Search engine optimization, or SEO as it is commonly called, is important to every website owner.  This is the process of making your website “search engine friendly.” 

Search engines routinely “read” through all the websites that make up the world wide web and take note of what content is found on each page. This is called “indexing.”

If someone performs a search on “how to grow spices,” the search engine will display the sites with that phrase in the search results. In most cases, a user will only look at a couple of the sites in the top spots.

By optimizing your site for the search engines, you are more likely to have one of those top spots in the search listings, and therefore receive a higher amount of traffic.

While it is true that people could stumble upon your site in many other ways, such as through blog rolls, links, and ads on other people’s sites, the vast majority of people will use a search engine to find the information they are looking for.

If your site does not have very high rankings, it will get lost in the shuffle and people may have a hard time finding you.  Even if you are getting traffic from other referral sites, there are many reasons why it is beneficial to be listed in the search engines.

Many reporters and other media professionals are finding people to interview and feature in their stories by doing web searches.  If a reporter is doing a story on a certain subject, they may do a quick search to see if there are any experts in their local area that they can get a quote from.

Even a small blurb in a news story could bring you a lot of new traffic. If your site isn’t in the search engine rankings, you could lose out on that potential exposure.

Properly optimizing a site may be even more important to physical product sellers, as they usually have less content on their sites.  Many websites that feature more content may have an easier time getting high rankings, even if it is by chance.

Physical product sellers can increase their rankings by doing some research to find quality keywords to use in their title tags and throughout the content on their site. You can increase the amount of content by including descriptive tags for your photos and graphics, as well as vivid product descriptions.

While it a top position in a search engine can never be guarenteed, optimizing your site to the best of your ability will greatly increase your chances of attaining one of those spots.

Top SEO Mistakes Made By Beginners

When a business owner creates their first website they usually fall into one of two categories: they type who plans things out or the type who jumps in without looking ahead.

Those who jump in and start creating a website without putting much thought into the future could end up repeating the process and starting over from scratch once they find out what search engine optimization is.

Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is the process of creating websites that are search engine friendly, thus allowing for higher search engine rankings.  This is important, as the websites with the highest search engine rankings generally receive much more traffic.

A common mistake made by beginners is not fully using the title tag.  For example, a person may title their home page as simply “home.”  The search engines read that title tag, as it provides a quick reference to the subject matter of your site. If the only thing listed is “home,” the search engines would have a hard time understanding what the concept of that page is.

By using something more interesting and descriptive, such as “Donna’s Delicious Donuts,” the search engine will understand that the page in question has a lot of information about donuts.

In other cases some people fail to properly research keywords and phrases before building their websites.  This may seem like a boring task – especially if you have a great idea for a business that you can’t wait to start work on. However, this is an essential step and shouldn’t be ignored.

There are several keyword tools available.  These tools help business owners determine what words and phrases other people are using when they search for the type of product the business owner is offering.

These tools also tell the business owner how many other websites are using that phrase.  It will be hard to get a first place ranking for a term that is being used by several other websites. Your best bet will be a term that is searched for frequently, yet has few competitors.

These keywords and phrases can then be used in the meta tags, as well as in the content of the entire page. While some people do not use these keywords and phrases enough, others over use them.

This tactic is known as “keyword stuffing,” and is easily spotted by the search engines. Rather than helping a site to get traffic it can lead to being punished by the search engines.
It is best to use a keyword or phrase around three times on a page. This will allow the search engines to take notice of it but also allow for the content on the page to sound natural and like normal speech.

If you have made some of these mistakes in the past, don’t worry.  These are things that can easily be fixed.  With a little time and effort you may find your own website at the top of the rankings.

Which Search Engines Should I Worry About When Optimizing My Sites?

If you have been reading up on search engine optimization, you probably know that each website’s rank is determined through secret formulas called algorithms. Each search engine uses different methods, and therefore has a different algorithm.  A site that may have a number one ranking in Google may have a much lower ranking through Microsoft, Yahoo, or Ask.

This leaves many website owners wondering if they should optimize their sites for a particular search engine or even build various websites, each one optimized for a different engine.

While there are some “gurus” out there who may suggest that very thing, it leaves a person wondering if it is really worth the effort to focus their attention on one particular search engine.

As you know, a search engine can change its algorithms at any time. Let’s say that you wanted to achieve high rankings in Microsoft and that they preferred sites with a lot of one way links.  You could have spent months developing those links, and then find out that the search engine changed its mind and now prefers keyword density. Where would you be in that situation?

It may be best to try “one size fits all” search engine optimization.  Instead of focusing on what one particular search engines prefers, optimize your site through all the known SEO methods.

Some of these methods would include researching the best keywords and phrases for your product. This can be done through a keyword search tool, such as Wordtracker.  The best words and phrases to use are those that have a high number of people searching for them, yet have a low number of competing websites using them.

Ideally, each page of your site will have its own specific keywords and phrases based upon the content that is found on that page.  Using those keywords and phrases in the title and content of the page is similar to sending out a radar signal to the search engines. When someone is performing a search with those words, the search engine will send them your way.

Developing a number of quality one way links that point to your site is another way to help the search engines take notice of your website. This can be done in a number of ways, including article and press release distribution.

If you have an affiliate program, you can greatly increase the number of one way links pointing to your site by creating a few articles your affiliates can post on their sites or blogs. This of course, can also help you achieve higher sales in general.

Using all of these methods together is the best way to achieve high search engine rankings with all the websites, no matter which algorithm the search engine decides to use.

How to Protect Your Business from the Changing Search Engine Algorithms

When it comes to search engine marketing, also known as SEO, many of the theories, rules and practices are based on algorithms. That is simply a fancy word for the formulas that search engines use to decide the ranking of websites.

These methods are kept secret and the search engines may alter their algorithms at any time. This keeps sneaky webmasters from cheating and giving their sites an unfair advantage over another site.

Sometimes referred to as a “slap,” when the algorithms change search engine traffic to a site can come to a grinding halt; this is especially true for a site that was only using one or two specific SEO methods. When that happens the effects can be detrimental.

In order to protect your business from receiving a “search engine slap,” it is important to diversify your SEO methods. That way, if a particular search engine changes its algorithms you will still have a chance at being ranked in a top spot. Here are a few different areas you may want to pay attention to:

Do Your Research

Before you begin any project, including optimizing your website for the search engines, it is important to do your research. By using a keyword tool, such as Wordtracker, you will be able to find out what search terms are being used for your type of product as well as how many websites you will be competing with for that term.

In the best case scenario you will find a term that is being searched for regularly yet has few competitors.

Optimize Each Page

Once you have selected the proper keywords and phrases select a few applicable ones to optimize each page of your site with. These keywords and phrases can be used in the coding as well as the content on your site.

While you don’t want to pepper each paragraph with these terms, you will want to use that term a few times on that page.

Give It A Title

By providing each page of your website with a unique and compelling title you will make it easier for the search engines to find you. This is what will be displayed to the reader in their browser’s status bar, so this is also beneficial to people who may be opening several pages at once.

Create Unique, Quality Content

Search engines favor content that is unique and of high quality.  By adding a fresh supply of new content you will keep your visitors coming back for more and you will also be keeping the search engines happy.

Try to feature blocks of text that are at least 300 – 350 words in length as these larger blocks of texts are what attracts the search engines.

Opt For A Simple Design

While a website designed in flash may look very fancy, the search engines can’t read it. To get high rankings it is best to keep things simple and to the point. It is okay to use flash for one of your design elements but try not to over do it.

When using graphics, code in an alt tag, as this will be read by the search engines.  This tag is also helpful to any visually impaired visitors you may have, as the writing will appear when they slide their mouse over the graphic.

Create A Link Network

Start building a network of quality one-way links coming in to your site by submitting articles to reprint directory websites and press releases to distribution sites.  You can also ask others to blog about you or participate in some collaborative blogs. 

While exchanging links with someone else is a good way to get some referral traffic from other sites, it is considered a two-way link and is less impressive to the search engines.

Above all else remember to keep working on your SEO a little each day. Rather than a one-time project it is more of a process that needs to be tweaked all the time.

Michelle Waters has more than six years experience helping small businesses sell physical products online. She shares her ecommerce expertise and the stories of many online business veterans in her weekly podcast, Product Sellers Talk Radio.