Search Engine Optimization is Key
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/seo_and_your_web_site/
This week's posting comes straight from the heart...not really, but it is important. Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO by many, is no longer an option considered by some businesses, but rather a dire necessity in internet market. In a nutshell, SEO is the process of coding a website so that it will generate top search results on all search engines on the internet, from the big guys to the midgets. Each day, more and more businesses are establishing an online presence, along with more dependence on strong internet sales. As a result, clutter is becoming a drastic concern in most industries as the quest for market share becomes more difficult than skiing with a gun (bless the man who invented the Biathlon). Merely having a company website just isn't enough anymore to increase business. If the random voice from Field of Dreams was a marketing exec today, Costner's farm would have went under a long time ago. My point? If you build it, they won't always come.
The article I chose this week reflects my opinions exactly on the matter of SEO and its growing importance in the internet marketing mix. At my internship this past summer, one of the projects I worked on was incorporating SEO into our marketing plan. The goal was to work alongside the IT department and incorporate some additional code into the website, as well as rewording the body of the website so as to fill it with rich keywords relating to the business. Since they are a young start-up company, there wasn't much we had to change around. Anyway, the keywords are extremely important, as they are often what will make or break your search engine results position (also known as SERP). The keywords should be the same words someone in need of your services would be likely to type into a search engine. Since where I worked was a business brokerage on Long Island, the main keywords we used were "Business broker," "Long Island," "buy business," and "sell business." The more these words appear on the website, the higher the SERP will be for someone typing this into a search engine like Google or Yahoo.
The next step is incorporating Meta Tags into the websites code. However, many companies are starting to avoid using these because some search engines do not look at them when indexing a website (i.e. Google). In the past, several companies tried to be slick and keep typing the same keywords over and over and over again into the meta tags to generate higher search results...but you can't do that! Many search engines like Yahoo that still look at meta tags will simply ban your website if you try to be smooth and attempt to beat the system. There's a whole lot of other stuff search engines look at when indexing your website, but these are the big ones. Of course, you have to submit your websites URL to the search engines if you want any of this to happen. That's the easiest part though.
This is what Google's basic URL-submission page looks like in case you were curious.
There are also paid inclusion options on most search engines as well (I'll get into that next week). Although all search engines have their own algorithms for indexing websites, they all follow the same basic procedure. Be sure to check out the article for more information on SEO, as well as this one if you feel the need to keep feeding the beast inside you. That pretty much sums it up, so until next week people be sure to send some comments my way. See you at the bars.
-Nick
This week's posting comes straight from the heart...not really, but it is important. Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO by many, is no longer an option considered by some businesses, but rather a dire necessity in internet market. In a nutshell, SEO is the process of coding a website so that it will generate top search results on all search engines on the internet, from the big guys to the midgets. Each day, more and more businesses are establishing an online presence, along with more dependence on strong internet sales. As a result, clutter is becoming a drastic concern in most industries as the quest for market share becomes more difficult than skiing with a gun (bless the man who invented the Biathlon). Merely having a company website just isn't enough anymore to increase business. If the random voice from Field of Dreams was a marketing exec today, Costner's farm would have went under a long time ago. My point? If you build it, they won't always come.
The article I chose this week reflects my opinions exactly on the matter of SEO and its growing importance in the internet marketing mix. At my internship this past summer, one of the projects I worked on was incorporating SEO into our marketing plan. The goal was to work alongside the IT department and incorporate some additional code into the website, as well as rewording the body of the website so as to fill it with rich keywords relating to the business. Since they are a young start-up company, there wasn't much we had to change around. Anyway, the keywords are extremely important, as they are often what will make or break your search engine results position (also known as SERP). The keywords should be the same words someone in need of your services would be likely to type into a search engine. Since where I worked was a business brokerage on Long Island, the main keywords we used were "Business broker," "Long Island," "buy business," and "sell business." The more these words appear on the website, the higher the SERP will be for someone typing this into a search engine like Google or Yahoo.
The next step is incorporating Meta Tags into the websites code. However, many companies are starting to avoid using these because some search engines do not look at them when indexing a website (i.e. Google). In the past, several companies tried to be slick and keep typing the same keywords over and over and over again into the meta tags to generate higher search results...but you can't do that! Many search engines like Yahoo that still look at meta tags will simply ban your website if you try to be smooth and attempt to beat the system. There's a whole lot of other stuff search engines look at when indexing your website, but these are the big ones. Of course, you have to submit your websites URL to the search engines if you want any of this to happen. That's the easiest part though.
This is what Google's basic URL-submission page looks like in case you were curious.
There are also paid inclusion options on most search engines as well (I'll get into that next week). Although all search engines have their own algorithms for indexing websites, they all follow the same basic procedure. Be sure to check out the article for more information on SEO, as well as this one if you feel the need to keep feeding the beast inside you. That pretty much sums it up, so until next week people be sure to send some comments my way. See you at the bars.
-Nick
posted by Nick Panepinto at 10:03 AM
4 Comments:
Nick,
This week's posting really grabbed my attention. I never knew what an SERP was before this! Now it makes a lot of since, and sort of explains to me how search engines work. I always did wonder how different hits came up when you went to Google.com and typed in a few search words. I also find it very interesting that if you aren’t in the top 20, even the top 10, the chances that visitors are going to see your page are very slim. I can’t imagine the competition for different sites such as real estate companies, as you mentioned. Even online pharmacies! There are so many of them today, that it must be very competitive in the SERP world. Thanks for letting me learn a little bit about search engine result positions!
I must congratulate you on teaching me the only new thing I learned today. I've always wondered how the hell they decide what website pops up first when you search on Google or any other search engine for that matter. I figured it had to do with relevance and other factors, but it was interesting to learn all the different techniques that can be implemented to maximize the number of potential customers you reach. That’s pretty cool that you got to take on that role in your internship and help a company get off the ground via the internet. Make sure to put that on your resume, I hear this internet thing is gonna take off real soon.
I never had any clue how search engines worked and gave you certain results and now I know- - thanks! SEO does make it extremely hard for a small website to be a top result though if they don’t have the money or technology abilities to encrypt a good SEO. The small website may be the best information out there but you will never know after a search result because it will never be in the top 20 or even 50 results. Also, just because a big website that has the money and ability to enable good keywords or SEOs for top search results doesn’t mean it is the best website you can find for in the information or products you are looking for. For now that’s the way the search engines will work though so we will have to remain trustful that the first website we click is good enough because we are way to lazy to scroll all 12 pages of those results.
Your blog is very nice... i like your blog ....
Website design India, web design india
web design New york city
I will be available in online for link exchange from 9am to 7pm (IST)
For my chatting id: gmail: fastlinkmaster@gmail.com
Skype: ananthakumar007
Post a Comment
<< Home