Search Engine Optimization

This is a tricky subject, but it is understandable. There are three major things that can be done to optimize your website for search engines.

1. Coding Optimization
2. Indexing, Sitemaps, Google Local
3. Ongoing Optimization (Internet Marketing)

1. Coding Optimization

Coding Optimization inolves selecting and inserting the keywords into in the major coding areas of the website.

Selecting Keywords
The more general the selected keywords the more competition your site will face when search engines determien search results. For example, if you wish to optimize your site for the word "Lawyers" you would face a lot of competition. You are not only competiting with every lay firm but with every Wall Street Journal article that uses the word lawyer, every blog, every use of the word lawyer on the internet. A better approach might be to optimize for the phrase "Tax attorney, Smryna, GA".  You can see how you have eliminted a great deal of the competition as well as optimized for a phrase that your prospects are actually likely to be typing into Google. In adddition, it is helpful to optimize for 1-2 phrases in order to give your site keyword density. If you attempt to optimize for too many phrases you might get your site on page 10 of Google for all the phrases, however it would be more effective to be on page 1 of Google for one phrase.

Inserting Keywords
Once selected, the keywords are inserted into key areas of the website code:

• Title Tag - The text that shows in the tab in your browser and as the first blue line in Google results
• Header Tag - The <h1></h1> like tags in the code the usually represent major headings on the page. On this page "Search Engine Optimization" is an h1 tag.  1.Coding Optimization above is an h4 tag and also relevant
• Keyword Tag - You stuff this one with lots of keywords
• Description Tag - A brief description of the actual page that yo can't see but Google can. Sometimes this is the text that appears below the title in the Google search results.
• Alt Image Tag - You can't normally see this one either. It is what apperas next to images if you have images turned off in your browser. It is also what is read aloud to those with accessibily features turned on. Lastly, it somtimes shows when hovering over an image. Either way, you might as well make sure your pictures are labeled with the use of your main key words
• Content - This is the actual content on the website and it should have your keywords as much as possible but not to the point of distracting the reader or falsifying the actual purpose of the page. You can get black listed by Google so doing "tricks" is not a good idea.

2. Indexing, Sitemaps, Google Local

After the coding optimization if performed it is time to make sure the search engines take a look at your site. This is done by submitting the URL and a list of all the sites pages (sitemap file) to the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing). This process called "indexing" forces the search engines to look through your newly optimized website. A final helpful step involves creating a listing for your website in Google Local. This listing is verified by Google sending a postcard with a verification code to the physical address of your organization. You then send the verification code to Web4u to complete the verification process. For businesses that work from home, the Google Local listing can be programmed to only show areas served and not the physical address of the business.

3. Ongoing Optimization (Internet Marketing)

Once your site is live, indexed, and listed, it may move up dramatically high and fast in search engine results. If it does not, there are some reasons why and some things you can do. In addition to your site containining the proper keywords, search engines also consider how many visitors come to your site regularly and how many other websites link to your website. On the first week of your website launch you might only have a few visitors and no other websites linking to your site. In this case, Google will likely consider a site similar to yours with thousands of visitors and 100 sites linking to it to be more relevant to the users search request than your site. To remedy the disadvantage of your new site, you'll have to get some visitors and get your site URL out on the web. This can be done in various ways. For the number of visitors portion, you can use all types of marketing to drive traffic to your site. Shaking hands and passing out business cards will generate real direct visitors to your site. Participating in blogs, discussion boards and forums can also help. To do this effectively, offer real legitamte answers on discussion boards and be sure to leave a link to your website. For example: If you offer Dog training services, you could participate in only discussions about the best dog training techniques. Being an expert, you can likely offer some of the best advice in that particular discussion board or blog. After leaving your helpful and meaninful advice, you can briefly mention that you are the owner of Fido Dog Training in yourtown, USA and offer a link to your site. It is important however to offer meaningful advice as opposed to spamming online forums with advertisements for your service. Besides being tacky, board moderators will likely remove your post. On the other hand, board moderators want their boards to be utlized, so they will likely leave approve your truly helpful posts.

Facebook, Twitter, and Blogging
Social media websites enter the picture here because these are forums in which you can create content yourself and offer links back to your website.

Paid Links
You can pay for your site to appear in sponsored link section of Search Engine Results. This approach is often worth the try because you only pay when someone clicks on your sponsored link. As opposed to print advertising in which no one may act on your advertisement, pay per click advertising assures you that you are only paying gor actual visitors to your website.

How Web4u Can Help
Web4u can help by managing the ongoing marketing for you and arranging a plan of attack appropriate for your business or organization. Web4u can also help you create an online marketing schedule or calendar that you execute. Web4u can send you reminders at key points in your schedule.