You will often find SEO firms in disagreement regarding the methodology of our trade. In our case, we keep few secrets. If you take the time to learn, and devote thousands of hours to implementing and practicing these skills, you can likely do it yourself. We must warn you that do-it-yourself search engine optimization may cause more harm than profit. If you are unsure, you are wise to hire a professional who can show you results.
Our methods to improve your search engine ranking will vary based on your existing placement, and many considerations regarding your current Website. Because of the custom nature of our work, there is no simple cookie-cutter method to fixing your Website. If you are interested in improving search engine placement, please contact us for a custom recommendation and pricing quote.
Search engine marketing has come a long way in the past decade. The technology used by search engines is improving fast, and poorly programmed and written Websites simply do not make the cut these days. Yahoo™, Google™, DMOZ™, Lycos™, HotBot™,
and every other search engine or directory in business today fulfills their objectives by providing informative and relevant results for their search patrons. This is perhaps the most important consideration when attempting to improve search engine ranking.
There is no way around the importance of unique high quality content. This is the single most important step to leading the way in search engines. We will help you to improve the text content of your Website. When search engines index your Website, they are looking for many things, but most important is that your site has quality content that matches their patron's search. Therefore, if I wanted to attract more business in Topeka Kansas, I would have the words, Topeka Kansas in my site content, and I would try to provide some useful information for Companies or individuals in Topeka. This is a step to search engine positioning that you must never skip.
In the past, it was common for a developer to try to "spoof" search engines by adding false information to Meta tags, "invisible text" or text matching the page background so search engines would "see" it, but people would not. We have seen it all, including Web developers who even had their site shut down and domain name taken away by the registrar for spamming and adding their link to every possible Web forum and newsgroup. These are all things of the past. If your Website does not have valuable content that matches your most important keywords and keyword phrases, this will be your most important step to improving your ranking.
Web page title tags are given more weight in search engines than any other single coding practice of your Website. This is not to say that other practices may be avoided, but this is one simple point that should be taken very seriously. Always name your pages according to the content displayed, and never waste this space to share your site's purpose. The title of your pages should also match the page content and heading tags, and never exceed recommended lengths. For more information, read our article on title tag usage.
The process of selecting keywords varies for each industry as much as the keywords themselves. Each page of your Website should be focused on only a select few keywords, therefore it is important to know where your market is searching. We will help by researching your industry and choosing the proper keywords.
Heading tags are an important step to telling search engines and Web surfers why they are there, and what to expect.
Many search engines and Web indexes will allow terms found in H1 tags a large boost in keyword relevance. The H1 tag is designed to tell the page topic. Click here for a valuable article regarding heading tag usage.
There are several ways to determine styles such as the font color, font size, font family, background color, column width, page width, scrollbars, and other style attributes of your site. By using external stylesheets, these styles are determined by a separate file that is not on the page itself. Further, the stylesheet needs only to be downloaded once, and thereafter, it may be referenced in the user's cache. This allows for faster load times, and better parsing of your pages by search engines.
Similar to external stylesheets, using external JavaScripts allows for faster page load time, and faster parsing and more complete indexing of your Web pages.
Although there are great benefits of using external styles, there are some instances where it is best to make use of local styles such as bold, italic, and bold italic, text.
Some search engines will allow a greater value for pages with keywords used in the URL. This naming convention has lost value with many search engines, but is still valuable.
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This is a common mistake that many of our competitors overlook. It is also a way to have your Web site penalized by some search engines. Also, it is not important to submit your site to 40,000 search engines. There is a relatively small number of databases that make up for the majority of all searches on the Internet. If you are listed with these key search engines, the others will find you. Many search engines will even give you a boost in their rankings for having been found without ever having submitted the site. Even if it takes a little extra time, it will be well worth it.
Your Web host can make a difference, but for more reasons than you may think. The obvious reason is if a search engine tries to visit your site and finds it unavailable, it will not be able to index new content, and may lower your ranking. However, the reasons go far beyond simply making your site available 24 hours seven days per week. Many search engines will penalize Websites for the company they keep. What this means is the other sites "next door" may be reducing your property value. If your site is on a server with objectionable content, it may be penalized. Many Web hosting companies use "virtual hosting" due to a shortage of IPs (the numeric Internet address where your domain name directs visitors). If you share an IP range with bad neighbors, it is much like placing your business in a bad zip code. Excluding particular IP ranges is simply the most effective way for a search engine to avoid inadvertently indexing objectionable or non-commercial grade Websites. This is particularly common when using a free Web host. Before you choose a Web host you should carefully review their terms of service and acceptable use policy. If they do not explicitly state their policy on SPAM and other illegal content, you may find out too late that your neighbors have effectively reduced your property value. Conversely, having sites of high value next door tends to attract an overflow of search engine indexing. If you question this theory, we welcome you to join us on the good side of the Internet tracks.
Meta tags can help to convey your Web site content, but search engines are looking for much more than Meta tags these days. Although Meta tags are important, if they do not agree with your Website content, it will do more harm than help. Although we may use many tags, the following are considered to be the highest priority.
Title: This is the highest priority Meta tag. It should include your most important keyword phrase.
Description: This is the site description, it should include your most important keywords and be written in sentence form. Some search engines will use this as a brief description alongside your listing in searches.
Keywords: The keywords Meta tags has lost much weight to most search engines, but is still important. It is important to use words with a large demand and where possible without a large supply. As with all Meta tags, their content should closely match the content of the page in which they are used.
Click here for more information on Meta tags. If you do not understand Meta tags after reading this article, contact us for more information.
Slow loading pages are very seldom indexed well. Search engines are much like Web surfers in this respect ... they simply will not wait for slow pages. They do not have time, and also recognize that a slow site is not commonly of the quality they are seeking. Remember, search engines have a vested interest in listing high quality Web pages.
Image is important in today's Internet, but not every visitor will see the images on your Website. Adding alternate text representation for images will help visitors with text-only browsers, or with their browsers image rendering turned off, to know what the images represent. This is mandatory for sites bound by ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), and it is looked upon as a higher quality Website. By using alternate text, you will also add to the overall text within your site, thereby allowing search engine robots more to index.
Adding name and title attributes to anchor tags not only adds to usability for your site's visitors, search engines will also recognize your efforts. The title attribute in your links should mirror the title of the page where it points. Always remember that anything that makes your Website a better experience for a visitor will also make it better for a search engine.
If your site does not have text links to important pages, it should. Adding text links with proper attributes is extremely important to improving your site's indexing in search engines.
Your parents probably told you to never lie. They may have been preparing you for business on the Internet. If you try to cheat a search engine, you will be caught, and it will show in your search ranking. YourNew.com was recently frustrated to find a competitor in the Kansas City Web design market skyrocket past us in many search engines. We just relaxed and watched as they cheated their way right out of business. In fact, the domain is currently available for sale by their registrar, and has been banned by most search engines.
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