The Importance of Web Marketing
Your website is now THE MOST IMPORTANT marketing tool in today’s business climate!!
FIRST AND FOREMOST: Focus on:
DON'T…Focus on page rank!
Design your page content so that it is relevant to the terms being searched for.
Write your copy so that it is informative and easy to read for
your potential clientele, and ALWAYS focus on your marketing
call to action.
Design your page content in a way that you (or your company) is considered an authority about its topic.
Give users a reason why they should use your services or buy
your products.
Items affecting page rank and search engine results:
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Does the page has good, useful content?
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Is the page is part of a site with lots of information
?
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Does the
page loads quickly?
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Check your site for broken links.
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Make sure your
page isn't filled with a cheap list of keywords. Most search
engines completely bypass the keyword meta-tags. Writing
good, informative and relevant content is what generates
great key words. There are no easy tricks or backdoors to
good page rank. A good, solidly, professional-looking
website that is updated often has the best chance of being
properly indexed and the best chance of continued page rank.
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
Easy things:
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Title Tags
The title that runs across the top of each
page. (in the blue bar of your browser) The title tag should
be different for EACH PAGE and the title should reflect the
content of each page. The title should be no longer than 65
characters (including spaces) or less.
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Meta Tags/Descriptions
Meta-tags are embedded code within the
<head> section of your web page that contain key words
and a brief description of the content of the page. Most
search engines (including Google) look completely past the
keyword meta-tags, however your description tag is important
as it usually shows up in the search engine results. A good
meta-tag description can drive traffic to your site based on
what you say. Keep your description to about 200 characters,
and absolutely no more than 500 characters.
Most search engines do not consider meta-tags in their
rankings, however if you do use meta-descriptions, you must
have separate descriptions for each page or it could cause
issues with categorization and page rank.
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RELEVANT content
Make sure your pages contain relevant
content, meaning that if you design a page that describes
your services, make sure you provide PLENTY of information
about your business. You have the opportunity to really be
descriptive as you aren't limited by word count or page
length. Avoid making ANY of your pages look like a flyer
with bullet points, unless those bullet points lead to
another page with further descriptions. The more you can
write on your subject, the better chance of search engine
categorization.
Semi-Easy things:
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Good incoming/inbound links
Incoming links refer to your site being
linked FROM other sites TO yours. Your site's link being
placed on other popular sites can help achieve page rank and
better categorization results. The trick is to link from
popular websites if possible. It does no good to link from a
site with no visitors or a site that is not properly
optimized for search engines. Also, beware of scam
"link exchange" sites or sites you are not
familiar with that want you to embed code. Work with sites
that compliment yours, or exchange links with relevant
affiliate sites that work within your business category. IE:
If you are a real estate agent, exchange links with a
lender.
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Google Webmaster Tools/Google
Analytics
Google Webmaster Tools are awesome in that
they can help your site become properly categorized AND they
will display information regarding your site including
search terms used to find your site, HTML suggestions for
categorization improvement, click-throughs and much much
more.
Google Analytics will help determine the number of visitors
to your website and where they came from.
Webmaster Tools: http://webmaster.google.com
Google Analytics: http://analytics.google.com
Myths and Facts:
Myth #1. I have to submit my site to a search engine for it to get listed.
FACT: Submission is unnecessary. A search engine will always find your site as long as some other site links to it. I never submit my sites to the search engines.
Myth #2. I have to periodically re-submit my site to the search engines.
FACT: Resubmission is unnecessary. Once a site is in a search engine, it's in for good (unless it resorts to trickery and gets banned). There is zero reason to keep submitting a site to a search engine. Resubmission is a waste of time. Anyone selling a resubmission service is a con artist.
However, if you submit an XML sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools,
you should update that sitemap when you update your website and
resubmit it in your Google Webmaster Tools account.
Myth #3. Having Meta tags will help my rankings.
FACT: META tags don't affect your rankings. The search engines ignore META keyword and description tags for ranking purposes, for an obvious reason: Taking the webmasters' word for what their site should rank well for would be a pretty stupid way for the engines to rank pages.
However, meta-descriptions, if used, should be written to
describe each individual page as they are used in search engine
results. If meta-descriptions are not in place, search engines
usually use the first 200 characters of the page they are
referring to.
BEWARE THE SCAMMERS!!!
Anyone who tells you they have a ‘special relationship’ with Google is flat-out lying!
Questions?
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