How do those people who come up first on Google get there? That’s
one of the first questions people ask me when we start to talk about
getting their sites out there. Do you have to spend a lot of money?
Know someone? Sacrifice your first-born child? Oh, no, nothing that
simple…
The first thing you need to know about Search Engine Optimization,
or SEO, is that it’s a very complicated, constantly changing process.
There are web professionals who specialize in it full-time, and if your
livelihood absolutely depends on placing in the top 2 or 3 of a very competitive
field or getting hundreds of thousands of hits a day, you may want to consider hiring a specialist. That said, there
are a number of things that you can do to improve your rankings. It
doesn’t even take a lot of technical know-how, just time and patience.
The most important element of good search engine placement, and the
thing that remains constant no matter how much the field changes, is
content. People return to a good search engine, like Google, because
the results it returns are what they’re searching for. If you
want people to come to your Widget site, the best way to draw them there
is to have a lot of good information about Widgets.
It’s also important that your site is easy for the Search engine
“spiders” to read. A site needs to strike the appropriate
balance between design and “readability.” We discussed these
issues when we first began developing your site, and, as long as your
goals haven’t changed, I’ve built your site in such a way
that, with a bit of diligence, you can achieve the search engine results
you need.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Another important element of SEO is incoming links – this simply
means that there are other sites on the Internet that contain links
to your site. How do you get these valuable and important links? You
ask. And it’s always nice to offer a link in return. Many pages
have a “Links” or “Resources” page – this
can be a helpful feature for their visitors, but it also gives them
the ability to say, “Hey, would you place a link to my site on
your page? I’ll place one to your site on mine.”
The best place to begin is with companies and individuals with whom
you already have a relationship. Visit their sites, and if they have
someplace to post links to other sites, contact them. You might say
something along the lines of:
I’ve recently launched my new Widget web site and would appreciate
it if you would place a link to my site on your Links page. I would
be glad to offer you a link, as well.
You’ll find my site at: http://www.widgetcentral.com
The most effective requests will be specific - you want to show that company from whom you'd like a link that you've given some thought to whether reciprocal links would be benefical for your respective visitors. I get frequent requests for links - most of them are clearly "form letters," and I can't hit the "Delete" button fast enough. A comment about how fascinating you found the history of Widgets that they have on their site and how helpful it would be to your customers, or better yet, how valuable the Widget collectors that frequent their site will find your advice on determine the correct Widget size, will help your request stand out from the rest.
Many sites will include a bit of information on the site along with
the link. If this is the case with one of your targets, you’ll
want to request that they use the code I’ll provide to you.
You’ll also want to be certain to visit the sites of any professional
organizations to which you belong – many of them have directories
of members, and will include a web address, upon request.
Once you’ve exhausted your professional resources and relationship,
it’s time to fire up the search engine. Type your keywords into
Google and see what comes up on the first page or two. What you’re
looking for is sites that aren’t competing directly with your
site, but are closely related. If you’re selling sleeping bags,
a link on a cooking site is not going to do you much good. And another
guy selling sleeping bags may not be too eager to place a link to your
site on his. But a site that offers tips on successful camping trips
would probably have a resources page that includes links to camping
equipment sites.
A word of caution - when it comes to incoming links, focus on quality,
not quantity. Links from sites that have nothing to do with your product
or service are not going to be particularly helpful. There are sites
out there called "link farms" that will post links to absolutely anything.
Most quality search engines recognize these as worthless, and will not
pay any attention to them. Some search engines will even penalize a
site for using them. You're better off focusing your efforts on quality
links.
PORTALS AND DIRECTORIES
Depending on your field, you may also find portals and directories
– these exist primarily to direct their visitors to sites they
will find helpful. Many of these have specific guidelines for submission,
so read carefully. There may be charges to be listed on sites like these
– you’ll need to consider, on a case-by-case basis, whether
a site is worth the money. Look at the search engine placement (if it’s
not on the first page, it may not be worth it) and the accessibility
of listings (will your listing be easily accessed, or buried deep in
the site?) to ascertain whether it’s a good investment.
In addition to providing an incoming link, a good directory can also
increase traffic to your site. If you’ve decided to invest in
a directory listing, it can be helpful to use your Logger to keep tabs
on exactly how many visitors come from a particular source.
LOGGING YOUR TRAFFIC
As part of your package, I’ve installed a Logger on your site.
This can help you analyze how many visitors your site receives and how
they are getting there. I’ve provided you with a URL, a username
and a password. Once you’ve logged in, you’ll see several
options:
Ø LOGS - This is a list of everyone who has visited your site,
along with some helpful information. You’ll want to be concerned
mainly with the column labeled “Referrer.” If an entry is
labeled “unknown,” it means that someone typed your URL
into the address bar of his browser, rather than following a link. If
it’s labeled “REFERRED,” place your mouse over the
link, and you’ll see the referring URL in your status bar (the
little space at the bottom of your browser). If the visitor was referred
by a search engine, you’ll see that engine listed in a lighter
colored bar, along with exactly what word or phrase they used to search.
Ø STATS - This takes the information from the LOGS page and
categorizes and organizes it. You’ll see how many people visited
each page, and a listing of the Top 50 referrers to your site, along
with how many visitors they’ve referred. This can be helpful in
determining whether a directory investment has been worthwhile.
Ø CALENDAR - This maps out your visitors according to the day
they visited. This can be helpful in gauging the response to an article
or a public appearance – if the article came out on June 7th,
and your traffic doubled on June 7th, 8th and 9th, you can assume that
the article effectively increased your traffic.
SUBMITTING YOUR SITE
Once your site is up and running, you’ll start getting spam from
people who purport to be SEO companies. You’ll see headlines like
“Increase traffic to your site!!!” “Guaranteed Top
Search Engine Placement!!” and, my personal favorite, “Submit
your site to 5,000 Search engines with one click!!” Delete these.
If you’re afraid you’re missing an opportunity, forward
it to me, so that I can read it … and tell you to delete it. These
are all scams. They’ll stress the importance of getting your site
submitted to as many Search Engines as possible and promise that they
can save you time and energy by doing it for you. Submitting your site
is not really necessary - and probably not particularly helpful if it’s
optimized properly, and you’ve established a number of good incoming
links. If you really want to do some submitting, visit each search engine
in which you’re interested, carefully read the guidelines, and
– most important – hand-submit your site. Most of these
“services” use what is called “bulk submission,”
and many search engines will actually REMOVE a site from its rankings
if it’s submitted using one of the many “bulk submission”
services. Yes, that’s right – you’re actually paying
these companies to remove your site from the very search engines on
which you hope to get listed! You’re much better off spending
your time and money on establishing good incoming links.
PAYING FOR TRAFFIC
Depending on your product, your goals for your site, and your advertising
budget, you may want to look into Google’s “Sponsored Links,” and/or Yahoo
many services. For Google, you’ll find the sponsored links on
the right of most Google results pages. To have your site appear here,
you need to sign up for a Google AdWords account. You place money in
your account, and create a mini “ad”
describing your site. Every time someone “clicks through”
to your site, a small amount of money (5 cents or more) is deducted.
Google makes it very simple to create an ad and set up an account –
just click on “See your ad here” on any Google results page,
and follow the step by step instructions - but you need to monitor the results and constantly fine-tune to make certain that you're getting the most form your investment. If you have an e-Commerce site, you'll want to look into Froogle - it takes a bit of diligence to set up, but it's free, and can be a great way to get exposure for individual products. Yahoo's programs are more
varied - you'll find them outlined here.
There are several other companies that sell traffic-increasing services,
but, as with site submission services, many are much more eager to take
your money than to give you more traffic. I'll be glad to look over
any program you may be considering, or answer questions you may have
about the sign-up processes. And if you have questions, I’ll be
glad to answer them.
GOOD HABITS
There are a handful of practices that, if you can make them second
nature, should go a long way toward increasing your traffic.
Ø Any time a press release, brochure, business card or any other
printed material leaves your business, it should include your URL.
Ø Create a signature for your email that includes your URL –
it should be included on every email that leaves your mailbox.
Ø If you post on any discussion boards, be certain that your
tag includes your URL.
THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
I can't emphasize enough that when it comes to Search Engine Optimization, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Good placement takes diligence. The idea that you can post a site on the Web and people will be beating a path to your cyber-door is abolsutely untrue. Whether you're working building incoming links, or fine-tuning your Google campaign, you're going to need to put some time and enrgy into the process.
While I’ve tried to address the basics, this field is constantly
changing and to truly be informed takes effort. If you’d like
to learn more, there are a few excellent resources and newsletters you
might find helpful.
HighRankings.com
- This is one of the best, with an excellent free weekly newsletter,
High Rankings Advisor
SearchEngineGuide.com
- Another excellent resource, again with a free newsletter
In addition, SEO is not something you can do once and forget about
it. You’ll want to schedule periodic “check-ups,”
where you review your logger to assess the directories in which you’ve
paid to be included, check all your incoming links, and seek out new
sites that might be willing to link to you.
HIRING A SPECIALIST
As I mentioned earlier in this article, if your business depends on
top placement, you may want to consider hiring someone who specializes
in Search Engine Optimization. Although I can’t guarantee results,
the following companies are all good places to begin shopping for a
specialist:
Company list coming soon...
to the top