Search Engine Optimization - What Is It?What is Search Engine Optimization? Simply put, search engine optimization, shortened to SEO, is the term for making sure that your website shows up when potential visitors type keywords or phrases into Google, Yahoo, MSN, or one of their other favorite search engines.
Want to see an extremely well-done website? Click here to see a website for a Winter Park lodging rental company. Notice anything? Probably not, but the writing is catching the attention of search engines, and that's what matters! Want to learn more about what happened to the American economy? Click here to see a website that explains the various economic stimulus packages and depicts great writing. Or check out another one, that explains the economic stimulus package in detail. If news of the economy is too intense for you, try another site, grilling baked potatoes.
For better or worse, search engines have become the gatekeepers in this new millennium, deciding who deserves website traffic and who doesn’t, who’s worthy of a referral and who isn’t. Say the words “search engine optimization,” and most people grimace. The process sounds horrible and daunting, but in fact, it’s incredibly fun and easy to learn. To please search engines, you need to “think” like a computer, which, in fact, is fairly simple. Search engines have specific guidelines, and they look for consistent, repetitive patterns. There’s nothing mysterious about the process of search engine optimization. That cherished referral – the one a search engine is making to some website, somewhere in the world – will come to you as soon as you implement a few basic search engine optimization techniques.
You’d be amazed at how much impact small changes can have, bringing big results. For more great examples of well-done websites, click here to see a website for a cosmetic and implant dentist in Denver, Colorado, and one for a cosmetic and implant dentist in Littleton, Colorado.
Search Engine Optimization TipsJune 28, 2009: Google has never seen 25-30% of the searches that are being conducted today - they are new phrases that someone invented, typically 4-5 word combinations. To capture those new phrases, and others, put lots of words on your pages.
June 7, 2009: Deep, varied content is what will get you a lot of clicks. A 20-page site will get twice as many clicks as a 10-page site; a 500-word web page will get twice as many clicks as a 250-word web page. The wider you spread your net with good content, the more people you'll capture.
May 25, 2009: Check Your Google "Cache" Date Want to know when Google last came and looked at your site? Go to Google, and in the search bar, type this: cache:www.yoursitename.com. You'll see a copy of your web page, and in the top bar, you'll see the last time the site was indexed. The more often you add to and update your site, the more often Google will come by.
May 15, 2009: Links, Resources, Partners Google has become so wary of "links farming" (the unscrupulous practice of selling or trading links to trick the search engines) that it's now become suspicious of web pages that are called "Links," "Resources," or "Partners." If you have to use one of those appellations for a page title, don't put a bunch of outgoing links on the page, with no explanatory copy in between, or you'll look suspicious yourself.
May 5, 2009: Privacy Policy Page Google likes to see privacy policy pages on sites. This doesn't have to be a 5,000-word document, just a few sentences telling visitors whether you're capturing their personal and private information and what you intend to do with it. |