Whether it’s for a business, an organization, a church, a school or a civic group seeking to build community awareness, the principles are the same. With a few fundamental search engine optimization measures, aka SEO, it’s easy to increase website “hits” and build that desired awareness.
In the same way that real estate is defined by “location, location, location,” in the world of websites, a top ranking on search engines like Google or Yahoo is king.
One of the best methods to increase search engine ranking is through the optimal use of keywords; that is, knowing what specific words or phrases people are searching for and then targeting those phrases in the text on the site.
A website designer can conduct the appropriate research to determine and target those keywords and provide further analysis to pinpoint the most important terms — or terms with “opportunity” — that help bring the right visitors to the site.
Website linking is another technique used to attract traffic to a site. In brief, this mechanism interlinks words or phrases key to a business website to other relevant pages on the site. In addition, consider linking images from your website to other important pages in the same way; this can attract traffic through “image search” results.
While less is more in terms of a company’s home page or contact page, a website’s news section is where content rules. Instead of short paragraphs or brief press releases, it’s wise to include articles of 500 words or more.
This approach not only allows for comprehensive information about your offerings or other newsworthy information, it also adds to that all-important keyword total. In fact, search engines are always on the lookout for expanded website content, so use it to your best advantage.
Businesses or civic organizations with several locations should have a separate Google Places listing for each facility, thereby further optimizing Web presence.
And not to get too technical, but there is yet another principal method to increase search engine ranking, and that is through meta tags. A meta tag is a line of coding that contains metadata about a Web page. Although not visible to website viewers, meta description tags and meta keyword tags are used to optimize search results. This is an area where a website designer can assist.
No doubt having and maintaining an up-to-date website is essential to conducting business these days, but optimizing its potential should also be a priority. Through the use of proven mechanisms, the right traffic can be drawn to the right destination: your website.
Kevin McNally is CEO of Interactive Palette, a Fall River, Mich.,-based Web design and hosting company.
Source http://www.heraldnews.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment