Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The primary concern for any SEO campaign is to gain favorable placement in search engines based on your particular goals. Your goals become aligned with the words someone types into their search engine when they are looking for your services or products online. These become your keywords and they are basically what your website is built around.

Get Googled

Why Google and why page 1? Statistics have shown that most people in the world use Google for searches, approximately 65% here in the United States, and most of those searching for information rarely go beyond page 1 results.

All search engines have criteria for filtering search results. Although the exact algorithms are secret there are some basic guidelines that you can follow to keep your website optimized for certain content. There is also a list of things that you should not do as they can have a negative impact on your search engine optimization and/or cause you to get banned from listings in certain search engines.

SEO Guidelines

  1. Write concise content and make sure the particular keywords your are optimizing for are located within your website content (as text).
  2. Make sure that content on each unique page of your website has a particular focus but remains aligned with the overall SEO agenda.
  3. Submit your website to all of he major search engines and relevant directories.
  4. Request link exchanges from other reputable and relevant websites, fewer, more relevant backlinks are more beneficial than many links from unrelated websites.

Search Engine Optimized Web Design

  1. The way that your website is built plays an important role in your search engine optimization. Information has to be presented clearly to both the human audience as well as search engines robots.
  2. Your website should be arranged by heiarchy, the most important information should exist on the top layers or main navigation links with less important information placed into sub-layers.
  3. Make sure your website has been integrated with the means to capture visitor information such as what pages are visited, what is clicked on and most importantly, what brought the traffic to your website.

IMPORTANT

  1. Do not place keywords into your website simply for optimization purposes, instead focus on providing valuable and relevant content for your visitors.
  2. Do not copy content from other websites or make duplicate websites with the exact same content, duplicate content has a negative impact on SEO and you may face copyright infringement issues.
  3. Carefully examine any link exchanges as many of them do not abide by the best practices and may cause your website to get banned from search engines. We feel it is best to only link from websites that are relevant to your business and audience and no more.
  4. Carefully select the individuals or company that you have run your SEO program. SEO is a long term obligation to do the right thing for your business and your visitors. A less than professional company or individual may cause more harm by using many of what are referred to as black hat SEO. Ask your SEO professionals to explain what they will actually do for you and how sustainable the results are expected to be.

Not all websites need to dominate search results for a particular keyword. The websites that would benefit the most from a carefully planned SEO strategy are those that intend on using the business' internet property as a means of marketing services to an online consumer.

For instance, a website designed for a medical practice would not need as much optimization as a website for selling printer cartridges. This is because consumers don't typically search for medical services online. Insurance companies will often provide resources to patients and patients normally rely on referrals to find a good doctor.

While medical services are sought after in a different manner basic SEO services should be utilized in order to be found by potential patients online, especially those seeking information regarding the practice location, hours etc.

Contact us if you need help deciding what SEO strategy would work best for your business website.