Search Engine Optimazation (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the higher a site appears in the search results, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine.

SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and key phrases, and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

Every website is optimized for search engines at the time I build your site. This means all of the major areas for optimization have been customized for your site. If your website is a niche market, the optimization we perform when building your site may be sufficient. If your site is based on a broader more common market or service then a long term strategy will be necessary to ensure a good search engine placement.

What are some of the key things that must I considered when optimizing your pages?

• Page title should be keyed to what this page covers.
• Main Heading for the page also keyed to the page contents
• Key Phrases in the text of your page. Two or three word phrases keyed to the contents of the page.
• Lots of content. Content is king, and search engines like to see a lot of relevant text on your pages.
• Links back to you from other relevant websites that also rank well.
• Text links to your content. Links within your content to your other pages.
• Look for a niche category within a large search term. (Instead of targeting "apparel or clothing", optimize for a particular line of apparel like urban apparel.
• A Site Map makes it easier for the search engines to find all of your pages.

There is no silver bullet! It takes a lot of work optimizing a site to get it ranked well. The above list is just part of an overall optimization strategy. One of the best ways to get ranked well is to have good content that people want to read. The content should be at least 250+ words per page, and should have a good mix of key phrases that best summarizes your overall page content, and thus optimizes that page. This needs to be done on every page of your site.

I work very hard to get the right mix on every page that we do. While we can't guarantee that it will rank you number one, you should rank well over time. Then going back over your pages and tweaking certain key phrases, it should help you move up the list even further.

I can optimize your existing website. If your website is not doing as well as you think it should with the search engines, contact me. I will do a preliminary walk through of your site, then suggest some ways to make it perform better with an estimated cost for this service.