Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Quick and Clean SEO

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SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a complex science, resulting in consultants that get away with charging thousands of dollars per month for just a few hours of consultation. The really good ones can charge tens of thousands per month and have no shortage of clients begging them for their help.

That some companies are willing to spend so much shows you just how important SEO is for an online business. A vital part of any internet marketer’s repertoire, properly managed SEO can get you listed at the top of every major search engine for the keywords of your choosing. For some keywords, being listed at the top can mean a difference between glorious success and a meager existence.

On the other hand, bad SEO can result in low rankings or even get you banned from the search engines. Getting blacklisted is enough to put some companies completely out of business.

Not everybody has the skills necessary to implement proper SEO. Good SEO means staying on top of things; getting to know industry insiders and constant vigilant testing of the search engines as you watch for changes in ranking algorithms.

However, there are a few quick, yet clean, SEO techniques that you can implement immediately to improve your search engine rankings.

Use Keywords in Headlines

Search engines figure that if something is in a headline, it must be important. Sub-headlines are also considered important, but to a lesser degree.

A headline is recognized as such with the following HTML headline tags:

· <h1> … </h1>

· <h2> … </h2>

· <h3> … </h3>

Headline tags go all the way down to level six (H6) with H1 being the largest headline, and thus receiving the highest importance. If you want to optimize a page for the term “hiking boots”, then you should have that term between H1 tags.

If using a term in a sub-headline (H2, H3, and lower), then including those same keywords in a bulleted list immediately after will help give those keywords the same level of importance as keywords in a main (H1) headline.

Bold Keywords Throughout a Page

Bolding keywords throughout a webpage will increase the relevance a search engine gives those specific keywords. The preferred method of bolding keywords is with STRONG tags:

· <strong> … </strong>

Optimize for Less Popular Keywords and Phrases

Getting top ranking for the key phrase “hiking boots” can be tough because it’s a very popular term with a lot of competition. It can be done, but would require a lot of time and effort. And since this article is about speed and simplicity, we won’t discuss what would go into a campaign to get ranked for such a competitive term.

For quicker and easier ranking, go after more specific, less competitive key phrases. For example, instead of “hiking boots” try combining the term with brand names, designs, material used, manufacturing process, and so forth:

· Brand name: Joe’s Super Sweet hiking boots

· Design: elegant elf-toe hiking boots

· Material used: NASA approved space-leather hiking boots

· Manufacturing process: hiking boots manufactured through the new “circular frog stamp” technique

You get the idea. While you won’t get as much traffic as a similar rank for a more popular phrase, you will get ranked much easier and faster. The traffic you get will also be more highly targeted and more likely to convert into a sale.

The tactics that we’ve discussed in these articles can be very easily and quickly implemented into just about any website. Keep in mind, however, that you don’t want to get carried away by cramming a page full of keyword-stuffed headlines, bolding half your page, or overusing a particular key phrase so much that nothing on your webpage makes sense.

Search engines are savvy enough to spot such attempts to get ranked, and most will penalize you for doing so. Also, don’t forget who your target market is… people. Stuffing a webpage full of keywords might help you get ranked higher (at least temporarily), but if a visitor can’t make sense of it, they’ll just leave your website anyway and your efforts will have been wasted.

So remember to keep it clean, keep it simple, and you’ll be happy with the results.

Related Topics: Branding, Business, Computers, Internet, Technology    1 Comment    

Complicated

David Grenda, Founder, Grenda Computer Consulting

In my work as a software developer, I use the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 product. The product offers over 288,000 objects and features you can integrate into a software package you are writing. My clients use a myriad of software systems, server systems, and databases that they depend on to run their businesses. In typical fashion, the software makers can’t sit still and each new generation of software brings with it a big batch of new features and changes.

It’s the lament of the computer industry that everything is getting so complicated the average end-user is becoming hesitant to use new products because they just finished the learning curve for the product they are using now. We’ve seen the problems with Vista, the operating system intended to simplify and streamline. Think of the software you use. What percentage of the capabilities do you actually use? The average is 15%. 25% if you are considered a power user.

Where I’m going with this is that you have to do a couple of things to mitigate the situation. First, make sure your people are at least trained at a minimum level to feel comfortable with the software you use. Second, don’t skip upgrades on software. Going from version 2.0 to 6.0 in one jump will likely give you heartburn.

There are a lot of online resources to help you with thee training. Visit Microsoft.com to check them out.

If you would like further guidance in considering the options, feel free to drop me an email at david@grenda.com.

Related Topics: Business, Computers, Technology    No Comments