So many individuals and small businesses out there have taken the plunge into the online world.  In a perfect world once you launched your website your phone would start ringing off the hook with, “We found your company online and would love to do business with you!”.  However we do not live in a perfect world and this does not happen as often as we all would like.  So this post is to get some of you up to speed with some simple SEO tips that you can apply to your own sites to get a little more traffic, generate a few more leads, and ultimately a few more sales for you businesses.

1. Get listed as a business in the major search engines – Google Maps Local Business Center, Yahoo Local, MSN Local Listing Center
2. Write meaningful page titles – This is actually high under-utilized.  I see too many sites’ page titles that read “<insert company name here>” and that’s it.  This is the perfect place to take advantage of geographic and keyword targeting.  For example CWS wants to appeal to the entire Lehigh Valley for web design so our page title reads “Connected Web Solutions – Lehigh Valley Web Design – Establish your Web Presence”.  You can be as specific as you want as well.  Also think of the competition.  If one of your competitors is established and ranks well above you for specific search terms (just do a Google search for your desired terms and see who comes before you) try something a bit different.  Think of synonyms for searches if you have no chance of catching them:  footware instead of shoes, autos instead of cars, etc.  Pair this with Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools and you have a formula to start ranking higher in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
3. Use header tags properly – These are some of the most highly misused tags in (x)html.  Do NOT use header tags because you want larger text.  That should be done via CSS.  Use header tags for actual headers and titles.  Importance is placed on these header tags with <h1> being the most important to <h6> being the least.  I like to think that all of these are more important than the <p> tag as well.  That being said the order and frequency of these tags are taken into consideration as well.  It should work like a pyramid with 1 <h1>, 2 or 3 <h2>, 3-5 <h3> tags, and so on and so forth.  These are not exact numbers but this way you can order your importance quite easily.  Also remember to go in order!  Do NOT place <h2> tags before an <h1> tag!
4. Separate your code – I see too many websites with bloated code.  This is usually because of WYSIWYG editors but this can be remedied.  Keep your xhtml in 1 file, your CSS in another, and your Javascript in another.  This makes site wide changes a lot easier and is also a ton easier for the search engines to spider.  So remember xhtml for Structure/Content, css for Layout/Design, and Javascript for behavior.
5. Generate Links to Your Site – To increase your Google Page Rank (which will also increase your search engine replacement)  and traffic you must get other sites to link to you!  I do not mean jump on every link exchange you can find but use your previous relationships.  If you do a considerable amount of business with a company why not ask them for a link to your site in exchange for a link to theirs!  Primary example, we work with a realty firm and a housing developer.  They do work together so we asked both parties if they would mind linking to each other.  Neither had a problem and the mutual link ended up helping them both, not only in terms of getting more traffic but increasing Page Rank as well.  Or if you have an interesting news item or press release see if you can get a local paper to link to it.  This has happened with some of our soccer sites that are having tryouts or tournaments.
6. DO NOT BELIEVE COMPANIES THAT WILL GUARANTEE YOU A #1 GOOGLE RANKING! – Be careful not to be fooled with SPAM emails saying that companies will guarantee you a #1 Google ranking for keywords.  These are SCAMS!  What could end up happening is you paying a company a considerable amount of money to rank #1 for a search term that is way too long and irrelevant.

There are a handful of other things that you can do to improve your search engine placements but these are some basics that everyone should know about.  There are entire companies that are dedicated to strictly search engine optimization.

If you wish to learn more about the subject, check out Amazon and just type in SEO.  You will find tons and tons of books on the subject but be careful not to get one that is too old.  The field is changing constantly a book from a couple years ago will probably not have too much relevant information and might even have tips that will now HURT your rankings.  I recommend Search Engine Optimization – by Kristopher B. Jones and Building Findable Websites – by Aarron Walter.  Two great books with tons and tons of great tips.

If you would like an SEO evaluation of your site don’t hesitate to contact us!  While we do not solely focus on SEO we make it a large priority in the development stages as well as offer advice through the life of the site to keep it competitively ranked.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 1:10 pm and is filed under SEO, Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.