Category: SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Search Engine Submissions
“99% of Webmasters don’t need costly website optimization and submission services. Interestingly, 99% of “Search Engine Professionals” don’t mention this — they’re too interested in charging you for their services. “
Quoted from DIY Website Promotion (Robert Woodhead).
I like his style because he’s a software geek. Geeks like to tell you the black and white truth about most everything technological.
Most of the time we don’t even know how to charge you for the knowledge we have because for most of us, it’s a lifelong passion. We don’t easily equate that with money.
So take note of how he’s monetizing his site. He’s using the Tipping Method.
Anyhow, read his stuff, it’s informative. Here’s the link: http://selfpromotion.com/
Optimize Your Business Name?
This only works for customers who already know you. It’s not a bad idea to optimize it but remember that it’s not the most important thing if you are looking to attract new clients.
If a searcher has never heard of your store (or can’t remember your name), they will not search for it. They are going to search for more general terms such as “furniture”, perhaps with the name of their city or the particular type of furniture they are looking for: ”backyard furniture store los angeles”.
Think like a potential customer who doesn’t know you. Instead of targeting the keywords you would use to find your own website, find the keywords your potential customer will search for.
Target Keywords in Your Content
Define Your Target Keywords
A common mistake is to target the wrong keywords, or worse, no particular keywords at all. When you optimise your website, you are optimising for target keywords. This means creating a list of specific words and/or phrases which you know people are searching for, and making sure that when these keywords are searched for your site will be in the result pages.
Ask yourself these questions:
First of all, will people actually search for the things you have at your website? If not, you’re wasting your time.
If so, exactly which words will they be searching for? You need a specific list of words and phrases – these will become your target keywords.
SEO – Definition of Terms
SEO is the use of various techniques to improve a web site’s ranking in the search engines and thus attract more visitors.
Black hat SEO is the combination of techniques used to trick the search engine spiders into giving a website a higher ranking. It misses the point of why we index sites in the first place is so to return relevant websites to the person searching for something:
- Keyword Stuffing – packing long lists of keywords onto your site for the sole purpose of getting indexed
- Invisible text – putting lists of keywords in white text on a white background to trick the search engine spiders
- Doorway pages are simple HTML pages that are customized to a few particular keywords programmed to be visible only by specific search engines
- Duplicate content means you create one web site and then repeat the content over and over again on multiple websites. In theory, you could create one website, achieve high ranking on it, and then clog up the search engines with the same content duplicated on multiple domains.
Black hat SEO techniques will get your site thrown out of Google indexing.
“On Page” SEO refers to the editing of your page and content so the Search Engine can find your webpage when a surfer is searching for your keywords. It also includes adding keywords into your site’s metadata, etc. by a webmaster.
“Off-Page” SEO is the tactic of getting backlinks from other websites especially those that have ranking with Google. Getting links from ranked sites enhance your site’s ranking.
Google Search For What You Need
Recently, I broke my iPhone 3G. I dropped it and the touch screen stopped responding. After several failed attempts to get AT&T to help me – 2 different branch locations, 1 call to their 800-number, and 1 call to the Apple Store – I was mad as hell. They kept trying to sell me stuff instead of helping me.
I started Googling for alternatives. I went everywhere on the web. I got on E-Bay to price out how much a touch screen was gonna cost me. $13 bucks – except – I would be out of a phone for who knows how long.
That was not good enough for me.
Then I magically typed in my conversion keyword: iPhone Repair Los Angeles.
Within 5 minutes, I found a guy on Yelp.com with rave reviews from his customers. I called him, drove over to the “office” he was renting – what must have been a 3×2 ft desk in a corner of a watch repair store. Never mind his “office” because he fixed my phone in 5 minutes. He did not even charge me for the repair because I did not need a new touch screen. I bought a cell phone cover from him. Cost me 15 bucks.
This exemplifies how the proper use of keywords is the magic behind Google.
The original keyword search I was using was “touch screen” – so I kept finding websites that talked about touch screens. It wasn’t narrow enough so I spent a lot of time reading. But I learned a lot. I learned that I could replace the touch screen by myself. However, I wanted my phone that day – so I needed another solution. Then all of a sudden, I typed my final keyword which led to my problem solution.
Start paying attention to how you search on Google. Your potential clients are doing the same thing. If you understand how this process flows, you will understand SEO Strategy.