Search Engine Optimization. A True Test In Patience

Search engine optimization is not an exact science. Anyone who is in the industry or has successfully executed a SEO campaign knows that it can take a number of months before you can truly reap the benefits. With that being said, search engine optimization starts from the birth of a website. If you own a website or are thinking of starting one, arming yourself with some useful information during the beginning stages will make your campaign run a lot smoother.

Stage 1. Designing your site. This is the most critical of all stages, if your site is not search engine friendly you have already began the costly road to re-design. Talk to your web designer and make sure he doesn't talk you into a flash website or a website that uses frames. Although frames have been almost put to rest, I will on a occasion run into a site or two and find myself shaking my head and well flash sites are very attractive to the visitor, all your vital content is put into a file that search engines can't crack. IF you really do love a flash site, there are ways to get around this. Simply ask your designer to create you a html version of your site so you can offer one for visitors and one for search engines. As for e-commerce sites do your research carefully, there are many free shopping carts and database driven sites that will talk big and look good but do not have certain features that can be a crucial part of search engine optimization. Look for seo friendly URL's, editable title tags for each individual page, ability to change content when new and updated information comes available.

Stage 2. Site completion. When your site is ready to go and fully designed start the initial steps to linking. Search engines like Google and Yahoo! can not find you unless you let them know you are there. Look at the biggest directories and start submitting. FYI, the sooner you get yourself submitted to DMOZ the better. If you want to talk true test in patience try to get listed in that monstrosity in a timely manner, but I digress. Now there are many SEO's will dazzle you with the idea that you will need to re-submit to these search engines and directories but trust me with saying that once is enough, and often times there may be a penalty issued if you submit your site too many times. Let your friends know you have a website, add it to your myspace, facebook & linkedin or any social bookmarking site that you use. If your friends have a website , go ahead buy them lunch and ask them to add your link. The more time you spend linking before hiring an SEO firm, the less time you spend waiting for results.

Stage 3. Keyword Analysis. Find out your best choice of keywords. What are people searching for, sometimes you think you know the right keyphrase but you can be completely wrong. Talk to your colleagues, clients and friends. Ask what they would type when searching for your product or service. In most cases it can be fairly easy. You own a bed & breakfast in anytown, your obvious choice would be "anytown bed and breakfast". With some simple research you can find your best keywords.

The next phase is to decide weather you want to start this campaign yourself or hire a SEO firm. In either case you can be waiting to see top page results for up to 6 months, with an established site with a starting page rank. If you are a brand new site, this process can take up to a year. Remember Rome wasn't built in a day, and SEO is an investment you can not afford to pass by. Marketing in any size will take time, but if you are patient and let the ball roll as it should you will see how your investment pays you back tenfold.

If you have a question that you would like to see answered please email me and I will do my best to get it answered for you.

The Meta Tag Question.

What is the deal with Meta Tags?

Search Engine Optimizer's often have two different views when it comes to meta tags. One this is unanimous meta tags have definitely been devalued for use in most major search engines but you will find they are still being used as the description often times when your site is listed in the search results.

Meta tags were started back in the early 90's when the internet was just getting it's brand new legs and they were used to help the search engines organize the growing number of web pages. This was an easy way to make your site indexed and listed high. Soon after unethical webmasters started to abuse the meta tag by either spamming the page full of so many keywords or sometimes even made different websites appear in the results for a completely different keyword. Gambling sites would stuff their meta tags with more commonly used phrases in order to bring their sites to the first page and trick the search engine and moreover the user.

Now obviously, most search engines have discontinued the use of meta tags for organizing their search engines, algorithms have become much more technologically advanced and they use a number of other methods to index and sort. The big question is if they are no longer viewed as a helpful tag, why do some SEO's still use them.

Meta tags a a multitude of different uses and names, so which ones do you use? There are four that I often find myself using when I am optimizing a site. They are as follows:

• Meta Robots: This tag is still widely supported and it simply tells the search bots to either follow the url through or you can ask them not to index certain parts of your site for aspects that may not be relevant to your actual site.

• Meta Description: My favorite tag, this is your first impression, if you don't have this tag search engines will just tag clips of your index page including the keyword that was being searched for by the surfer. First impressions often is the difference between a sale or no sale.

• Meta Keywords: A controversial meta tag, some use it, some don't. I still thinks it holds a bit of value if you keep it simple. Don't add more than 20 or so keywords, and I think it does increase your on page keyword density.

• Meta Content Type: This is recommended because you may find that if you do not have this tag it could cause display problems
  

Now, well most search engines do not use the meta tags as they did in the early nineties, but as I explained you can still use them for a variety of other uses. There of course are a number of opinions on this matter, some SEO firms are strong believers in the meta tag and other firms are strongly against it.

In conclusion, my opinion is that meta tags can be used for a number of alternative reasons now and still offer you a great place to sell your stuff. I always will recommend the use of at least a small number of Meta Tags, and if used correctly will greatly improve your chances of higher sales & higher rankings.

If you have a question that you would like to see answered please email me and I will do my best to get it answered for you.

**Update**
Published in Entireweb Weekly Newsletter