Search Engine Optimization
The phrase search engine optimization (or SEO) is a hot topic today. Having a nice looking site is just step one. Having people find it is the real key to success in the online marketplace. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Ask.com use an algorithm to determine which sites on the net are most relevant to the keywords entered by someone searching on some topic.
Pinning down exactly what is included in the formula is difficult, but there are some factors that are quite important such as the age of your site, the amount of relevant content you offer, the freshness of your content, and how many other sites link to you (which gives evidence of your relevance).
I offer search engine optimization and submission as a portion of almost every project. It’s a time-consuming practice, but it’s one of the primary keys to competing in an ever-burgeoning online marketplace. So what exactly do I do when I optimize your site? Here’s a brief view of the checklist I use…
Does the title of the site (in the top bar of your browser window) reflect the content and message of the site? The top searches for almost any keyword will demonstrate the power of this tag - just search for anything and the top fifty sites will almost all contain good but brief keyword-rich titles.
Is there a well-worded meta description tag in the header? Many search engines still use this as the description that shows up in search results underneath the title of your site.
Does the content of your site contain good keywords and synonyms that demonstrate your site’s relevance to a topic? I don’t believe in going overboard here. If you naturally write about your subject skillfully, you won’t have to worry about this issue.
Does the site have “pretty” permalinks? Instead of www.yoursitename.com/page?=id24, it’s much better to have www.yoursitename.com/name-of-page.
Are there well-placed headings and subheadings to tell search engines what’s important? Headings and subheadings send a message about your site’s content and search engines give more weight to them than to your paragraph content.
Do the images in the html of your site contain alt tags so search engines know what the image is about? Search engines process characters - they don’t interpret artwork. Alt tags provide an alternative text in case an image can’t show up, and they also give search engines something to read.
Are there a few inline links in your content? Aside from your navigational links, inline links sprinkled throughout your content means that your site will be practical and helpful to visitors, even if only to send them somewhere else. Search engines like this aspect of relevancy.
Are there inbound links elsewhere on the net, leading people and search engines to your site? The most important inbound links are from directories that categorize the content of the web. Also, when a high ranking site links to you, it establishes authority for your site. A large part of search engine optimization is simply submitting your site to the right places for a link back.
Does the site contain links to sitemap.xml and robots.txt files? These are files that hand an outline of the content of your site to a search engine for quick and easy indexing.
Other checks include site load time, standards-compliance, usability and accessibility, etc. I am more than willing to do analytical work and make changes and recommendations to any site on an hourly basis. Just contact me.
Free Search Engine Submissions
Do feel free to utilize the tool below to submit your site to about 20 of the top search engines available…