You've got a website. You've put countless hours into it, tweaking the look and feel and making sure all the links work. The bad news is there are a gazillion other websites out there. The good news is there are many things you can control to make sure your site isn't lost in the morass of dot coms.
One of the most important is showing up in the search engines, and getting listed in the top 20 for your subject. This article covers the steps you can take within your site.
First things first: Just like there's no 'get rich quick', there's also no 'get listed quick' (unless you pay for it).
Getting top listings in the search engines is an accomplishment. It gets you traffic and it gets you credibility. You can buy sponsored listings ? you can't buy credibility.
Always Remember: Search engines base their usefulness on the quality of the results they give. You want people who are searching for your product to find your site; they want people who are searching for your product to find relevant sites. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all about making sure you both get what you want.
SEO requires many steps. They pay off, but not immediately. Once you're 'spidered' you'll see the effects of changes you make pretty quickly, but getting 'spidered' (sorry to all the arachnophobes) can take awhile.
Spidered: Search engines search sites throughout the entire World Wide Web (if that sounds a lot like Sally searching for seashells by the seashore, it's intentional). But, to search for your site, they have to know you're there. So, these benevolent spiders send their hairy arms searching through the Web and whatever sticks to their spindly legs they keep.
If you create a web these spiders might want to visit, this process gets you a more desirable string on their web. You want to create a spa for spiders.
Keywords, Keywords, Keywords
Think about it: how do you search for something on the Internet? You put in a few words that say succinctly what you're searching for, i.e. downtown Chicago restaurants.
So, when you design or revamp your site, consider the keywords anyone would use to find what you offer.
The beauty of the Internet is the ability to target niche markets. You don't need a gazillion hits a month. You need people who are searching for YOUR product to find YOUR site. To illustrate the above example: if you search for 'downtown Chicago restaurants' in Google, TheLocalTourist.com is the first listing. If you look for 'Chicago Restaurants' it's aways down the list. But that's perfect. Because The Local Tourist only lists restaurants in downtown Chicago. If The Local Tourist had a high listing for Chicago Restaurants, then someone looking for a place to eat in one of the outlying neighborhoods would be disappointed, and we don?t want that.
By focusing on your niche keywords, on your target market?s desires, you're forced to evaluate what you have to offer and the best way to present it. When you designed your product or service, you (hopefully) had the end-user in mind. So you know what they want.
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