Search Engine Optimization (
Internet marketing is very different than marketing for advertising and print. In order to reach your target
audience, your site needs to appear on the first few pages of the search engines results or you may need to
consider using pay-per-click (
PPC advertising appears in the right-hand column of the search engine results page. With PPC advertising, you
specify how much you're willing to pay for each time your link is clicked and how much money you'll spend per month.
For example, you can say that you'll pay $0.05 for each click up to $5.00 per month. Once your limit has been reached,
your link won't appear in the PPC results. But — why pay money when you can reach your target audience by using
SEO?
Content is the textual information on your site. Your content needs to be keyword rich. The keywords need to be repeated often. Keywords should appear in title, metatags, headings, and bolded content. Keywords should be repeated several times in the textual content. This is called keyword density.
Keywords are the words and phrases that you think a visitor will use on a search engine in order to find your
website. Search engine results pages (
If someone new to our area was looking for a pharmacy, they would probably use the keywords: Hammond Indiana pharmacy. The Google results for a Hammond Indiana pharmacy query returns 125,000 results. Vyto's does not appear within the first 10 pages for this query. In order to narrow the results, an exact match using quotation marks was tried. The Google results for a pharmacy "Hammond Indiana" query returned 16,200 results. Vyto's Pharmacy appears as No. 111 on page 10 of the results. An exact match query of "Hammond Indiana pharmacy" shows only 4 results, and Vyto's Pharmacy doesn't appear at all in these results. Vyto's is missing its target market.
Industrial Combustion Engineers (
Tip: Provide textual content that will be beneficial to your visitors. Consider adding articles to your site in order to increase keyword density.
As part of the site development process, I explain to my customers the importance of having a Resource web page. The Resource page is a web page with links to other websites. In order to achieve good search engine results, your website needs to obtain inbound links.
Inbound links are links from other websites. The search engines use an algorithm in determining SERP order. Inbound links are an important component of the algorithm. If other sites are not linking to your site, chances are your site won't appear on the first few pages of the search engine results.
In order to increase the number of inbound links, submit your website to the small search directories. There are a large number of search directories which will allow you to submit your site for free if you provide a reciprocal link to their website. These reciprocal links can be placed on your Resource page.
It is also important to obtain inbound links from websites which have similar or relevant content - this is called gaining "authority status". Authority status links have a much higher value in the algorithm. At first, you may need to ask other owners for a reciprocal link exchange, but if your site provides high quality information others will automatically link to your site.
Tip: Don't use an auto submission service. Many small directories will not accept auto submissions, and using auto submission services increases the chances of your site being listed by a link farm and becoming banned by the search engines!
MsDetta, Inc. specializes in accessible and affordable design with emphasis on relationship marketing. You may contact Diane by calling 219.629.2909 or visiting her website at http://www.msdetta.com/.
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Diane Hildebrandt owns and operates the web development firm of MsDetta, Inc. ("A world of difference in web design") located in Hammond. Diane has a B.S. in Computer Science and was a faculty member at Brown Mackie College in Merrillville. Using MsDetta as a nickname, Diane serves as a Moderator for two forums: www.BlueGeckoNetwork.com (search engine optimization forum) and www.GreatNexus.com (webmaster resource forum) where she exchanges ideas and information with her peers. Recently, Diane partnered with Carol Moore of Laughing Cat Productions to create www.SpotlightOnLake.com, a website for our community.
