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How to Make Your Site do Better in Search Engines

Your web site is, in effect, your business brochure online. You may print one, but not every one will pick up your brochure. You may build a web site, but not every one will find it or visit it. You have to do well in search engines before people can find your web site, and you won't do well in web sites if people don't visit your web site. Sounds like Catch 22.

Search engines are tricky. There are methods that rank web sites to place them in order in the results of search engines. The people who design these methods change them.

What worked last year may not work now. What will work in the future has not yet been invented.

At this time, these are things that seem to work well. The following information was gleaned from several sources and personal experience. This site offers NO GUARANTEES.

1. Well-chosen key words Try to choose key words that describe what you do / what your site is selling in the fewest words that get the fewest number of hits in the search engines. You are the subject matter expert. Therefore, you know best about how you want your web site to be found in search engines. For example, “acupuncture” gets over 15 million hits; “acupuncture Denver” gets 229,000 hits; “acupuncture Denver 80209” gets less than 6,000 hits. The more hits using your keywords, the more competition there is. And, the lower your ranking will probably be. You many not do well nationally, but you can do well locally. In addition, be sure to use keywords that potential customers will use and not just current industry buzzwords. Also, use keywords that different customers with different needs will look for. Find out what key words your current customers use. Target customers who will actually want to buy your product or service.
2. Well-written text The text on your web page should be interesting, informative, and contain your key words. Again you are the subject matter expert. You need to write the text for your web site. Nobody knows your business better than you do. One resource recommends that you have about 200-300 words in the text (fairly short pages with relevant text) on your page and use your keywords in the first two paragraphs. Content matters. Placement of key words matters.
3. Key word saturation This means how many times your key words appear in normal text (without appearing that you peppered your text with keywords just to do well in search engines) versus how many words are in your normal text. Each page on your web site should concentrate on one specific topic with its own set of keywords. “Tree and lawn care” should be broken out into “tree care” on one page, “lawn care” on another. More distinct keywords means less key word saturation. NOTE: Stacking your page with extra repetitions of your keywords will actually hurt you in search engines.
4. Key word optimization Your web site designer can take your text and your keywords and optimize your site. Once again, if the site appears to be peppered with key words unnecessarily, it will NOT do well in search engines. Normal use of keywords in web site construction includes putting your key words behind the scenes as well as in the text. This would include:
   • actual text on the page and not buried in Flash or Images
   • file names for your pages and illustrations
   • text in your navigation buttons
   • the title on each page
   • the descriptions of the illustrations
   • the text of links between the pages of your web site and from your site to other sites
   • format of the pages (headings etc.)
   • location of keywords on page
   • your site map
   • behind the scenes code
5. New and current content Old content is not interesting and informative. There is, or should be, a last revised date on your web site. That tells search engines when was the last time you updated your site. Keep your visitors interested and keep them coming back.
6. Web site popularity Your web site has to be popular with people and other web sites before it can do well in search engines to attract people to your web site. That sounds like a vicious circle. And, at this time, this is probably the most important part of your web site promotion! It’s also entirely up to you to promote your web site if you want it to do well. There are two ways search engines determine web site popularity:(1) number of visits to your site and (2) links from other relevant sites to your site. There are a lot of things that you can do to help your web site:
• Make your web site be your home page Every time you go onto the internet, your web site gets another hit.
• Visit your web site often You need to check it periodically for current content and for things that need to be fixed. Each time you check it online, your site gets another hit.
• Print your web site address Put your web site address (domain name) on every piece of paper and every email you send or hand out and on every bit of advertising for your business. It should be on your business cards, your invoices, your receipts, your stationary, your brochures, your flyers, your signature on your email, your Yellow Pages ad, the side of your truck(s), etc. Pepper your world with your web site address.
• Advertise your web site Direct people to your web site. Mention your web site. Put cards with your web site on it at the various places where they’re likely to be interested in your services or buy your products. Create flyers for your business, with your web site on them, and put them where potential customers may pick them up.
• Go to trade shows You'll be able to network with people in related industries and potential customers. You can advertise yourself, your business and your web page. Take plenty of business cards with your web site on them.
• Get links from other web sites to yours Contact as many of your business associates as possible and get them to link to your web site: your suppliers and the manufacturers of the products you use should be linking to you. It is the links from their site to yours that will help your web site do well. You may have to offer to link back to them to get this to work. The more popular the site that links to you, the more it counts for your search engine placement. Look for sites that rank high using the keywords you want to use and ask them to link to your site.
• Join business-related organizations Ask any business-related organizations to which you belong if they can link to you. The more links you have to your site from web sites that are in the same or a related industry, the better. Consider joining any business-related organizations that will link to you. Ask your local chamber of commerce and Better Business Bureau to link to your web site.
• Join online groups and chat rooms Look for business-related online groups that you can join where you post information and respond to other people. Use your web site address as part of your name or signature in these groups. You’ll help set yourself up as a subject matter expert, you’ll contact new prospective clients, you’ll advertise your web site and you might learn some things about your business in the process. Google and Yahoo host groups that you can join for free. Look for online business networking sites (eg. www.linkedin.com, www.ryze.com and spoke.com).
• Be a subject-matter expert Write articles about your subject matter for small, local papers and include your web site address (as part of your signature) in them. Write articles about your subject matter for online publications (eg. Wikipedia or any of the business-related groups to which you belong). Be sure to use your web site address and key words in those articles, too.
• Get your customers involved Ask your customers to write reviews of your business for online groups and review sites. Make sure your customers know about your web site. Ask them what they want to see on your web site. Keep your customers happy.
• Get publicity Write press releases about your business to advertise your business and include your web site address. Get involved in, or sponsor, special events. Send press releases to your alumni societies.
• Use free advertising If there is a way to advertise in print, do it. Get involved with special events and get them listed in community calendars. Go to other web sites that let you have space for free: Craig’s List, MySpace, Face Book, etc. Join alumni associations and add your profiles to school and classmate / reunion sites.
• Give something away Offer a free service, product or printable discount coupon on your web page, but only on your web page. The only people who will know about it will be people who visit your web page and the people they tell to visit your web page. Make sure the only way to get the free goodie is by visiting your web site. It could be a monthly drawing for a product or service, available only to one of those who send an email and sign up, or it could be something every visitor could have if they want it.
7. Submit your information for online maps Some sites let you offer printable coupons, some sites are free and your business will show up on maps with markers. Google Places is free and only takes a few minutes to create an account and add your business.
8. Use free online sites in your specialty. For example, if your specialty is music, use MySpace and ReverbNation. Use search engines and ask other people to find sites that are available in your specialty.
9. Get a blog From “Web Site Wow” by Jeniffer Thompson of MonkeyCMedia:
   • “Having a blog will strengthen your position as an expert in your field.”
   • “Your post could lead to … interview[s].”
   • “…a great way to add fresh new content to your site without any programming knowledge”
   • “…blogs are easy to set up and they are, for the most part, free.”
   • “…add a blog button to your web site”
   • “…store your blog on your server”
   • “…include a good mix of your keywords when appropriate”
   This is a wonderful book with lots of great information about turning your web site into a strong marketing tool. You can buy a copy of this book from MonkeyCMedia.
10. Use online tools From "Connect With Customers" in NASE Self Employed March/April 2009:
    • Use online social networking tools like MySpace and Facebook, blogs, RSS feeds, and Twitter for "business-focused social networking"
    • Use Podcasts (like radio), v-casts (podcasts plus video), YouTube videos
    • Use online social networks for business professionals likeLinkedIn
    • Use online business directories like superpages.com
    • Keep track of comments about your businesses with Google Alerts
    • Keep track of new online tools, liked Linkedin.
11. Keep an email list of customers Use emails, with links to your web site, to keep in touch with your customers and let them know about new features on your web site. Encourage them to forward your emails to their friends, too. If you have limits on how many emails your send, or you're worried about being a spammer, look into an email service providers which will send out your emails, track and report information, etc. Get permissions from your customers first and give them a way to opt out of the list. Send them a periodic email newsletter.
12. Get new customers online Visit sites that allow you to search out people you used to know: former school mates, old friends, former teachers, former business associates. Contact them online and let them know what you're doing. Find existing groups (Google and Yahoo have them) in your subject area and join in their discussions to find new contacts.
13. Buy additional domain names At $10 / year, a domain name is cheap advertising. There are domain name search features on Godaddy.com that will help you find domain names that use your keywords.
    ***WARNING: these additional domain names will help you only two ways: 1) If they give you another domain name that people will intuitively try to use or 2) They are actual additional pointers to your web site and NOT FORWARDS.
14. Submit your URL (web site address) to search engines Put “website submission” in the search line in Google and find the sites that will let you submit your web site address to the search engines. If you have different facets of your business on different pages, consider submitting multiple pages of your web site to search engines. If you make major modifications to a page or pages on your web site, resubmit the page(s) that change. NOTE: paid submission does NOT guarantee placement in search engines. Paid submission guarantees that your site will be considered. Free submission does NOT guarantee that your site will be considered for placement. Short on time? Consider the most popular search engines and concentrate your effort on those.
15. Buy ads in online phone directories This is another way to get an online link to your site.
16. Purchase promotional space on Web sites Make sure they will link to your site and are business-related. Look for on-line versions of trade magazines and local business journals. Buy ads that will link to your site.
17. Buy web site placement If all else fails and you are not happy with the results, you can pay for placement in search engines. Some options include "pay-per-click" and some don't have a minimum spending requirement. More specific keyword phrases (fewer hits) should cost less. If your business is local, you might be able to uses targeting tools that will show your ad to visitors from specific areas. Some options include tracking toos, too.

There are a few things to remember:

• There are NO guaranteed results.
• Key word optimization (step 4) of the code on your web site is a small part of promoting your web site.
• Your web site builder is responsible for key word optimization of the code.
• You are responsible for all the other items. You are the subject matter expert and you are the person publicizing your business. You decide how much time and money you want to spend.
• It's possible to hire a pro to submit your sites to search engines and do other web site promotion.
• Some pages on your site will do better than others. Since each web page is, or should be, a different topic using different keywords, the results will vary.
• Every search engine uses a different method to rank web sites. You may do better on some sites than others.
• It takes time for search engines to find your site and time for changes to your site to show up in search engines. Do NOT expect results over night.

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