Search Engine Marketing

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!