Now that you have a website for your small business, you will soon
discover that most of your website traffic comes from the search engines.
Google is the one search engine that should be sending the most traffic. You
can take part in link exchanges and make submissions to directories, but Google
is the place where you can get the most site visitors. This means that your
primary focus should be on ranking high in search engines. In this article, we
will look at some tips and techniques to help you get a good search engine
ranking.
Targeting Keywords
and Phrases
Put some thought into the keywords that visitors are likely to use
when they are looking for information about your business. Once you come up
with some keywords, turn them into keyword phrases that will be more specific.
For instance, if your business is that of a website designer in
Toronto
, then a keyword
phrase might be “
Toronto
web design”. If your business is more specialized, you can target
your keyword phrases to be even more specific. Avoid keyword phrases that are
too general. If you use a term that is too general, you will be competing with
every business that is closely related to yours. Be as specific as you can so
that you are targeting the visitors looking for your type of business with
those specific phrases.
On-Page
Optimization
When you get your keywords and keyword phrases together, put them on
your website so the search engines will associate your business with those
words. Use one or two keywords per page. The keywords will need to be included
in your title tag, meta keywords tag, and meta description. The meta keywords
tag does not get much notice by Google, so you do not have to spend as much
time with this area as the others.
Here are some ways that you can put the keywords in your website in
the best manner:
-
Put an
H1 tag on the top of the page that has your keyword phrase. Then put an H2 tag after it that has
your other keywords or keyword phrases.
Use the tags in the correct order and make sure that you use both.
-
In the
body of your page, use your keywords and keyword phrases. Don’t overdo it,
though. You don’t want to be accused of keyword stuffing, which comes with
penalties.
-
Make
use of bold, underlines, and italics to emphasize your keywords in the
body of your page.
-
Use
lists on your page and use the keywords in your list. Make sure the list
looks natural.
-
Use
alternate text tags. This use of
alternate text will describe the images that are on your website, which allows
blind users to know what the images are on your site. You can use some
keywords in that text. Some search engines index this text.
Your Content needs
to be Relevant
When you are optimizing your website, remember that the content on the
site is the most important part of the site. Give the visitor a reason to stay
at your site. Include information visitors want. The search engines will
determine that your site is relevant if it contains articles and information
about your products or services.
You can find good content from many of the article directories on the
Internet. The only thing that you will be required to do when you use this
content is provide a link to the author’s website. If you can, you should write
some articles for your website. Search
engines will know if you are using articles that come from another website, so
you should have some original content on your site.
There isn’t anything wrong with using the content that someone else
provides, but original work is given more value. Update your site regularly.
Make sure that you add new content to your site at least once a month. Fresh
content helps sites rank very high in the search engines.
A Final Note
There is no science behind search engine optimization. Even experts in
search engine optimization don’t know how the search engines rank a site. But
the information in this article is a good set of starter techniques for getting
your website a higher ranking. Continue to tweak your site in order to make it
the best that it can be. On-page search engine optimization is not the only
factor that will determine your ranking in the search engines; There are some off-page things that will play
into your ranking also.
About the Author:
Paul Coulter
is an Internet marketing professional who specializes in
Richmond Hill Web Design
. For more information, or to inquire about his
services, please visit: http://www.awebsitedesigns.com