Tools that can help with SEO efforts
Have you ever considered having your own website? I’m sure you have, but perhaps it hasn’t happened yet.
There are many reasons to build your site; some of which is that websites rank high in the searches on major search engines like Google and Yahoo. You can also control what people see about yourself or your business when they do a search on the web.
I know this sounds like an infomercial but there are ways to make this happen with little money out of pocket (or maybe no money at all).
Perhaps you already have everything you need to create your own website, if not most local libraries offer free Internet services or access equipment for public use. I hope that by now everyone has learned about MySpace which first hit the scene a few years ago and allowed anyone to create their own page. Since that time, there have been many new social networking sites that have come along that offer a similar experience. Sites like Facebook and MySpace allow users to share information about themselves with friends, post comments on other people’s pages, upload pictures of themselves or others they know and so much more.
Although these sites are popular amongst most age groups, teens especially love them because they can be extremely interactive without having parents monitor their activity. It is possible however for an adult to sign up as a teen with a false birth date. So it’s important to monitor your child’s computer use by keeping track of what applications he/she uses on the Internet at all times.
Another social networking site that is growing in popularity today is Twitter.
Twitter allows users to post (tweet) updates (140 characters or less) about themselves and others they “follow”. This microblogging site has become extremely popular with celebrities wanting to keep their fans up-to-date on their daily activities. You can build your own page at twitter.com for free, but you will need an invitation to get started so ask a friend if they can give you one.
I mentioned earlier about creating your website without spending any money out of pocket, well there are some good resources online that offer free web hosting services that include things like email accounts and domain names. Sites like these are great because most offer step-by-step tutorials so it is easy to follow along and accomplish your goal. You can start exploring the options by visiting sites like hostgator.com, bluehost.com, godaddy.com
Many people use search engines every day with most searching for things that are actually online, not only using the major engines with their huge databases but also using specialty search engines that focus on certain categories of information or one particular subject area. Some of these sites include Dogpile, Excite, WebCrawler, and many more. These types of search services are free to use because they make money from advertising companies that pay for each click they receive through a user’s query.
There are literally hundreds of ways you can spend time online without spending any money at all! Just use your imagination and you will be surprised at all of the things that are available to explore. Part two of this article is coming soon and it will focus on ways to optimize or improve your website’s search engine rankings.
In the meantime, if you need help with anything I’ve talked about in part one please feel free to contact me anytime. I’ll be glad to help!
Tools that can help with SEO efforts – Part two
It seems as though everyone wants a piece of the action when it comes to owning a website. For those who have jumped onto the bandwagon, there has been a gold rush going on for those who want their sites ranked high on major search engines like Google and Yahoo. there are many blogs and websites that talk about the latest and greatest techniques to get your website ranked, however for those who don’t want to wade through all of this information and just want a quick overview of what the major search engines are looking for, here is a list to help you maximize your search engine optimization efforts.
Before you start investing lots of time into SEO there are some things that you need to consider first. Make sure that the content on your site is useful and interesting because search engines will penalize or filter out any website that doesn’t have anything valuable or relevant for its users. It has been said many times before but it’s always better not to build a website if you do not have something original and pertinent to say because people will quickly lose interest and they will move on to more productive information sources. Also, make sure that your website closely matches the keyword you are trying to rank for so people can find it easily when searching for things related to what you offer.
What I mean by “closely matching” is this: if you own a site about how to grow tomatoes and someone searches for growing vegetables, chances are they may click on your link because even though it says “tomatoes”, most people would consider that part of the main topic of vegetables. Although search engines do not use these tricks anymore, many users still assume that tomatoes are a type of vegetable and therefore search engines may assume the same thing. This is why it’s important to always target a single subject when creating a website.
What search engines are looking for: Here is a list of the top ten things that major search engines want their users to find on your site: -You need a keyword phrase that is clear and concise for people to enter into their browser’s address bar. It should contain no more than 100 characters with most searches having less than 25-35 characters. The shorter the better but it needs to make sense when someone searches for it online, don’t just use jargon or abbreviations because most browsers will automatically add .com at the end of your keyphrase if you fail to include one which could result in traffic going somewhere else entirely.
-A clear description of what your website offers so those who read through the text will know exactly what you do and can determine if they want to learn more or not. If you have a very long description it will most likely be cut off by their browser so try to keep them under 300 words.
-Your contact information so people can reach out with questions, concerns, or possible partnership opportunities. Keep the phone number in the text somewhere because search engines may remove it from your meta tags or hide it from being seen on your site. If someone cannot get in touch with you then they have no reason to stay on your site any longer and therefore leave without ever purchasing anything! It is obviously better to allow them access to a form that accepts an email address for a direct response but still lists a physical below the submit button in case they want to call you directly.
-A sitemap is a separate page on your site so those who create web crawlers can easily access your pages and index them accordingly. If your site changes often or has many subpages make sure that they are listed in the main navigation menu with clear links to each area of content.
-Proofread, proofread, proofread! The internet is filled with mistakes and you don’t want yours to be one of them because the search engines will punish you for it. Bad spelling and grammar give users a negative feeling about your website which results in most people not clicking on anything at all so take an extra five minutes before publishing anything online just to make sure there aren’t any glaring errors!
And avoid using jargon or slang (unless it’s safe to assume that the people you’re trying to reach understand what these things mean).
-Last but not least, the content needs to be relevant and useful to your visitors. This is why it’s important for webmasters to write articles about their industry because they are most likely knowledgeable in this area already! There are many sites out there with low-quality content which simply republish other articles on their site under different names. All this does is trick search engines into thinking that you have more pages than you actually do result in lower rankings for all of your websites which is no fun at all! Worse yet, these types of sites tend to link outwards very minimally so those who click on a link may be taken to a similarly misleading site even though the first one was completely unrelated. What this does is redirect traffic from your site to someone else’s and they will get all of the credit for having a high-ranking website which you’ve worked so hard on! Don’t let this happen, always try to link outwards as much as possible so those incoming visitors notice that you actually have content worth reading on your own site too!
Once users find what they are looking for they will most likely bookmark it so keep them engaged with new posts every few days or at least once per week to ensure they don’t forget about you until the next time they need something relevant to your products or services. If you fail to do any of these things you will not have a very successful online business!
I hope I’ve helped you to understand the importance of each part so that your traffic can continue to grow and succeed as a direct result of these efforts.