Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization or SEO is the optimizing of web pages through various methods so that the website will rank higher by the search engines. The higher a website ranks, the more traffic or visitors the site will experience thus generating more profit or exposure for an online business or venture.

According to Search Engine Watch, the top three search engines are Google, Yahoo and MSN/Bing/Windows Live. If your website is currently being found within the first two pages of either of these engines - or better yet, all three, you are definitely doing something right. If not, we can help you. Once you achieve high rankings, effort is required to maintain success. Millions of websites compete for those top positions, so staying there is an ongoing process.

Some of the ways to improve your search rankings include:

• Effective Keyword Research and Usage
  When you perform a Google search, you enter keywords in the search field. Companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo place tremendous value on the words used to conduct searches and in order for potential customers to visit your site, it is important to research the keywords that are used to find your type of business. You then want to use those within the meta tags so that the search engines will locate your site and maybe once or twice within your page content. There was a time when much more emphasis was placed on the strategic placement and the usage of keywords throughout website content but that is not so important these days. Do not go overboard on this.
• Consistency in Updating Content
  Search indexing engines LOVE new content. If you want to increase the likelihood that your site will be found by the search engines, continue to add new content. For news sites like CNN, MSNBC, etc, this is simple because of the nature of the site. Also many sites are "blog-like" or have blogs/forums affiliated with the site.
• Social Media
  Unless you have been living in a cave for the past couple of years, you have heard of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Linkedin and the hundreds of others lesser known social media websites. If used properly, these outlets can help to drive traffic to your website which can help in your website rankings with search engines. How social media has helped to reshape site relevance and search engine rankings is that there are now numerous opportunities for people to link to your site because they like your content. These are called one-way links and they are highly valued by the search engines. If other website and blog visitors are reading the content to your site and linking to it, that tells the search engines that "this site is relevant" and this can give a tremendous boost not only to your site rankings but also to your traffic.
• Sharing Your Knowledge & Expertise
  With the knowledge and experience that you have obtained within your industry, join online communities and forums and become a contributor. You can do this by sharing your knowledge and offering advise. Over time, you can establish credibility and people may then start to link back to your site. People then want to hear what you have to say and what products and services that your have to offer and may start visiting your site regularly (...hint hint...consistently updating your content).