SEO

When it comes to search engines, content is king. The more often you update your content and the more rich in keywords your content is, the better you will be found.

The problem is that many web developers simply don't understand some of the basics. Pages need to  be optimized... not just the site. What this means is that rather than looking at your site as a whole and trying to get all the keywords you can on all the pages, optimize your document management page for document management and your printers page for printers.

You need to make sure that you do everything you can to build in ways for the search engines to understand that you are relevant to your readers.

Here are the three key secrets that you need to make sure that you adhere to when building your site... and your pages. They are in no particular order.

SEO, or search engine optimization, may not be rocket science, but there are many things that you can do to make your website more findable on the web. There are a number of things that I do when I build my client sites that make a big difference in how they are found on the web. I won't share all of them (don't want to give away trade secrets), but there are some key things you should do.

I bring this up because I am amazed how few websites I see actually implement these items. These are reasonable simple things that you can do to improve your search rankings. Yet, for some reason, the majority of web developers don't even try to implement them.

Bear in mind, if you need help with this on your site or want an analysis of how you are doing, you can just contact us.

I have mentioned some of these before, but some of them are so important, they deserve another mention.

Although, with the way some people talk, you'd think that it was. True, there are some components that make it a little more complicated to understand... after all, that is why SEOs make $15,000 or more per site just to optimize website content... once. Then, usually they'll charge a hefty fee monthly to make sure that the site stays optimized... after all, SEO is not a one time event.

SEO is something that needs to be continually addressed. Not only does a site need to have new content added all the time, but the existing, static content, needs to be adjusted, changed and modified. If your site isn't evolving, then why in the world would someone ever come back?

If your customers have already seen your brochure, do they go back to it very often to try and glean new information? Then why do we seem to think that people will do that with our static and never changing sites?

So, if Search Engine Optimization isn't Rocket Science, then what is it?

It is time consuming and requires effort. It requires patience and practice. But, given the right knowledge, you can understand the basics. Here are the five elements of content that you should consider for your site.

When designing and managing your website, one of the hardest things to remember is who your audience is.

But, why is this hard?

I tend to think that it is hard because we want to write to people that are just like us. We tend to think of ourselves as our audience. We think that we know what our customers want to hear because we have worked with them so long that we just naturally know what they are looking for.

We are convinced that we know best.

Let me be blunt. You probably don't know what your clients want to read. You probably don't know what your clients want to hear.

How rude, why would I say that about you? After all, we just met.

Well, it, in my mind, is simply because you are so focused on running your business that you have become disconnected from what your clients need. You are focused on selling your hardware and software and therefore forget to learn about their business.

Don't get mad at me... read on...

I talk with clients all the time about ways to optimize their websites for increasing traffic. We provide search engine optimization services for our clients so that they can better be found on the web.

Often, I get the question, "Well, can I just have you optimize my site now and then, in a year, optimize it again?"

The short answer is, "No."

SEO, or search engine optimization, isn't a one time event. It isn't something that you do one time and then never look back on. In my last post titled, What makes a great website? Top Ten List, the second item on the list is evolving content.

This evolving content provides the search engines with new pages and new content to index on your site. It provides your site visitors options to search for.

As you think about the website that you develop, there are some key considerations for your online presence. You want to make sure that you design it right. If you don't, you might just be wasting your time and money.

But, what are the key things that you should consider?