Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Beginners
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a term for helping Internet seekers find your business Web site through search engines like Yahoo or Google and via other Web sites and blogs. While many of the analytics of search engine data is scientific, most of the necessary elements are things any Web site manager, even if it is a newbie, can manage. Most of the changes or updates that would improve traffic are easy to make and generally free.
In many ways, all of your online activity is Search Engine Optimization. Any time a potential client searches for your type of business and your firm or company comes up, that is search engine optimized. Whether it is your Facebook page, an article you wrote as CEO of Widgets, Inc., or a blog post about payroll accounting, all of it feeds the search engines. The more of these individual items there are to find, the better your chances of being found!
Keywords are important. Draft an appropriate list of keywords to include in your site. Let’s assume you are an accountant who offers a variety of accounting services at your firm. Your site, on various pages like About Us, Services Offered, Client Profile will include terms like payroll, accounting, taxes, tax services, payroll accounting, payroll services and more. Keywords are the words search engines seek out when someone looks for a specific term or service. It is important to incorporate keywords in well-written content. Good content keeps readers coming back for more.
It’s hard to believe but small changes like renaming your Web site headers from “Categories” to “Topics” can make a difference on driving traffic deeper into your site. The more visitors and the longer they stay, the higher your ranking on search engines. Watch your site analytics to see if these changes make a difference in how much time visitors stay or if they go to additional areas. All of this can make small but significant differences.
Adding a blog to your company Web site is an important piece of Internet marketing and will improve your search engine optimization. Write about subjects that pertain to your business (or outsource that task to a talented employee or freelance writer) and you will increase your visibility. If you are an accountant and you write a 300 word blog post called “What Payroll Taxes and Sudoku Have in Common”, you will draw traffic not just from the terms “payroll” and “taxes”, but also from “sudoku”. Who knows what sudoku enthusiast might also need a tax accountant? There are obviously less extreme examples.
Have your Web designer or manager (or yourself, if that is you) examine and modify some of your meta tags. Meta tags are small pieces of code embedded in your site that tell search engines something about your content. Your company might be called Don King Accounting and Payroll, but your meta tag might read “affordable accounting for individuals and small business”. Changing the wording of this meta tag can draw additional traffic to your site.
You’ve seen many sites, or you have one, that opens with a flash animation sequence. These are fun but actually confuse search engine crawlers, causing them to overlook your site. You can certainly add flash features, just save it for another page or don’t use them at all. A well-crafted and designed home page with the right information and keywords is enough.
When you add links to other sites (known as hyperlinks) from your Web site or blog, search engines associate you with that site. You also build rapport with other site owners and can request a reciprocal link back to your site from theirs. Hyperlinking creates a more dynamic, interesting site and improves your SEO at the same time.
Learning the basics of SEO is important to any business person with an online presence. Small changes that you can learn make a big difference in your search engine rankings which will attract new customers to your site. Add a blog, make small changes to your headers, link to other sites. It’s all easy and can make a big difference to your business!




























