What is search engine optimization? Why should you be concerned about it as a small business owner? For one, search engine optimization is an ideal way to reach your target audiences by using relevant search terms and custom content to boost your page relevancy. This means that your website will gain more exposure with minimal effort on your part. This article will outline several search engine optimization tips that are easy to implement.
Search engines crawl your entire site by default so you should include a robots.txt file to exclude pages that are not relevant to your site topic. Write the file and upload it to the root directory of the site. This will tell the search engine what to ignore right away so it doesn't waste time going through info that is not important.
Create unique content on your site to get found. Think about what everyone else is saying in your field and say it in a different, more powerful way. You don't want to blend in and under your competitors by writing something similar to what they do. You'll probably never get found that way. Keep your writing fresh.
By making the URL of a website with clear keywords, you will enhance the ease of their search-ability on search engines. The URL of a certain webpage will also make it easier for individuals who are visiting your site to navigate around. Ultimately, by having obscure and complex URL's, it will make it harder for those pages to show up in the top ranking of any search engine.
To keep search engines from ignoring your site, only use original content. Copying and pasting product descriptions from your merchant's site may save you time, but it will also lower your site's page ranking. To assure your page rank remains high, take the time to write your own content. If you don't have time to write, hire a copywriter to create original content for you.
What Does An SEO Report Look Like
Successful search engine optimization can be accomplished by integrating a site map into your website. This enables search engines to find other pages in your site other than the homepage easily and, thus, enhances your presence on search engines. Be sure to link each page of your website to your site map.
How SEO Works
Bold your keywords to allow search engine crawlers an easier hunt. Crawlers are intelligent, but sometimes they may have difficulty recognizing what your keywords are. To alleviate this issue, highlight your keywords by putting them in bold. It will make them easier to find, take less time for the crawler, and put you higher in the rankings.
Learn the basics. Search engine optimization may include some daunting definitions and seem extremely time-consuming, but keep at it. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you will be much less intimidated by other factors involved. Equipping yourself with knowledge of the tasks can put you heads above others who have yet to learn the basics.
How Much Does It Cost For Search Engine Optimization
The first rule of Search Engine Optimization is acknowledging that everything is not equal in search engine returns! Legitimate education sites, sites with an ".edu" extension receive higher ranking in search engine returns that do ".com" or ".org" sites. This is because these sites exist, in theory at least, solely for the purpose of providing relevant and objective information.
To choose the most effective keywords for your site, take advantage of the search engine's suggested topics. For example, if your site was about dogs, you could enter the word "dogs" into the search bar. Phrases that are suggested, such as "Dogs 101" or "dogs that don't shed" are phrases searched for often, and will make excellent keywords for your site.
To increase your traffic, create content that people want to link to. You can attract people with pictures and diagrams, 'how to' articles or a list of top 10 tips. Once you find a method that works, keep creating content using the same structure. Provide useful information that people will be interested in enough to create a link to it.
When search engine optimizing a website, don't forget the RSS! You want your RSS feed to be keyword rich and enticing to the reader, so that he or she will click through to your website. You need to convince everyone to read what you're linking to, but you also want RSS feed aggregators to include your links.
To ensure that search engine spiders take note of your images, be sure to rename your image files with more descriptive file names. "Dog.jpg" is a better choice than "f91717b.jpg". You should also make use of each image's ALT and TITLE tags by inserting appropriate keywords and phrases into these fields.
Make sure to visit Google Webmaster Central and enable "Enhanced image search". This will allow Google to index your graphics and add them to it's Google Images search results. Many people look for photos for a variety of uses, and if they also find useful content on your website, they're likely to come back.
Once you think you're finished optimizing your website, think again. Go back through your research and check off what has been done, and then get to doing the items you've forgotten or overlooked. There are also new ideas and tools for SEO popping up daily, so make sure you keep up with the latest news in the field.
Choose relevant, specific keywords. Choose one main keyword for each page, and then work that page so that the content is relevant, value-added and contains good long-tail keywords. Keep your keywords specific for better results -- any keyword or keyword phrase that is too general, like "kid parties" or "weddings" is going to return so many search results you may see anyone make it to your site with those keywords.
Something to avoid when trying to optimize your website in search results is to use false information or use keywords relevant to your site but use them out of context. While this may work for a while, once you come up with no content but just a few sparse words that are related to your web site's title, people and search engines(their web crawlers) will both quit visiting you and you will drop into the bottom of search results every time. Keep content relevant!
Remember, there is no single technique when it comes to SEO and you should have learned just a few more techniques that may help you. The constantly changing algorithms of search engines, make methods obsolete quicker than you can learn them. The best way to get your website seen, is to use every method of SEO you are capable of using.
