Having a web site or web page for your business is nice, but how can you make it work for you? Be a shark at web optimization! Also known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is the driving force of people finding your web pages through the Internet. I don’t recommend relying on this alone; however, having your web pages fully optimized is one of the most important tools in web site design.
STEP 1 – Research unique keyword phrases that are specific to your business. Using unique and specific keyword phrases that are not as common and competitive will increase the chances of your web pages to be found at the top of the search results. You may still use common search phrases, but I recommend adding a more specific keyword. For example, use a phrase you’re known for in your business. If people love your monogrammed children’s towels, make that your main phrase. If customers love your custom children’s window treatments make that your 2nd main phrase. Or combine them but don’t make the phrase any longer than 5 words.
AddMe.com – http://www.addme.com/keywordsuggest.htm provides a tool that will enable you to type in a keyword to receive a complete list of similar keyword phrases you can use. To view some live searches to help you determine what keywords shoppers are searching for, you can use these tools:
Excite Search – http://www.infospace.com/info.xcite/searchspy
Ask Jeeves – http://www.ask.com/docs/peek/
Wordtracker – http://www.wordtracker.com/
How it Works – Your two main keyword phrases will be used in html tags. Some important html tags are title tags, description tags, image and meta tags. Search engines read the tags to determine which web pages best fit the search criteria. When someone does a search, they most likely put in these specific keyword phrases to find you. If I was looking for custom children’s window treatments, that would be my search criteria. I wouldn’t just type window treatments in the search box, I would search for the whole phrase. When hiring a company to create a web site for your business, ask if they will perform search engine optimization when developing your site.
GirlShopSpot.com was designed around optimization for your Shop Spot. When creating your Shop Spot web page, you will be asked to enter your “Shop Spot Name/Keyword Phrase.” This name and keyword phrase will become the keyword tags in the html for your Shop Spot page. Eventually your web page or pages will be indexed by the search engines, which will be crawling your page for those keywords searched by users.
NOTE – If you’re interested in local marketing and local searches on the Internet, include your location in your keyword phrase. Example 1: Greatest Hair Stylist Ballwin Missouri Example 2: Yoshi’s Sushi Chesterfield Missouri.
STEP 2 – Pick two other keyword phrases and use those phrases along with your main phrase in your copy and throughout your web pages. Pick a different keyword for each page. If you have a Shop Spot page, use your keywords in your Shop Spot Description. Your “Shop Spot Description” is a short paragraph or two about your business. This will display on your Shop Spot web page to customers and also in your description meta tags for the spiders. Spiders, most the time, will scan both.
How it Works – Search Engine Spiders will crawl your page for those keywords. The more the keywords and phrases are seen within a page, the higher the rating of importance for those keywords compared to other pages on the web. Be careful not to abuse or use those words too much. Just write naturally and use those phrases where it’s appropriate. If keywords are used too much, your site or web pages could become black listed, which means your site will no longer be indexed.