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Search Engine Ready Web
Sites
Office Telephone:
623-242-8437
OnTheAvenues can develop a full search engine
ready web site for you or optimize your current web site for top
search engine rankings
Analysis & Consultation
We begin your campaign with a Search Engine Friendliness Site
Analysis. This means we look at the code on your site and
determine if there are any “search engine blocking technologies”
or other factors that may adversely affect your website’s
rankings. We also gather information about your goals, your
current status, and do a competitor analysis.
Everyone wants to have a successful web
site. However, most people do the wrong things to promote
their web sites.
If you want to have a successful web site and if you want
to get high rankings on search engines then your web site
must have the right factors. Here are the top 5 factors for
successful web sites in 2007:
Success factor #1: Accessibility
Search engines must be able to access your web pages. If
search engines cannot parse your web pages then they will
ignore your site and you won't get good rankings.
Make sure that your web server doesn't return an error code
when search engine spiders visit your web pages. If your
server returns an error code, search engines won't index
your site.
In addition, make sure that the HTML code of your web pages
doesn't contain errors that prevent search engines from
indexing your site.
The content of your web pages must make sense to search
engines. Don't use images or Flash to present the main
content of your web pages.
Success factor #2: Site and information architecture
Your web site should have a good site architecture to make
sure that it is not just a collection of random web pages.
The pages of your web site should be related and they should
show search engines that your web site is relevant to a
special topic.
This is very important because most major search engines
seem to use latent semantic indexing in their ranking
algorithms.
Your site should also have a good information architecture
so that search engines and web surfers know where they are
within your site on any page of your site.
Success factor #3: The right keywords
Choosing the right keywords is one of the most important
steps that determines whether your SEO campaign is a success
or not.
It's best to focus on 2 or 3 word keywords for search engine
optimization. One word keywords are less likely to convert
to a sale and they are also much more competitive.
Success factor #4: Content
Web sites that only offer articles and affiliate links that
can be found on dozens of other web sites will have a hard
time to get good search engine rankings.
Try to create unique and trustworthy content that separates
your web site from the others.
Write about things you know. If you're an expert in a
special field, write as much as possible about that field to
make sure that your web site becomes the best resource for
that topic.
Success factor #5: Inbound links
Without good inbound links, it is impossible to get high
rankings on major search engines. You should get as many
links as possible from related web sites. The more targeted
the link, the more it will help your search engine rankings.
Search engine optimization can be tricky because a small
error in one factor can destroy all of your other efforts.
Trust your SEO
Trust is the most important thing online. When you have
decided to work with a SEO, trust his knowledge, skills and
experience to lead you through the way of site optimization.
If in doubt, ask - there's no harm in that. But do let your
SEO do his work.
It's unreasonable to think that with a small investment in
time and money your SEO can generate millions of dollars. If
they could they would be doing it for themselves and not
you.
It is important to remember that SEO can help your site and
business, but it can not guarantee miracles.
Be patient
Patience is a virtue. And SEO is no instant pill. It takes
deep understanding of the Internet, of site building and
optimization, of your industry and of people. Also, it takes
time to do everything the SEO can do and even more time for
the search engines to appreciate his/her efforts.
Have reasonable expectations
No matter how much experience and skill your SEO has they
can't perform miracles. If you are launching a new site in a
competitive industry it may be several months at the
earliest before you see any results. It may be several more
months before you see the results you want.
It's unreasonable to think that with a small investment in
time and money your SEO can generate millions of dollars. If
they could they would be doing it for themselves and not
you.
It is important to remember that a SEO can help your site
and business, but he/she can not guarantee any miracles.
SEO is your partner
SEO is a living person, not only with skills, but also with
his own character and emotions. Try to cooperate with your
SEO to really improve your website:
- talk about your business
- what your customers want
- what are the names they call your
product (good ones)
- what are your closest competitors
- tell him about the most important
communities in your industry (where your customers and
experts get together online)
- say if you plan to expand your
website
- answer any questions a SEO asks
- at least follow the advice from this
page
When working closely with a SEO, he/she will
be able to better know your business and apply the knowledge
to your website. If you need help promoting your site,
knowing about your largest communities will help a lot.
Realize there is more to SEO than ranking and traffic
Many people mistakenly believe the only goal of SEO is to
improve where your pages rank and drive as much traffic as
possible to your site. Traffic is only one part of the
equation.
If you have a product that only appeals to men, then having
men visit your site is preferable to having women visit your
site. If your services deal with child care then having
thousands of single men and women visit your site makes
little sense.
SEO is about driving the right kind of traffic to your site,
the kind of traffic that is predisposed to purchasing your
products or services. More traffic is not the same as better
traffic.
SEO is also concerned with persuading those that visit your
site to contact you or make a purchase. An SEO who can bring
100 people to your site and get 50 of them to buy something
is better than an SEO who brings 1000 people to your site
and only gets 20 of those visitors to buy.
Understand it takes more than SEO to have a successful
business
Know that SEO alone will not result in a successful
business. SEO isn't a cure all for everything that ails your
business. You still need to have a sound business model and
you need to do what it takes to keep your customers loyal
and coming back.
Your SEO can direct qualified traffic to your site and even
help you make a sale. However your product or service must
still deliver on the promises you make if you want to
succeed. Your SEO can not overcome an inferior product or
one that has no interest to your target market.
Running a business is a coordinated effort. Your message
online should match your message offline.
In addition to SEO you might want to consider:
- Does your product or service
solve a particular problem?
- Will people be willing to pay a price
for your product that nets you a profit?
- Is there a target market for your
service?
- Can your customers become repeat
customers?
- Will your business model scale?
Consider the second point above. If you lose
$1 on every product you sell, will bringing more traffic and
generating more sales help your business?
Know that SEO is a balance
There are hundreds of factors used by search engines to rank
a page. Understand that SEO is often a trade off between
many of these factors. Having less
keywords on a page may make the page more likely to get
links.
It may be more important to optimize many pages of your site
for human beings and not worry about how well those pages do
in search results. Not every page on your site needs to be a
landing page. Some pages on your site are a point of entry,
while others are there to convert visitors into buyers.
Prepare to pay
While SEO can bring huge profit to an online business, it is
hard work, too. And like every hard worker, SEO likes to be
paid. It is not only a fair thing to do, it is a sign you
are serious about your business and want to invest in
increasing profits.
The more you pay, the more you invest efforts -in your
website-, the more you get. This is a simple law that has
existed before the websites, SEOs and even you.
More work = more money
After you have agreed for a project, the price is included
in the contract. You don't want to pay more than that,
right? The SEO, in turn, doesn't want to do more than that,
either. If you want your SEO partner to do more work, talk
with him and agree on afterwards additional work.
But let him finish the initial work and pay for it. Then
talk about more work.
Learn the basics
One of the difficult parts of being a SEO is to educate the
people on the benefits of SEO, so they'd use the services.
The thing is, the benefits often don't have anything to do
about this. It is how well the people understand SEO.
When you do, you'll understand what SEO is about (roughly)
and will be able to understand what your SEO is talking
about. But don't think you can tell him/her what to do. It
is his job, trust him.
Prepare to create content
SEO is not only about getting links or about optimizing
existing content. Often, it is about creating new content,
too. Prepare to create valuable resources for your visitors
on various topics, related to your products. This will give
your SEO some room for action and optimization. Getting
links to quality content is way easier, too.
Do not change the site after the work
After your SEO has finished his/her work, don't change the
site. Adding new sections is fine, just follow the
guidelines your SEO has informed you about. If anything, ask
your SEO what to do.
Want to redesign? Consult an expert
If you do want to change the site after your SEO has done
his work (it may be after several months), consult him or
another expert on how to redesign to keep the SEO work. At
best, your SEO will guide you how to create a search engine
and a user friendly website. Use this opportunity.
SEO is a continuous effort
SEO isn't not something you do once and forget. It is an
ongoing effort, just as much as your marketing or sales
efforts. It takes time, budget, effort and patience.
Largely, this happens because you get new online rivals.
Also, all your online competitors are willing to outspend
you on SEO and be on the top of the SERPs. If you are the
only one in your niche, new resources on your topic will be
outranking you anyway. So stay active.
Ask and answer questions
While it's important to learn what you can on your own it's
ok to ask your SEO questions to understand more of what they
are doing. It's important to keep an open line of
communication with your SEO and know what they are doing to
your site and why.
It's also important to answer the questions your SEO has for
you. The more your SEO can understand your business goals
and objectives they better they can do their job.
Conclusion
In general, the main thing is to trust the person you work
with and be as reasonable as possible. SEO is an investment
in your business, so treat it as such.
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