Web Site Search Engine Optimization Planning

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Search Engine Optimization Planning

Following are steps for you to take prior to the design or re-design of your site, to increase the chances that your web site will be ranked high by search engines.

Choose Appropriate Keyword Phrases

Identify five keyword phrases that people are using to find someone like you. Begin by brainstorming a list of options and narrow them to five, based on the criteria below.

Use Keyword Finders - Use one or more of the following key word finders to identify the popularity of phrases people are entering in search engines.

Keyword Finder Resources:

Match popular keyword phrases with what you offer.

Match keyword phrases:

Check all of the keyword phrases used in your field with the above keyword finder
For a site re-design, check out key words you are using
For a site re-design, check your statistics for keywords

Consult Web Site Statistics – The web site stats analysis program that is automatically set up when your site is initialized by WebValence is Analog. Instructions below refer to this web site statistics program.

Access web site statistics:

http://your_site_name/console/default.html User

your_site_name is the domain name of your website
Enter your name as janesmith
(Your first and last name, all lower case, no spaces)
Enter your password = as your standard WebValence password
Select the month you want to review and scroll down to the “Search Query Report”
Find the phrases that people have entered into search engines to locate your site and the number of times that each phrase has been entered

Choose Keyword Phrases

Add these goals to your selection of keyword phrases:

Decide what you are going to call yourself and use this title next to your name and credentials, on all of your web site pages. Try to ensure that what you call yourself is a phrase that is being entered into search engines. Also try to devise a title which mentions what you actually do.
Identify Problems - Decide what challenges your clients want to solve, based on your keyword search. Use these as part of your five keyword phrases. Make sure these fit with what you do.
Identify Outcomes - Determine what outcomes your clients want to achieve. Use these as part of your five keyword phrases. Make sure these fit with what you do.

Apply Keyword Phrases to your Web Site

Use Keywords in Text – Keep in mind that search engines take into account keyword density when determining where to rank your site. Search Engines consider the total number of times they find a phrase compared to the number of words you have on your page. They want to see a ratio of about 3-4 percent. Too much use of the keyword is considered keyword spamming and will reduce your ranking.

Weave your five keyword phrases into the following places:

Page Title - What you call the page when you link to it
Body headings - A heading (or subheading) of your body text
Internal Links – Use keywords to link to another page
Bolded or emphasized text

The page title is particularly important. This is description you see when your site comes up in the search engine. It can also be seen in the top of your browser window when you are at your web site. Each page needs to have a different title to refer to what the page is about. You may have up to 100 characters and it is helpful to have a description of this length. This is a marketing message. Make it enticing so potential clients will want to select your site out of those listed by their search engine. You don’t need to repeat the name of your business.

Use Keywords in Coding - Search engines also use words that are found text that is not necessarily visible to the web site guests.

Code your five keyword phrases into the following places:

Alt Tag – Behind every graphic on your site, there are words in the code that are invisible to the viewer on your site. Make sure these include your keywords. Alt Tags were developed for people who were visually impaired and can be viewed using a special reader program.
File Names - page and image files may be named with keywords. We recommend separating each word by a hyphen.
Page Description meta-tag - a brief description of the page, found in an invisible "meta tag".

Meta tags are information included in the HTML head section of a page. These tags are not visible to the site visitor. They were originally conceived as a way to help search engines properly classify web site pages.

Examples of meta tags are "description", "author", "keywords", "copyright", and so forth. In the past, much importance was assigned to placing these meta tags on every page of a site. But most search engines now downplay or even ignore the content of the meta tags, because of their propensity for abuse.

Submit and Monitor Your Results

Submit Your Site to Search Engines – The following top three search engines do not charge for you to submit your site. After you submit it once, the search engine will go to your site on a regular basis. It is wise to re-submit your site after a major re-design. Search engines take differing amounts of time to index your site. Google takes about a week, Yahoo about a month. There is nothing you can do to hurry them along.

Submit your site:

Check Search Engines to Ensure Your Pages are Listed - In order to view the language used to describe your pages and to make sure all of your pages are listed, you may go to the search engine in your browser and type in “site:” followed by your domain name.

Monitor Your Web Site Visitor Statistics – Use the URL below to view your web site statistics. Look at the past three months and go to search query report to view the search terms that visitors are entering in search engines to find your site.

Access web site statistics:

http://your_site_name/console/default.html User

your_site_name is the domain name of your website
Enter your name as janesmith
(Your first and last name, all lower case, no spaces)
Enter your password = as your standard WebValence password
Select the month you want to review and scroll down to the “Search Query Report”
Find the phrases that people have entered into search engines to
locate your site and the number of times that each phrase has been entered

Check Your Page Rank - Google page rank is an indicator of the weight that Google assigns pages on your site. Page rank is a number from 1 to 10. Large well-known web sites usually rank at 9 or 10; the majority of small web sites are in the 4-5 range. A higher page rank number will increase your chances of being in the Top 10 sites returned from a search.

Check Your Keyword Ranking – At the Digital Point Solutions Keyword Tracker site, you can see where you rank when people enter your keyword phrases in Google, Yahoo and MSN. To use the keyword tracker tool, register for a free account and you will receive a User ID and Password. You will also need to get a Google API key and create a small PHP page on your web site. It may take several months before your ranking is visible on the keyword tracker web site.

Revise Your Web Site

Revise Your Keywords - Use your five keywords for three to six months and watch your statistics to see how people are getting to your site. If a phrase is not be used after six months, swap it with another phrase. Continue to track to see how well your keywords are doing on a regular basis.

Add Relevant Content - Your most potentially valuable visitors are those that are looking for a product or service that meets their perceived or felt needs. Therefore the most valuable and useful content is descriptive content that informs customers about how your product or service meets their needs. Make sure that your content uses words appropriate for your customers, words they are likely to use themselves.

Ensure Content is Organized - Presentation helps. Make sure that your organization is clear to the ordinary person and well illustrated appropriately for skimming.

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