Most businesses don't take advantage of search engine optimization, but few things on the Internet can be as beneficial. A recent Forrester Research report showed that 80% of web surfers discover the new sites that they visit through search engines (such as Yahoo, Google, or MSN). According to
iProspect, 85% of web users use search engines to find solutions and vendors. Properly optimizing a site for search engines helps it to attract numerous, highly targeted visitors- visitors that may become buyers.
For the technically inclined, there are numerous places on the web to get detailed, in-depth information on search engine optimization. However, many people don't care about the technical aspects of search engine optimization - they just want to know what is wrong with their site (and how to fix it). What follows is a practical guide that covers some of the most basic search engine issues. It is in no way intended to be
comprehensive, but it should help the average site owner determine whether their site is optimized, and if not, how to make some simple anges to improve their search engine rankings.
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Issue #1- The Title Bar. On your homepage, what does the title
bar say? If you use Internet Explorer, this is the blue bar at
the extreme top of the window that displays your page (it may
include the words "Microsoft Internet Explorer" at the end).
Does your company name appear here by itself, when you have more important keywords to emphasize? Worse yet, does it say
"untitled"? This area should contain the most important keyword, keywords you see on your homepage (Don't have any text on your homepage? See issue #2). To check the rest of your site, click on any link from your homepage and see if the words in this title bar change for each page in your site. They should- and each title bar should contain the most important keyword (s) from their corresponding page. Note: Very long keyword strings in the title bar should be avoided- six words or less is optimal. Also, words in the title bar should not repeat more than once, and identical words should not appear next to one another.
Issue #2- Content. A search engine all trys to list sites that contain good content. Translation - you need words on your pages, not flashy graphics. This text should contain the most important keywords that your potential customers would use to find you on a search engine. If you have very few or no words on your pages, it is a good idea to add some, ideally around 250 per page. For aesthetic reasons, this is not always practical, but even 100 well-written words can have an impact on rank. It is also important that you make certain that the words are written in a language the search engines can read. Using your mouse, bring your cursor down to the text on one of your web pages. Clicking and holding down the left mouse button (make sure you aren't near a link) see if you can highlight just one or two words of the text. If you can, everything is most likely fine. If nothing
happens, or you can only highlight a large block, it is most
likely in graphic form. Graphic text needs to be replaced by
standard html text to allow the search engines to read it. Your
web expert should have no problem understanding what you
require, and the transition should be fairly simple and
affordable.
Issue #3- Meta Tags. Some people believe that meta tags are the Holy Grail of search engine optimization. Unfortunately, their
effectiveness is limited (many engines ignore them completely),
but they can play a limited role in determining rank on some
engines. To see if your site has meta tags, go to your home
page. Click the "view" command at the top of the browser window. From the pull-down menu, select "source". This should open up another window that shows your code.
Issue #4- Links. Link popularity has become increasingly
important to search engine rankings, with 19 of the top 20
engines using it in their ranking algorithm. Simply put, search
engines give a ranking boost to sites that have links from
quality, related sites.
