Web Site Optimization Services

Learning the Importance of Good Web Optimization

People build Websites for two different reasons. One is to offer an online brochure for their off line prospects which would include having your Website address on print materials and print advertising. This Website is not built with the global market in mind, but rather an important resource for their local market.

The other purpose for building a Website is to tap into the National or Global market which means the business can offer products or services nationwide or worldwide and are not dependent on one area for their success.

If you are interested in reaching a world wide audience then you must find a niche market within your chosen field and provide valuable content for that niche. Web Marketing is extremely competitive. You are competing now with the whole world, rather than a small local area. So just putting up a Website with a few sentences about what you offer and a shopping cart isn’t likely to get you the business you might hope for.

Provide High Quality Content to Your Visitors

Most people go to the Internet to research or find information about a particular topic. Most don’t go to their computer with credit card in hand looking to purchase something. It’s not like walking into a store. The Internet is the result of the information age, and people are looking for quality information. So you must ask yourself this important question. How much quality information am I providing about my chosen field?

Your long-term plan should include building a strong resource center for your prospective clients or customers. You can build this resource center day by day adding page after page of valuable content in the form of articles having to do with your niche. If you don’t’ have a method of posting these articles yourself you should work out a monthly maintenance fee with your Webmaster to have him/her post that content to your site on a regular basis. This should involve formulating a plan to post so much content per week.

For example you might make a personal commitment to write three articles a week and work with your Webmaster to optimize those articles and post them to your site all at once at the end of each week. By the end of the month you will have added 12 or more pages to your site. At 12 pages a month you will have approximately 144 page of quality keyword optimized content on your site by the end of your first year. Now you have a Website people will want to visit. They can come to your site to learn about your topic and you will quickly be established as an expert in your field.

If you are not a writer, you have a couple options. You write to the best of your ability. Think about if a client called you and wanted to know more about a particular topic. Write as if you are explaining that topic to your client. Then you can hire a copywriter to edit your article. If you give your copywriter all your articles for that week it will save you time and money.

If you can’t afford a copywriter right now, then just do the best you can. People aren’t looking for writing experts; they are looking for information about your field of expertise. Do the best you can.

Submit Articles to Directories for Use on Other Websites

Another option for providing content to your site is to go to an Online article directory service. There is a company that has a list of article directories at: http://www.articletrader.com. You can use other people's content in exchange for a link to their Website and you can post your own articles for use on other sites.

Which brings me to my next subject. You can take the articles you have written and submit them to article directories as listed in the link above and include a well written link to your Website. This is a method of getting both high quality links to your site, which helps with your page ranking, and also to get high quality visitors to your site.

If you submit your article to article directories you are giving others permission to use your articles on their Web pages as content, as long as they include your information at the bottom of your article, normally your name, your title and a link to your site.

Using a service like “Article Trader” can be invaluable for actually exchanging quality content having to do with your field of knowledge.

Start a Mailing List

The next thing you will want to do is have a method to capture emails from your Website once someone visits you. This means you will want to sign up with a quality list management service which will provide a sign up form on your Website and collect all the email addresses of people who sign up.

For best results you will need to provide an incentive for people to sign up for your mailing list. Having a weekly, bi-monthly or monthly newsletter is a must to keep your name in front of those who have signed up to hear from you. You may offer a “free report about a particular subject” or some other kind of incentive to entice people to provide you with their email address.

Once you have a mailing list started you can send them one of the articles you write each week and let them know you have posted three new articles to your Website. This will keep your visitors coming back for more and you will now be building a list of warm prospects who are interested in the content you provide. You will get most of your paying clients or customers from this list.

Your Domain Name

Your domain name should be directly related to your niche. If you already have a domain name that doesn’t really say who you are or what you do, you should consider registering a second domain name for your Website and have both pointing to the same site. This will help the search engines index you and bring your site up in the right searches.

Keywords

Keywords are not just something that goes in the hidden code of a page. In fact the hidden coded keywords are no longer that important. What is important is the main keywords displayed in the content of your Website. Each page you develop should be optimized for the keywords that would be most likely to bring visitors to your page. You should never guess at keywords. You should use a program that will help you to analyze each keyword for supply versus demand. You should be using high supply, low demand keywords for the best results. Your Web Marketer should be able to help you with this, or if you are doing it yourself visit our Web Promotion page.

Title and Description

The title and description listed in the code of your site is very important. You should have keyword rich Titles and Descriptions to your page. This information is stored in the page code and you can work with your Web Designer or Web Marketer to represent this information accurately.

Layout

The way your page is laid out will also make a big difference in how the search engines read the important keywords. Keyword placement and the names of your links to other pages should be factored in when you design your site.

Search Engine Submission

There are some mixed messages about actually submitting your completed site to the Search Engines. Some believe you should submit and others believe you should just focus on optimizing your site and allow the search engines to find you naturally. Having high quality links to your site from high traffic Websites related to your field of expertise is really helpful in this area.

Yahoo Directory

For $299.00 you can have your site reviewed for inclusion into Yahoo. The $299.00 fee does not guarantee you will be included, it only guarantees review. From what I have learned if you have a quality site based on content your chances of being listed are very good. Is it worth it? I have been told YES it is because Google’s search engine robots regularly scan the Yahoo Directory to index the sites listed there. So having your site listed with Yahoo is considered a good investment.

Get Involved In Your Own Website Optimization

Although Your Web Designer / Optimization Specialist can help you with keywords and code he/she will not be writing your content for you. This is why it is important to stay active in the promotion of your Website. The more you work with your Web Specialist as a team, the more successful you will be. Do your best to familiarize yourself with the information provided here. Sign up for my newsletter on the Web Promotion page and continue to read the most recent updates regarding the optimization and marketing of your Website.

The time you spend learning the basics of Website Marketing and Optimization is time well spent as a well optimized site has the potential to skyrocket your Online business to success.

Results can never be guaranteed. Once you build your site there is a time factor before you are ranking highly. You normally have to wait 3-6 months before you see much Online activity. It isn’t like placing a print ad where people see your ad right away. There is a window of time where the search engines discover you are there and begin ranking you so when people do searches you can be found.

To make the most of your waiting period, don’t wait around. Be active. Continue providing quality content to your site and building it up. Continue working on finding high quality links by perhaps offering articles to high traffic sites that have a relationship to your theme, and build that mailing list. Make the best use of the traffic you are getting.

If you are not getting any traffic you will need to go back to your Web Marketing Specialist and re-evaluate your site to see why it isn’t ranking. You might try searching in Google, MSN and Yahoo under your target Keywords and see if your site is showing up at all. It could be ranking in the hundreds which would mean you aren’t likely to be found. This could be due to high competition for your chosen keywords.

If this is your issue we need to re-analyze your keywords and see if we can define your niche a little stronger and come up with better keywords for what you are doing.

Update

I recently aligned with a Web Hosting Company that provides all the tools you need to build, optimize and keep track of your site visitors and rankings. It also provides you with a mailing list service, autoresponder, keyword analyzing tools and many other tools you would end up spending a lot for if you bought each one individually. Before you spend any money on Mailing list programs or keyword analyzers please contact me to learn more.

Kaleah LaRoche
Website Consultant

Keyword Tool

This is a handy little tool will show you the results of your query from both Wordtracker and Overture for determining which phrases are searched most often.

Enter a search phrase below to see how often it's searched for, as well as get suggestions for alternate (but similar) keywords.

Call me for more information: 928-639-2176