Tuesday 22 May 2012

Getting Search Engine Optimization Right for Your Business


Search engine optimization (SEO) is, at its core, how to make your website seem legitimate to search engine algorithms. Search engines try to help people find the most relevant and useful information for them, constantly combing the internet and determining the likely value of each site. To have these algorithms deem your business's website of high value, there are a number of key concepts you should incorporate into your site, listed in this article.

If there's one thing you should never forget, it's that search engine algorithms hate cheaters. Do not steal content! If your content isn't original, sooner or later the algorithms will find out, and you will be penalized, leaving you worse off than you were when you started. Your content doesn't have to necessarily be groundbreaking or revolutionary, just original.

Make your content as interesting and insightful as possible. While not necessarily judged by the algorithms directly, interesting and insightful content attracts more visitors. More visitors means a website is more valuable to algorithms.

You want to regularly update your site's content and/or add new content in order to achieve SEO. An easy way to do this is to write your thoughts on news related to your business on a daily or weekly basis. You can also report happenings in your business. Another idea is to have employees contribute content as part of their weekly tasks. Be creative!

When possible, add video content to your site. Video is one of the most dynamic types of media you can include, and algorithms see this as adding value to your site.

Getting visitors of your site to comment on content and/or contribute their own content is looked upon favorably by algorithms. Basically, the more participation you can get from visitors, the better. This can be done through Q&As, providing a forum space, asking for comments within posts on your site, offering incentives if visitors contribute their own content, etc.

Never, ever skimp on the quality of the servers on which you host your site. You want the fastest, most well-known servers as possible so that algorithms deem your site more legitimate. Though this usually costs more to do, your investment will pay off as your site is brought higher up on search results pages.

Ease of access to your site's content is critical to algorithms. Make sure it's clear to visitors how to find the information they're looking for by taking time to organize not only where content is located but how to reach that content. Some search engines now include links to specific parts of a website, if it is ranked highly on the search results list, but only if your site is organized enough for the algorithms to figure out the layout!

SEO is a fundamental part of a successful business. Increasingly, people are looking for goods and services using the internet as their main resource. Ensuring that your business is found easily on the internet is key to any marketing strategy and is done by mastering SEO. Improve your business's SEO today by using the advice provided in this article!

1 comment:

  1. Is updating once a month too little? I try to update my page at www.wix.com/trucoverage/home once a week, but it doesn't always work so well. You see I'm a stay at home father of 2 under 2, in addition to owning my own company...

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