Search Engine Misconceptions
by Candis Thompson

Let’s get right to the point: A web site cannot promote itself and does not automatically produce profit. This may seem logical, but it is indeed a common misconception. There are millions of web sites on the World Wide Web, many of which are likely to be very similar to your own. We’ve come up with realistic solutions to the two most common myths people tend to believe, along with some must-read Dos and Don’ts.

First, let’s battle the idea that once a great website “goes live”, traffic, ranking, and profits will be high. Realistically, who knows about your website once it’s finished? Probably only you, your family and friends, and your web designer. That isn’t a whole lot to work with if you want to produce a booming business. There are millions of websites out there, and your newborn site needs to be advertised and prepared in order to be competitive. There are several ways to market your website, some being quite costly, others being free. Paying for advertisement is always a gamble, but oftentimes can be very effective. Pay-per-clicks or banner ads may be an option, but the best advice we can give is to do research first. Save time and money by making sure you advertise to your target audience. The free way to market your website leads right to our next misconception clean-up.

Having your website optimized for search engines is essential, but once is not enough. In order for a website business to succeed, thrive, and grow, continual (and smart) optimization is needed. This means changing content frequently, specifying title tags to be relevant to each page, start and maintain a healthy link exchange, continually add new pages, and use specific key words. An example of that last one can be seen with the Go Smart website. If you do a search in Google for “web design”, you will need to swim through pages and pages before finding our website. This is because the phrase “web design” is highly competitive. And most likely, any keyword you use (unless you have a very unique business) will also be highly competitive. However, if you specify your keywords to be original and to fit your business distinctively, you will probably have much better luck. For instance, enter “pismo beach web design” in Google and we are number one. Using relevant and specific keywords can make a world of difference. Now, on to the Dos and Don’ts.

DO
Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) wherever possible.
Have a hyperlinked menu – search engines cannot find your other pages if you use images for your menu. If you prefer an image menu for aesthetic purposes, just be sure you also have a hyperlinked menu somewhere else on the site.
Assign ‘alt’ tags to all images.
Use page-specific title tags – this means different title tags for every page of your website!
Have relevant keyphrases bolded and hyperlinked to a relevant page.
Have a site map – put as many links to pages as possible, and continually add on.

DON’T
Overuse Flash – search engines cannot index Flash, and in turn, your website will not likely rank well. If you are a Flash-lover and cannot let it go, be sure to have a great (text/hyperlinked) link exchange.
Overuse images – again, search engines will have a hard time indexing your site. All titles and important key words/phrases should be text, not images.
Have only an image menu – make sure to have an additional text menu for indexing purposes (for example, the Go Smart website has an image menu at the top, but also text menu links on the left side, at the footer, and throughout the homepage).
Overuse tables – A CSS layout is indexed much better.
Use frames – they cannot be indexed and are outdated.

Hope this helps, and remember to visit the Go Smart SEO Services page for some personal help and attention. Good Luck!