Make your local business website
search engine friendly with website optimization.

You website may look appealing to people who visit your page.  How does your website look to the search engines who rank your site?  Many websites look great to the human visitor however very few are optimized for the search engines.  You need website optimization.

Key visitors to your commercial pages include web robots that crawl the internet and catalog your content. Having proper HTML source code, plus the right combination of text and graphic presentation, is just one secret to success. Proper code may mean higher robot ratings, and the "look" is equally important. Once a new prospect finds your web site, you have 5 seconds to get them to stay.

As a small business web site owner, you may have asked "Why don't we get any hits?". Did you know web pages can load and appear correct with improper or deprecated HTML code? A browser may ignore your mistakes, and display what it thinks you meant, and it may look great. Web robots may not be as forgiving.

Following is a list of 7 basic elements for good search engine placement that need to be considered in your design and web site promotion. For details on code issues from the worldwide authority, visit the World Wide Web Consortium to view DOCTYPE and other quality standards.

1. Page Title Tags - use 85 to 125 characters of keyword phrases relevant to the content of that page. Each web page should have its own individual "Page Title Tag".
2. META Description - each web page should have its unique META description relevant to the data found on that page.
3. H1, H2, H3 headers - should contain keyword phrases.
4. Anchor Text should be keyword rich and link to other pages within your website.
5. [Alt Tags] - All visuals should have its own unique "alt tag" with keywords or phrases contained in it.
6. First paragraph of the Home Page should be descriptive about what your do and should be keyword rich.
7. Backlinks (Links to your pages) from content outside of your website.  This can be blogs, articles, video, press releases, online classified ads and other micro sites.

These 7 key items are either missing or poorly designed in 85% of all web sites. Some search engines may only list the other 15% in their directories. In other words, as few as 15% of the 6 billion web pages online ever make it into some search engines. Even worse, there are mistakes that may result in your page being blacklisted, and the search engine web crawlers may never come back to see if it's corrected. This could explain why you "never get any hits".

Web sites can be simple and professional without using fancy software to create your pages. Veteran programmers hand code and many create the HTML in Note Pad. Web authors who choose to use flash, frames, or the latest software may be losing a significant portion of new visitors (customers) because the visitor may lack the technology or newest version of browsers. If they are turned off and leave without giving your site a fair viewing, it could mean lost profits.

Most designers use prepackaged software to create web pages. If the software leaves out any of the key elements, the code is hidden, and you'll never know your site was not optimized for search engines. The designer may not know, or care, about these items as long as the page looks attractive. Note: Backlinks refer to marketing your site and getting other web sites to link to yours.

Finally, business visitors want information. They do not visit your home page to be entertained. Most have a need (problem) and want a fast answer (solution), so designs should be created to minimize the use of music or video unless that's your core business.  Anything that distracts from a positive first impression may violate my "5 Second Rule".  Put your phone number in the header of your website so it is visible on each page.  Put your phone number and business address in the footer.

 

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