Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is the technology of modifying your web site so it places high in the various search engines, thus driving more traffic to your site and more business to your company.

Whatever you knew about search engine optimization (or search engine placement, or search engine positioning – they are all the same) no longer applies. The search engine world has turned upside down in the last year. Here are some of the changes:

• META tags are essentially useless
• Yahoo! directory placement is no longer the ultimate goal
• Yahoo! search is now Google search with a Yahoo! faceplate
• Doorway pages no longer work and may even hurt you

Just to make things a little more difficult, you have probably been plagued with emails guaranteeing you a top position on the search engines, or promising to submit your site to 10,000 search engines. Here the search engine world is just like the rest of the world – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

• Anybody who guarantees you a position in a search engine is either dishonest or ignorant about the reality of search engines. There are no guarantees in this business.
• There may be 10,000 search engines on the Internet, but for most sites there are only about 10 useful search engines. In fact, you can get good results by concentrating your efforts on a just one search engine – Google.

So What's a Web Owner to Do?

The first step is: Build a high-quality, well-written, informative web page. The search engines have finally refined their algorithms to the point where they (usually) do what they are supposed to do: Find the pages that have the best information fitting the keyword or phrase the user has typed in.

As a web site owner, therefore, you want to:

1. Decide which keywords or phrases best describe your business and pick the ones that give you the best chance of being found by the search engines
2. Create a site that offers excellent information relating to these phrases
3. Adjust the site so it is easily read by the search engines
4. Submit your site to the search engines

Your web developer can help you with all four of these steps. Are there new tricks to help your standing in the search engines? Yes, but the tricks are more subtle than they used to be. Instead of (for example) creating a doorway page to fool the search engine, you now have to massage your regular pages to be better search engine candidates.

Is it more expensive now ? No, it might even be cheaper. There are currently two paths to follow in search engine optimization:

• Standard Search Engine Optimization
• Pay-per-click placement service

If you want help navigating the world of search engines, contact us.