds of thousands of meaningless clicks. Be cautious when you build the landing page, the one that searchers will see first when they click on your ad. Make sure it helps your customers easily access whatever you offered them in the ad.

6. The Rising Power of Maps

Increasingly, search engines emphasize maps and geography-based searches. To boost your website visibility think about such relevant features as declared language and geographic optimization. Use coding standards so that customers from around the globe can find you, read your text in their own languages and learn where your stores are. Don’t forget to target local customers since people are drawn more strongly to Web ads from nearby businesses than to those from distant businesses or those of indeterminate location.

7. Using Google Analytics

Track and analyze the traffic your site generates. Google provides excellent tools to understand how your customers work with your site. You can activate Google Analytics by adding a bit of code to each page you want tracked. Google also supplies Webmaster Tools that help you monitor your search rankings. These toolsets are evolving and continue to be enhanced. When you really know how people use your site, you can fine-tune your organic and paid advertising, as well as revising your site to become more attractive and effective in converting Web searchers into customers