Introduction

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital for today’s business with an internet presence. Effective competition in a crowded marketplace is what distinguishes successful companies from those that use ineffective means to get themselves seen and heard by potential clients.

Now an expensive niche profession, many claiming expertise in SEO guarantee (for a price) that they can provide instant results, top listing in the search engines, and instant traffic doubling or tripling. Many of these schemes and tactics actually hurt a websites listing. Recovery from dubious attempts to cheat to the top will result in a web page being dropped altogether from the search engine.

The reality of SEO is that it requires methodical, step-by-step planning and patience.

The basic keys to high search engine rankings are content and linking. Meta tags used to be important, but Search Engines now read a website before making up their minds. Google adword campaigns are inexpensive methods to drive targeted referrals to your website.

Meta Tags

Meta Tags are HTML code that tell search engines what keywords and description you wish to use for your website.

For example:

<meta name="description" content="ForSaleByOwneronMLS.com is your local resource for listing your home on Multiple Listing Service and in Realtor.com for one low price! Flat fee listings are the latest marketing technique allowing sellers to get maximum exposure for their homes while saving thousands of dollars.">

<meta name="keywords" content="Home, Homes, Houses, Real Estate, Realtor, Realtors, Agent, Agents, Broker, Brokers, Relocation, Moving, Raleigh, North Carolina, FSBO, For Sale By Owner, Discount, Reduced Rate, Fisbo, flat fee, free listing, listings">

In the past, search engines used to rely heavily on Meta Tags, but that is no longer the case. Most search engines are now intelligent enough to search the content of the website to determine keywords and content, and often will compare what is found on your page with the Meta Tags. If there is not a good match, then resulting lower ranking will occur.

It is vital that your Meta Tags Keywords be specific enough. Generic keywords will result in a web page drowning in a sea of competition. Specifying your target audience clearly, often by locale, will help greatly.

Based on your keywords, your content should consist of 200-250 words of visible text that contain those keywords, and the more the better. The search engines need to read your keywords in your content. Each meta tag keyword should appear at least four times on your index page, or your website will be downgraded by Search Engines.

You should prepare for two to three word searches, and often one of those words is a location.

Your Meta Tags Content should be a summary of the content on that page. It should not be the same for every page.

Finally, your web page’s title tag is important as well. It should reflect what your company is about, with the keywords in the title.

Meta Tags Summary:

Title tag – uses keywords to reflect your company and what it does

Description – uses keywords in sentences to describe your company and what it does

Keywords -two or three combination words that are frequently used to search for products and services that your company provides.

Linking

Incoming links are links on other websites that point to your website. Your incoming links weigh more in search engines when they use your keywords to describe your website.

Search engines put so much emphasis on the text contained in links, that it is nearly impossible to achieve good rankings for competitive or generic search terms without an active linking strategy.

You must focus on cultivating incoming links with your targeted keywords. This means reciprocal linking (trading links) with strategic partners.

Highly competitive search terms are not often the best strategy for SEO, due to the expense of extensive linking.

Content

Content is another vital aspect of SEO – what unique content you have on your site, the volume, is one factor in the list ranking of your site. Additional content often comes at a price, either in the cost to develop it, or the cost to acquire it.

If your site is lacking in content, you will need to take a realistic look at the cost of developing additional content, and decide how much content you want to create. If the new content serves a dual purpose, and makes the site more attractive to visitors, some of the costs may be offset by higher sales.

For a site that already has a substantial amount of content, it's possible that simply optimizing existing content, and making it easier for search engines to find, will deliver good results. Any unique page on your site could potentially be optimized to target many specific search terms.

We often encounter database-driven (dynamic) sites, where simply changing the underlying templates will create optimized content. In some cases, search engines can't index the site effectively, and further changes must be made to resolve this issue.

It is well worth the time to add unique content to your site regularly, and then resubmit your website to the search engine spiders.

Pay for Click Campaigns – Google Adwords
adwords.google.com

‘Pay for Click' ads are based on the keywords you specify, and the amount per click-through to your website you are willing to pay. Google also allows you to specify a daily budget amount you are willing to spend, and allows you to create and modify your ad at will.

Often, it becomes necessary to have multiple ads and tweak the text in them to ensure they are unique and eye catching.

Adword campaigns can be an inexpensive way to measure the efficacy of advertising on search engines.

As a general rule of thumb, marketing science dictates that for one thousand click-throughs to your website, one sale will be made. However, if your website does not facilitate sales, then this number will be much lower.

Steps to Search Engine Success

Organize the website to sell your product or service. Ensure your marketing design is attractive and leads customers to purchase at every step. Your website should lead the customer to a purchase, not drive them away.

Add content to the website for customers to use as a resource. Add new content at least once a month. Customers who see a reason to come back will spend money.

Cultivate linking in the community of websites. Often business associates are the best to link with, but these links can be presented as a resource for customers, again providing customers a reason to come back.

Adjust your webpage titles, meta tag keywords and description accordingly.

Submit to major search engines, if possible - after new content is created. Re-crawl your site about once a month if you have made changes.

Budget some funds for a Google Adword campaign and measure its efficacy, tuning and tweaking every week to generate more traffic to the website.

If you'd like more information on this subject, please feel free to use our Contact page to send us an email. If you have a specific project in mind, please use our Quote Request page.

Contact Information

Henry Norris, Founding Partner
hjnorris(at)fhtechnology.com
Phone - 919.341.1238

Henry Norris is the founding partner of Fountainhead Technology Services LLC, a Raleigh based provider of affordable search engine optimization and internet marketing solutions that enable businesses to leverage and position their internet presence.