You’ve probably heard the term “SEO” or “Search Engine Optimization”. This actually isn’t as scary as it sounds, it simply refers to things you can do to increase the chances that your website will show up at the top of search results when people are looking for a company like yours. There are people and companies who do this (and only this) for a living, but there are some pretty simple things that you can do yourself to make your website more search engine (and human) friendly.
Keywords or Keyword Phrases:
This is important. You should come up with a few words or phrases that clearly define what your business is about and then use those words or phrases in the text of your website. This ensures that people have a clear understanding of your business and helps the search engines (such as Google and Yahoo) correctly categorize your site.
Content:
This is a general term referring to any information contained in your website. Could include text, audio, video, pictures, etc.
Text: Your website’s “copy” (or the text contained in your website) should be clear and succinct. The first paragraph on your home page should give the visitor a good sense of what your company is about and why they should be interested.
You should include all of your keywords or keyword phrases (from above) in the copy on your home page but make sure that it flows well.
Every other page on your site should focus on one keyword or phrase. That keyword or phrase should also be in the title of the blog post or page.
Keep it fresh: Search engines prefer sites that have regularly updated content. Well constructed blogs will have an edge over static websites. If you have a more static website, you can improve your ranking by regularly publishing a snippet of your blog posts or Twitter posts on your home page (this will also drive more traffic to your blog or Twitter page which is a bonus) or creating some other section of your site that you update regularly with fresh content.
Pictures: Use pictures that support the text they are next to and use your keywords or phrases in your pictures titles. Well chosen and well placed pictures are also a vital component in gaining and keeping human visitors. Your site needs to be visually appealing.
Audio and Video: Search engines love sites that include audio and video so include this whenever possible, just make sure that it flows well with the other content on your site. Audio or video (or any other content for that matter) that is awkward or seems out of place will turn off both human visitors and search engines.
Viral Content:
This refers to content that is designed in such a way that allows your website visitors to easily share your information with others. This would include:
- Functions that allow your visitors to email your content to others or to publish your content on Facebook, Twitter, etc
- Links to your accounts at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Del.icio.us, and other social networking sites
- YouTube videos
- Anything else that promotes the viral spread of your content
Backlinks:
Links on other sites that send visitors to your website. The more of these you can get from reputable sites, the more important the search engines think your site is. However, sheer numbers aren’t the answer. Focus on getting a few backlinks from highly ranked sites as opposed to getting a lot of links from sites that are not very well respected.
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[...] what “SEO” (Search Engine Optimization) and its general components are, read my “Optimize Your Website/Blog” post. If you don’t understand some of the terms the author uses below you should also [...]