Professional Website Design by TDTSolutions - Who's Next?
Located in Charlottetown, PEI
Web Design - Search Engine Optimization
What is so special about Search Engines and why do we need them so much?
Google and Yahoo didn't become popular because of luck, nor did it happen over night. They recognized a need and capitalized on it and to this date they are constantly competing with each other to gain popularity and to innovate the web on how we use it today. When you think of a Search Engine, think of it as a virtual phone book with every website listed in the world at your fingertips.
Search engines provide an easy means for you and I to find what we need. Being able to find the right information quickly is also very important. The web is polluted with information and the single greatest struggle which makes one search engine more effective than it's competition is the value of the content the Search Engine places on those web pages. If you search for a topic, lets say "Golden Retrievers", then what the search engine then does is, it will bring up ALL related results in regards to your search term. Now getting into the top page listed within the top 10 is another story. People don't want to spend all day going from page to page trying to find the information they want. So Search Engines place the sites with the most relevant content, most used, and higher ranked websites at the front of the pack. Not everyone can get to the front page of Google, but if you refine your key words to a more detailed search you might be surprised on how well you do with Search Engines.
I've had people come to me and say Troy, why am I not on the front page of Google? I then answer by asking, "What were you typing to try and find your web site?"
Key Points
Knowing your demographic and audience is essential. Driving traffic to your site that holds no value to the wrong people is very annoying. How many times have you stumbled on a website that really had nothing to do with the search term you submitted?
Be realistic and don't generalize your keyword focus to a point where you are competing with hundreds of thousands of similar websites that have been around much longer than you.
Have unique titles on each one of your pages which is relevant to the content within the body of your page.
Don't be afraid to write your own content and make it personal and original. Content is king in today's SEO world and without valuable content your website might as well be one big image of a flash presentation.
Organize your content with a proper header structure. Put headings where they should go and organize them properly from section to section.
Limit your use of flash for reading information. Any company that has a 100% flash driven website with more than a full page of content is committing world wide web suicide.
Research your competition, see what they are doing, and find out how they are doing it. Obviously they are doing something right or in most cases better than you if you are reading this.
Put links on your site only if they return the favor. Putting hundreds of links on your site without a link back from them is not doing you any bit of good. The only reason how this could help you is by you helping your visitors. Take advantage of free web directories offering free link submissions. Become listed on www.dmoz.org. I call this place the "Google Breakfast", when google wakes up in the morning they go here to see who is listed.
Submit your site to the search engines manually - For example - here is Google's submission page
There are a lot of other tricks and tips you can do and as web designers we put a lot of effort into the finer details that will improve your Search Engine results.