If you built a website as a profit center or just for fun, you need to have visitors. You won’t be able to sell a product or service if no one knows about it. The question is, how do you get your site out there so web visitors can find it? This is where you need to incorporate some strategies to optimize your website for search engines. This process is called search engine optimization, or more commonly known as SEO.
Internet search engine optimization is a series of techniques, tools and strategies carried out on your blog or website to help get noticed by search engines. Search engines use software applications called bots and spiders to crawl websites looking for anything that makes them relevant to the search parameters entered by online visitors.
Most Internet users are not sure what they are looking for or don’t know how to find it online. Web visitors trust search engines to do the work for them. Online marketers call the words or phrases that visitors enter into search boxes “keywords.”
When you use these same keywords in multiple places on your website, search engines will rank your web pages relative to other web pages that use these same keywords. Site owners who do their homework and apply optimization techniques effectively will be at the top of the ranking list. So what’s the fuss about being at the top of the list with the search engines?
Studies have shown that around 60% of people searching the internet will choose to click on one of the top 3 sites featured in search results. Furthermore, most of these web searchers will click on the result in the number 1 ranked position. Therefore, if you are in one of the top 3 positions in the search results, you can expect to receive a higher amount of traffic. When it drops to 4th position or below, visitor response is significantly reduced and these visitors are less likely to become paying customers.
Okay, so how do you get your site to the coveted top positions in search engines? The answer to that question is beyond the scope of this article. However, there are many tools, strategies, and resources that can help create higher search engine ranking optimization for your site. Some of these techniques revolve around choosing the right keywords and keyword phrases for your particular niche. But how do you decide which keywords to use?
First, you need to think like a customer. If you were looking for information about something that is available at your business or on your website, what words would YOU use to enter the search box? This may be a short list, but it’s a start.
You can then use an online keyword analysis tool to get more ideas. There are programs like the Google Keyword Research Tool that can take a keyword or phrase and create a long list of words related to your topic or niche. Many internet marketers also use another keyword research tool called Wordtracker Free Keyword Tool to help them figure out what keywords are trending.
These keyword tools get their information and results from the search engines themselves, ensuring that you get real results.
SEO is also useful for much more than content. You can use keywords to rank for other areas of your website. Here are a few:
* Headlines (for articles, web pages and posts)
* Anchor Text (links and ads in the content)
* Alternative image or photo tags
* Dropdown menus or tabs
Internet search engine optimization can help you design a website that is relevant to search engines. Once you create your website, with your niche in mind, and add all the content and information you want to offer your customers, focus on your keywords. Your keywords will give the search engines what they need to allow your site to rank. More importantly, it will allow web visitors to find your products and services, greatly increase your traffic, and ultimately convert your visitors into customers.
