How To Employ Effective SEO Practices
Search engine optimization sounds very intimidating to users new to online marketing or web design and maintenance. However, with a bit of education and research, search engine optimization can be done efficiently and effectively by anyone. Read these suggestions for a few ways to make your site stand out more in search results and improve your site traffic.
Although there are many search engines out there, you should focus on the big three and leave the rest alone, to start. Google, Yahoo, and Bing are the big boys on the block, with Google controlling the lion’s share of the market. So when optimizing your site, stick to the types of things a search engine like Google appreciates. There’s no sense in optimizing for Ask or MSN when there’s really no money there.
To create more traffic to your site and to improve your standings with search engines, you can write and submit articles to online article directories. The directories make their articles available to countless people who will read your submissions and follow the links back to your site. This has the potential to bring traffic to your site far into the future as these links remain active for many years.
In order to successfully use search engine optimization on your site, you have to commit yourself to the ongoing process. You can’t simply optimize your site once and move on. Internet businesses exist in a constantly changing market, so the SEO strategy that is working for your company this year might not work next year.
One sure way to increase traffic to your website is to check the traffic statistics for the most popular search engine keywords that are currently bringing visitors to your site. Use those search words as subjects for your next few posts, as they represent trending topics with proven interest to your visitors.
Submit your site to major search engines. This may seem like it is an obvious step, but many site owners believe that a search engine will link to you if someone searches a certain keyword. While this may be true, you may not be the first on the list, or even on the first page. Optimize this strategy by paying a small fee to the search engine, and get your site on top of the results.
Make sure you’re using analytics on your website. Analytics allows you to measure the traffic to your site. It’ll tell you where people are located, the browser they’re using, how long they spend on the site, what they visit, and how they found the site. You can use this information to figure out what’s drawing people to your website and allow you to use that to increase your traffic.
To beat the clock on the time it takes after submitting to a search engine, links up to a quality blog or website. They already have their site on the listing, and the search engine will have a much easier time finding and submitting your data. Linking to the site will automatically place you in their database as well.
You should always use your keyword phrases in your HTML title tag. The title tag is the main weight during a search using a search engine. If you were the reader, what words would you be likely to search for? Once those words have been identified, they should be added to your page title.
After choosing your keyword phrase, purchase a domain name that includes your keyword. It will increase the likelihood of click-throughs, and it will give readers an instant idea as to what your site is about. This is key to rankings and is part of the reason you should always choose slightly less popular keyword phrases so that you are more likely to still find open domain names.
If you’re building a website for your business from scratch and the perfect domain name has already been taken, consider some alternatives. Adding a hyphen or two sometimes allows you to keep the same term that you originally intended to use. If the name has been taken by a dot com website, see if it’s available as a dot net domain. If possible, use a synonym for one or more of the words. As a last resort, consider purchasing an existing domain.
As discussed earlier, search engine optimization does not have to be scary or intimidating regardless of how little experience you have with building or maintaining websites. Follow the tips in this article to find ways to optimize your search engine results easily and effectively. You can improve your site’s ranking in search results with just a little effort and education.
