Read up on search engineering. We recommend search engine secrets.
There are many more and you can spend a lot of time and
money researching the various techniques for scoring higher
on search engines. Or, like most of our clients, you can just pay us to worry
about it all. But most people would like to have some idea of what they're
paying for, and the web has all kinds of info on search engine optimization.
First, we research the keywords people actually use to search for your
subject. We use phrases that will actually get you traffic, or, in other
words, we optimize to win. If we can't win for a word (or, more precisely, if we
can't win for it on your budget), then it doesn't make much sense to pay for the
try. That would be a waste of your money. While there's no sense in optimizing a
site for words that get no traffic, there's no sense in going for extremely
popular words where they pay a team of search engineers year around. We go for a
balance of words we can win with and words that get lots of traffic.
Once we've worked out the right combination of keywords and phrases, we plan
them into the architecture of your site, strategically placing the most
important words on your main page, and scattering lesser phrases through lower
pages.
When we initially design a site, we construct (or
reconstruct) the HTML code to look the way search engines
like to see it. This is a tedious process. We don't just
pack keywords into the title and metatags. We try to balance
these keyword loads on different pages, trying to please different
search engines by providing them in the proportions they
like to see. Often, we will design one page to score well
with one engine, while another page will be completely different,
in order to please another.
Link. And get linked back to. For our clients who pay a
monthly bill, we spend a lot of time scouring the web for
like minded places to trade links with. We find other
companies, often around the world, who do similar things,
and we trade links. Besides offering many ways for people to
click through, these links, especially when the link or the
page they are on contain the same sort of keywords and
phrases as your site, help to raise your score in the search
engines. Many engines use the quantity and quality of links
to a particular site to judge the sites relevance and
popularity, therefore raising its score. You can also post
your URL on all your signatures at message boards,
newsgroups, and your e-mail. The more links to your site
that are out there, the better.
One of the best ways to link to your site is to start your own blog. Blogs
are a great way for small businesses to show their customers that they care
about keeping them up-to-date and giving them good information. The more content
you add to the blog, the more likely that it will show up high on the search
engines and funnel traffic to your site. At the same time, linking to your site
from your blog helps your site score higher, and vice-versa. The symbiosis helps
both sites. For more information, read my Blog
for Small Business Blogs, and join our Small
Business Blogs program.
