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Tips for Marketing Your Web Site
Search Engine Optimization
Search
Engine Optimization is a technique that will help you achieve higher rankings
and more targeted traffic to your web site.
Search engine optimization has often been promoted as a secret skill known only by a few technical gurus. However, the real art of search engine optimization has more to do with employing common sense strategies in the web design process and web site maintenance.
Creating Search Words
Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words on the home page.
This list of 15-20 search words will also be programmed into the page specifically as "keywords" or "meta tags" that are embedded in the page in a way that is optimized for search engines.
You will also want to develop a "key paragraph" of 15-25 words that describe what your site is all about, in sentence form, with the appropriate capitalization and punctuation. This is the summary of a page's content that you see when search results come up. Include as many of the keywords as possible in this paragraph.
If 15-20 words feels too limiting, don't worry. Each individual page can have different keywords and phrases.
These words should also be repeated as often as possible on pages. The more times they appear on a page, the more likely your page will be considered "relevant" to someone's search.
Optimizing for Google
Sites' positions in search results on Google are determined automatically based on a variety of factors. One of the most important ways web sites can improve their Google ranking is by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages. These are called "back links" or "back rubs."
This is based on the premise in higher education that the importance of a research paper can be judged by how many times it is cited in other papers. Google has applied this philosophy to the web. So, a page with a lot of incoming links that are themselves ranked highly is deemed to be more important and gets ranked much higher than others.
This is one reason web sites often have a page devoted to "Useful Links." Find sites on topics similar to yours that have pages of related links. If it looks like yours would be an appropriate addition, let them know about your site and offer to post a link to their site on yours.
Of course, important pages mean nothing if they don't match the search words that have been entered. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to a search.
Search Engine Submission
Anybody can submit a URL to search engines. Some of them charge a fee and others are free. Go to each one and find a hyperlink called “add URL” or “submit your URL.” However, search engines continually "crawl" the web looking for web site and they will find yours, whether you want them to or not.
We don't normally do search engine submissions for our clients. Our reasons why may surprise you — we don't think it's strictly necessary. We always set keywords into the HTML headers of web pages and encourage our clients to have them on their home pages as well. This is usually all that's needed to get the major search engines to notice your web site.
Professional Web Sites
Many professional associations have web pages that include a page of URLs and e-mail addresses for members. Submit yours to your own associations, clubs, departments, etc.
Let Everyone Know!
Be sure to put your web address on your letterhead, business cards, brochures, and as part of the signature line in your e-mails. Tell the receptionist at the office to remind your clients about your web site. Hang a sign in the lobby. Etc., etc., etc.
