|
|
Small Business Website Design Service Search Engine Optimization (SEO) What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process by which you help “coach” the search engine crawler to understand what your page or website is about. Your ultimate goal is to have your small business website appear in the top 10 of the search results on the major search engines. Specifically, you’re most concerned about the top 10 search results on Google. No one knows for sure exactly how the search engines perform their scoring, or how much weight they apply to different factors.
How does Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Work? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) generally follows the two steps below, then goes into a tinkering and experimentation mode that can take several months.
Step 1 in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to identify the search keywords you want to attract to your website (i.e. the search words a person is most likely to type into the search box). Are you a “House Painting Company Boston, MA” or a “Painting Contractor Boston, MA” or an “Interior Exterior Painting Company Boston, MA”? All return different search results.
You also need to be aware of how hotly contested certain search terms are and set realistic goals and timetables based on that. Are you trying to be a Big Fish in Small Pond? Or a Big Fish in a Big Pond? If anyone tells you they can guarantee your small business website top 10 search results on Google for the search term “iPod”, you may want to reconsider where you’re thinking of spending your money. “iPod” returns over 266,000,000 competing website pages. On the other hand, if your trying to compete for top 10 search results for search keywords like “Interior Painting, Anytown, AnyState”, a properly constructed and search engine optimized page stands a very good chance for success.
Step 2 in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to design your website page in a manner that strongly identifies your targeted keywords to the search engine crawler. There are particular “do’s and don’ts” associated with the search engine optimization process to get the search results you are looking to obtain with your small business website. If you don’t know the rules of the road concerning search engine optimization, the chances of your website appearing in the top 10 search results on Google or Yahoo are significantly diminished. Remember, when a search is performed, your website is competing against hundreds, thousands, and oftentimes millions of other pages for top billing in the search results.
What website design techniques are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Do's?
Keyword frequency on the website page, keyword positioning on the website page, keyword font size on the website page, bold fonts, italic fonts, heading, titles, and a host of other factors are the most important aspect of your website receiving top 10 search results with the major search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not rocket science, but it definitely employs techniques that the small business website page designer must know.
What website design techniques are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Don'ts?
Just as there is a list of search engine optimization “do’s” when designing a small business website page, there is also a list of search engine optimization “don’ts”. Search engine crawlers have been in existence for many years and are very sophisticated. All of the factors that go into a properly optimized page can be overdone and can lead to your website being banned by a search engine. For example, search keyword frequency is very important to having the search crawler learn your intent for a website page. However, excessive use of the search keyword on the website page is considered keyword stuffing and will be noted as such by the search crawler. Other techniques such as making the text color the same as the background color, successive repetition of terms, etc. all will be identified and are considered spam. Best case is your website page will be penalized or not included in the index. Worse case is your website will be banned from the index.
In the end, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) boils down to a trade off between providing good copy for the visitor and proper page construction for the search crawler. Both are achievable and are not mutually exclusive.
|
|
|