Google and other search engines are the gateway
to your business, and getting high page ranks somewhere in the first
page of listings, is important for driving business to your site.
There are companies out there that will promise you the moon, the
stars, and, by the way, page rankings so high that you'll cheerfully
pay them hundreds of dollars every month for their services..
Finding tried and true ways to get organic
traffic meaning being found during a regular search, not by getting
there via paid per click ads on the right column, is the best and
most solid way to build your web site's traffic. Here's what search
engine optimization boils down to:
Here's what search engine optimization boils
down to:
1. Content, content, content. You
need real content on your web, this is content that has real meaning
to real people, not just stuffing a bunch of keywords that make no
sense. Search engines use programs called web crawlers or web
spiders that list web sites. The one thing those web crawlers looks
for is content. They figure out if a site has content by tracing
keyword phrases. This is why search engine optimization usually
starts by picking keywords and writing content around them; many web
site marketing experts advocate writing a high density of the same
keywords, but doing too much of this can actually work against you.
2. Link backs provide validation. The
more links leading back to your site, particularly links that are in
contextually appropriate content, the higher your page ranking will
be. Ways to get these link backs range from link exchanges with
other companies in related marketing niches, to having articles
about the topic or niche you're selling to with links back to your
site, to social networking sites and Squidoo Lenses.
3. Updated, and expanding content. You
can't just put a page up there and expect to keep the same page
ranks. Your site needs to have new material, this is important not
just for web spiders, but for human visitors as well. If they can
expect to see something new and interesting at least three times a
week, they'll keep coming back and it takes an average of seven
visits before someone decides to either post in a forum or buy
something in a shopping cart.
4. Web structures that make sense.
Your web site should have clearly structured navigational links,
your landing page or front page should have links to everything else
on the site.
5. Text rules everything in web
content. Search engine spiders ignore Javascript, they ignore
graphics, and until very recently, they couldn't read text in Flash
animations. If the search engine spiders can't read it, it doesn't
get used to help your page rankings.
The real secret to long term success with web
site optimization is to make sure your site is usable and
interesting, both to the search engine spiders and to your human
visitors. Keep adding fresh content that makes them both want to
come back for more, and your site will continue to grow in
popularity.
