Do you feel like you’re spinning your wheels and accomplishing little or nothing in terms of tangible results with your web development and web design efforts?
The old adage of keeping it simple is the key. All roads lead to Rome…Rome being your website.
The ultimate goal is to earn a higher ranking in the search engines through both onsite and offsite SEO (search engine optimization).
And that’s where it gets confusing, thanks to the myriad “solutions” available online and the unfortunate promises they make in their sales pitches.
Always remember: The purpose of your website is two main things: get people to call you or get people into your business/on an appointment with you. It’s really that simple.
So where does all of this SEO crap fit into the picture? Your onsite SEO ensures that all of your titling and content contains the proper key words and phrasing in the proper amount. Too much can kill your ranking. The right words have to be balanced with the right presentation so people will like what they see when they find you and, thus, stay longer.
Your offsite SEO is mostly links back to your website. Yep, you want a whole bunch of fingers pointing to your website because that tells Google that you’re both relevant and popular. Links can come from a variety of sources, and making comments on other relevant blogs is a good place to start.
Each comment you make is a link back to your site. Now, that being said, make sure your comments are relevant and add to the conversation. ”This was a nice post” or “You have really made a good point here” (or any of the other lame generic comments you’ve undoubtedly seen) are both thoughtless and worthless. Compliments only count when they’re followed by thoughtful comments that add to the conversation.
Guest blogging is another great way to generate links. Think of some of your favorite blogs and contact the owners. Simply ask if they accept guest blog articles. Some do and some don’t, so find the ones that do and get writing:) It not only gets you more links to your site, it exposes you to an entirely new audience as well.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a presence in social media forums for both linking and interaction with your target audience.
And if you remember nothing else from reading this, remember that all roads lead to Rome…Rome being your website. You want a lot of fingers pointing at you so you’ll be noticed.
Just make sure you have the right web development and web design team to create the kind of site people will truly like when they discover it.
The evolution of SEO in the effectiveness of your web development and web design efforts changes weekly if not daily. For every legitimate method of being found online, there are a zillion people to abuse it to the point where Google reduces its value in their algorithms.
Incidentally, what makes “zillion” such a great number is that it’s an arbitrary number to which anyone can assign any value. Gotta love it:)
Anyway, one of the big culprits we deal with today is “key word stuffing.” That’s basically cramming (stuffing) as many key words into the copy on your pages as possible and cramming as many key words into links, etc. that you possibly can. This is the kind of behavior that makes your site look and read spammy, yet why do so many people still use these tactics?
Simple: Desperation and/or impatience. The key to using key words in your SEO is moderation, not stuffing. There should be no more than a 3% saturation of any key word phrase on any page of your website. Links to your site are also now more effective if they contain your name or your brand name rather than key words in the links. This is due to the abuse of key word “link wheels,” which are basically a series of sites set up which link to each other and then link back to one central site.
Be consistent with your blogging efforts, content management and site updates and exercise reasonable moderation in using keywords in your SEO efforts. It’s excess that leads to the constant changes, such as the Panda Google updates, which are specifically designed to eliminate the effectiveness of spammy behavior in both on and offsite SEO. If you go overboard with any method, you are basically contributing to that method being rendered ineffective in the long run.
The analogy I like to draw is the cornerback Lester Hayes of the Oakland Raiders in the 70′s and early 80′s. Back then, players used a sticky resin called “Stick ‘Um” on their hands to help with their grip on the ball. Used in reasonable moderation, this substance was legal. Hayes, however, pushed it to the limit in the 1980 NFL season. He smeared it on his hands, jersey, pants, shoes, helmet…anywhere the ball would potentially touch (see the picture to the left). In 1980 he was one interception short of the all-time season record with 13, while an additional 4 were called back because of penalties. Teammates even joked that the reason he got all those interceptions was StickUm …because if the ball even touched his hand he’d hang on.
By the 1981 season, Stick Um was outlawed (and still is) in what is known as the Lester Hayes Rule. Can you imagine what the league would look like if this was still allowed? Ridiculous.
That is what continues to happen with the evolution of online marketing and search engines. People take legitimate, legal methods and go overboard to the point where search engines have to step in and do their job: Create and maintain a level playing field for all.
Search engines continue to evolve and those changes occur almost daily. For example, those meta tags that were once pretty valuable on your site are now not indexed the way they once were. Why? Because the search engines became wise to the fact that people are key-word-stuffing their metatags…so they have devalued those tags in indexing. Is this permanent? Probably not. These things go in cycles and in time, metatags will cycle around to more valuable indexing again.
In the meantime, like our parents told us (but we didn’t wanna listen)…practice moderation. At least with your SEO:)
We’re about a third of the way through the last quarter of the year (how ’bout THEM fractions?) and now is a great time to take an inventory of your website’s SEO. Much of your SEO actually occurs offsite through link building. However, if your foundation on your site is not solid and well thought out, you’re just spinning your wheels.
Work with your web development and web design team on these things and your search engine ranking will improve. Not overnight, but you will build a solid foundation that will make your offsite SEO that much more effective.
Titling: The title of your web page appears in search engine results as a link to that page. It should not be more than 60 characters long, as most search engines (especially Google) won’t index past 60 characters, including spaces. The title should use relevant key words.
Meta Description: This tells searchers the purpose of your site…basically what it’s all about. It usually appears below the title in search results and helps people decide if your site interests them enough to visit. Your meta description should generally be no longer than 150 characters, including spaces, and should contain the most important keywords for your website. Search engines will read 200 – 250 characters, but only the first 150 are displayed. “Trim the fat” when you write your meta description and keep it relevant, using keywords your potential clients/customers are using to search. Admittedly, Meta Tags aren’t heavy in SEO weight but they ARE part of an overall SEO picture and certainly help in describing your site.
Content: Content is king, linking is queen. You’ve heard it before. We’ve said it many times. Since we’re talking about your onsite SEO, we’re talking about your website content. Is your content relevant? Is it genuinely helpful and not just an afterthought? Most importantly, is it engaging? What style or flair do you bring to your website’s content?
Remember, there’s no magic pill. It’s a growing process. Start with your onsite SEO and make sure your content is engaging. Who cares if someone finds your site if the content is lackluster? That just means they won’t return and will tell their friends not to go there, either. Follow the simple guidelines above and you will be on your way to better online optimization for your website.
Joe Namath once guaranteed that his 1969 New York Jets would beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.
They did.
George Zimmer, owner of Men’s Wearhouse has always said, “You’re going to like the way you look. I guarantee it.”
Over the years, most men have liked the way they look in the clothes they bought there.
Many web development, web design and online marketing services guarantee placement on the first page of Google and/or the other search engines.
Houston, we have a problem.
When you are working on web design and web development for your website, be aware of what can and what can’t be reasonably guaranteed by the pros you work with. It’s a process and there is no magic pill.
Being found in relevant searches on the search engines takes both time, consistency and well-written content. Here are some tips for effective content on your website that will make you more visible in online searches:
1. Avoid salespeak. One of the most prominent characteristics of salespeak is overuse of adjectives…descriptive words that tell people how great you or your product is. Descriptives are good for painting a picture of what you do, but words like “incredible,” “value-added” (barf!), “top notch” et al can make you sound cold and corporate like an infomercial. This is a turnoff to today’s consumer.
2. Know your relevant key words. If someone tells you they will get you on the first page of Google, ask them “First page in what key word search?” Then listen closely to they tell you. No one can guarantee placement on the first page of a search engine, as there are too many variables. Choose the key word search(es) that you want to be found in, and incorporate those key words on your website and in every new blog entry.
3. Boldface your key words. That’s pretty much it. When you use key words on your website, boldface them and the search engines will love you even more.
4. Look at the big picture. The first page of Google has room for 10 search engine results. Everyone cannot be on the first page of Google because there’s just not enough room, and those who are there didn’t get there overnight. And paid placement…people just don’t trust those links like they used to.
5. Finally, be consistent. The more frequently you update your website (blog entries are very helpful here), the more live your website is and the more relevant it will be to the search engines.
If you do these things consistently, you’ll like the long term results you get from your website.
We guarantee it;)
A big part of SEO in web development and web design is keyword-rich content. Indeed, content is king on your website as it is the very thing that gives people a reason to come back to your website.
It’s also the very thing that gives many business owners fits because it’s more challenging than it seems at first. Consistency is where most of your contemporaries on the Internet fall short. It’s not easy to come up with consistently engaging content and then there’s the issue of making sure your chosen key words are utilized properly in your content.
Then lather, rinse, repeat ad infinitum.
Here are a couple of tips for your website content, keeping visitor readability in mind:
- Highlight (boldface) key words. You probably notice that there are words in our content that are consistently highlighted (i.e. web development and web design) and it’s because it helps when search engines are indexing our site in that given search. A little extra key word ‘juice’, if you will.
- Make content readable, don’t overuse keywords. You know the websites. You’ve seen them before. The ones with incoherent sentences and unreadable content because of overuse of key words. What good does it do for people to find you if that’s what they find? Proof-read your content or, even better, get someone you trust to proof-read it for you to make sure it is smooth, readable and makes sense.
Remember, readability and ease of navigation walk hand in hand in your web development and web design 
