You have heard the phrase LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. But wait, this is online! You don’t have to worry about location…or do you?
Location is everything. Let’s take a moment to really think about this. You need to find something. What do you do? Most people will go to their favourite search engine and input what they are searching for. They will type in a few words that describe what they are looking for. The Search Engines come back with the most relevant websites for your search. However, your search for a keyword can result in thousands of links (if not millions).
So now you begin the task of clicking one by one on these links to find the information or service you need. You may go through page one to find what you are searching for, you may go through all of page two, but did you get to the website on page 10? If you are shaking your head No (who has that kind of time?) then you have realized how important LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION is to your website. We need to get your site located on the first page.
The quick and easy answer to this problem is of course PPC (Pay Per Click Advertising such as Google Adwords or Overture). But this is not the smartest way to solve your problem and the cost can put my small business owners of out business. We have found that most website owners state their largest expense is advertising. Imagine if you could cut your advertising in half! Imagine if you could eliminate your advertising cost all together and still achieve the same sales (if not more)!
Search Engine Optimization for your site is the answer.
Everyone wants to be listed in the number 1 spot. But most companies do not get listed under any of their keywords because they do not know how to implement search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is really not as hard as it sounds and most will find that once they understand how it works, it is actually quite simple.
A few things to keep in mind when starting your SEO Journey:
- Make sure you use HTML Links. Some designers want to use beautiful image map links from their home page. Although this looks great, it does not help you with the search engines. Place links on your pages to the various pages to help not only the search engines find your pages but your visitors as well. An alternative to image maps is to slice the image/align it with a div or table, but please keep those URLs to individual links.
- Frames…Well this is a hard one. Not only can some people not see frames, the search engines have a hard time with them as well. Also, what if your customer stumbles into one of the pages and does not see the frames? Just stay away from them all together.
- DO NOT SPAM. Let me repeat this again. DO NOT SPAM. Spamming in any form is wrong. Most people consider spam as only used with emails. Wrong again unfortunately. Spamming will backfire on you. If search engines pick up on the fact that you are spamming, they will penalize your site.
Here are two examples of spam:
- Content Spam. Data within a part of a Web resource designed for humans where that data is designed only for search engines to see.
- Meta Spam. Data within a Web resource that describes that resource or another Web resource inaccurately or (when the data should be readable by humans) incoherently.
Take your time when it comes to your websites SEO. Make small changes and watch your rankings. If you move up, great! Make more changes. If you move down, undo undo undo. Always keep records of the changes you make so you can easily track what worked and what did not work for your site. Remember, we are in this for the long haul. Do it right the first time and make it last.