As more and more competitors and rivals enter into the world of online commerce, it becomes increasingly difficult to win the attention of prospective customers. If your business is to succeed online, you must first master the art of search engine optimization, or SEO. Use these tips and tricks to create a competitive edge online.
There is no sense in optimizing your site for “hooded sweatshirts” if your target market calls them “hoodies.” You simply must know what words people are actually using, not what you think they use. One invaluable tool in your quest is Google Insights, which will show you, in incredible detail, patterns of Google searches, either globally or by country, stretching back to 2004. Get a solid handle on the words people ACTUALLY use to find what they’re looking for and you can have confidence in the keywords that you choose for SEO.
When using SEO keyword-finding resources, be sure that you are always creative in your efforts. You do not need to search specifically for well-known words or phrases. Instead, create categories and phrases and see what people are really searching for. This way, you may be able to find a widely searched phrase that has very little competition.
Joining SEO communities is a great way to learn little insider tricks of the trade. Say Google suddenly changes their policy and begins to treat HTML title tags differently. You may not find out about this until your site falls in the rankings. But if you’re signed up to receive newsletters and e-zines from the SEO community, you will always be in the know.
When optimizing your site for Google, do not use “semi spam” copy. Recent Google algorithm changes penalize not only obvious spam (e.g. “Get X@naX from 0verseas”), but also low quality content that has no useful purpose other than to drive visitors to a site. Articles spun by computers are a good example of this kind of content.
Posting content from your web site on article directory sites can be a great way to get exposure and build traffic. When you post on these directories you will be building a link back to your site which can increase the amount of visits you receive. The more directories you use the more links you create.
Keep your page simple. The more time it takes to load your page due to huge, time-consuming graphics or oddly styled coding, the less likely it will be for a search engine to recommend you. Keep your readers in mind as well. You do not want to drive anyone away from your site because it simply can’t keep up in a fast-paced world.
A good rule of thumb to follow when dealing with search engine optimization is to use your keywords and keyword phrases in your URLs whenever possible. Most search engines highly value the use of keywords in the URL, so rather than using arbitrary numbers, opt for replacing them with keywords.
Long loading times are enemies to all webmasters who want to get more traffic to their sites. Load time is a significant factor in search engine performance. Pages that load slowly, are indexed slowly or even skipped over entirely. Of course, long load times are not appreciated by website visitors, either. Making pages load faster is a sound practice, all around.
If you want to get your articles out there, on-page SEO is crucial. High rankings on Google can be the difference in being overlooked and gaining visitors. This means optimize your layout to maximize your exposure to search engines.
Be very careful if you’re sponsoring links! Unless the links are actually within content that someone will want to read, they just don’t work. A good use of a paid link would be having your website linked to from a blog post reviewing an item you sell as that would drive targeted traffic to your site.
Get involved in social media. Posting links to your blog posts on some of these sites can get you multiple responses that can add to your audience base. It’s a great way to draw in new readers!
SEO is a great web tool that allows the search engines to filter through your content and actually find you. With a good search engine optimization strategy you can really get high rankings and not have to pay. This exposure allows people the ability to find your site easier.
Make sure that people visiting your website can get a hold of you. People don’t trust websites where they have nothing but a contact form, so allow people to contact you directly by email, phone and even mail. The more people trust your website, the more likely they are to link to you, which is an important part of SEO.
Google uses Google Bookmarks as part of your Page Rank, so get your audience to add you! Make it easy using bookmarking tools on each page of your site, allowing them to add you to their bookmark list with a single click. Don’t actually ask your users to add you, that’s gauche.
The best way to ensure that search engine spiders don’t get into parts of your site you’ve blocked them from is to make sure all URLs are in lower-case. Robots.txt is case-sensitive, so you have to have URLs which match what you write there. Keeping all your pages lower-case will make it easier to deal with.
Do not be afraid to create engaging web copy that cannot be scanned and neatly indexed by search engines. You can optimize your site by writing unique, novel, and interesting content that will catch the eye of site visitors and other sites as well. This leads to increased link backs, which will ultimately contribute to your site’s relevancy rankings.
If you want consumers to visit your site or search for your products and services, it is especially important that you are willing to follow through with SEO principles in your site’s coding and content. Follow the advice from this article and you will begin to see improvements in your site’s traffic and efficiency.
