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How Do I Get My Website to Rank Well in Google? (Search Engine Optimization)

One of the things we get asked a lot by business owners is “How do I get my website to rank well in Google searches.”

I typically respond with “It’s kinda complicated, but here’s the basics…”

So, here’s that “basics” schpeel for those out there still wondering.

This is a large conversation that all falls under the umbrella of “Online marketing.” Online marketing is composed of three main subsets in my mind: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) , Link Building, and Paid Advertising. Over the next couple of days, I’m going to focus on each of these three areas.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO can be broken down into two things:

Making sure your website contains the key phrases that people will be searching for on a search engine Making sure those key phrases are in the right places

Come up with a list of key phrases that should land a potential client or customer to your site. Go ahead…I’ll wait. You may come up with 10-20, if you’re good. Now we need to multiply that by ten Think like a layperson. You may need to include terms that aren’t really accurate but they are what the general population might think to search on. Now think like an expert…a person in a desperate situation that may need your product or service right this second (Think emergency 24-hour plumber). Now look at your competitor’s websites. Notice any key phrases being mentioned that you didn’t think of? Try viewing the source of their site and look for key words in META tags, the title, or as ALT names for images. Now pull out a thesaurus and come up with alternate synonyms for your words or concepts. Now plug in some adjectives that describe your terms like “free” or “best” or “cheap” or “friendly.” Now think of geographical names for areas you marks to. Now mix and match all of the above. Your list ought to be rolling now. Note, there are tons of tools on the web that help with combining phrases or identifying new ones.

Getting keywords in the right places may mean checking with your web designer, but basically, it means putting them in body copy, headers (H1, H2, H3, etc.), in the page title, as ALT tags on images, in TITLE tags for links, lists, in bold and italic. Also, put absolute links on your pages to other pages on your site and make sure each page of your site uses different keywords in the title and META tags. Many people use the same info for all pages and that is not ideal. Also, you may need to create “Landing pages” which are pages dedicated to talk about a particular group of related key phrases. You can’t optimize one page for all key words, so creating these landing pages is a must. And it’s not a bad ideal to link directly to these landing pages when linking elsewhere to your site, if you are referring to these key phrases. That would be called “Deep linking’ and it’s a good idea to link to specific pages when possible rather than your home page. It means more relevancy, and that is what search engines are after.

So now you should have a bunch of key phrases and your website should be optimized for those phrases. Stay tuned for the next post, where I’ll discuss link building!

Free Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tips – step by step

There are so many websites all over the internet so it’s essential to promote and optimize your website. A new website needs to be visible to search engines. Before submitting your site to search engines it is very important to optimize your website. If you can not afford a search engine optimization service, make sure to follow our few search engine optimization tips to have your web site well optimized for the top placement in search engines.

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  Step 1. – Analyze your competition
The best way to start optimizing your web site is analyze your competition. Take a look at the web pages that currently have top rankings (Top 10) on Google for targeted keywords and try to find out what these pages have done to get these rankings.
- analyze the first top ten web sites related to your branch
- analyze keywords they are using
- look at their source code, meta tags
- look at their keyword density
- look at their comment tag, alt tags, title tag
- internal and external links on their websites
- look how many sites linking to them
- check out the quality and link popularity of sites that are linking to your competitors
- look how many pages they have
After all you can tell is it easy to beat your competition or it is not.

Step 2. – Start to improve your website with quality content
When optimizing your website always use keyword in the meta tags which are reflected in your page. It is not going to help your search engine ranking if the page has nothing to do with the topic.
 
Step 3. Choose the right keywords.
As mentioned before, analyze your competition but never use the same keyword and description tag. There are two great resources for finding out the most effective keywords. – Overture – WordTracker

Step 4.Creating meta tags – TITLE Tag
The most important tag is the Title tag, because it is in the head section of your website and many search engines use it. Title tag should be short (about 14 words), descriptive and to the point. The title is appeared on first line in the search engines.

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Step 5. Creating meta tags – DESCRIPTION Tag The next important meta tag is description tag. It describes content of your web page
- shouldn’t be longer than 120 characters
- description is for the search engines not for the viewers to see

Step 6. Creating meta tags – KEYWORD Tag
- use the most important keywords that your website represents
- we recommend to use 5 keywords separated by a commas
- one keyword should have 1 – 3 words

Step 7.Creating meta tags – ROBOT Tags
<META name=Robots content=”index, follow”>
<META name=GOOGLEBOT content=index,follow>

Tips for Proper Website Search Engine Optimization

No matter what kind of website you have, one of your sole purposes is probably to get people to your site. After all, what’s the point of having a website if no one ever visits it? One of the most simple and key ways to get traffic to your web page is through search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization, known in the computer world as SEO, is a processed used by web page owners to increase the amount of traffic they get to their website by means of having a high ranking in a search engines results. Ultimately, most people will find your website through the use of a search engine. They type in their key words they are looking for, and the search engine provides them with results that match what they are looking for. The higher you rank in these search engine results, the better your chances of having people click on your website.

Search engine optimization helps to improve your rankings in these search engines and makes your site more accessible to Internet users. While SEO is the best way to increase the amount of traffic to your website, it can also be a little bit difficult to figure out and use properly. One of the best ways to use search engine optimization is to have content on your page that includes keywords that users are likely to search for that reflect your pages content. Start by making a list of keywords and key phrases that you think are best suited to your websites content, and then try and work those words onto your page, either in small blurbs, or larger page articles. Also, one of the best ways to get people to your website with an SEO keyword or phrase, is to make sure that one of those words or phrases is somewhere within your domain name, which will increase chances of it being picked up on a search engine.

Once you have determined which keywords and keyword phrases would best be suited for you website, it’s time to determine how often you should use them on your web page. Finding the right keyword density, or number of times the word should be on the page, can be a little tricky. If you don’t have enough key words, you’re not likely to rank high in the search engines. However, too many keywords and the search engine may think your website is a scam site, and will drop your ranking as well. Ideally, the perfect keyword density for a web page seems to be between one and six percent. Any lower or any higher, and you risk dropping in rank on the search engines and not being noticed.

If you are unsure of just how search engine optimization works, or how to find the right keyword density, don’t worry, you’re not out of the game yet. There are companies out there that will help to provide you with SEO content for your web page. There is a fee for this content, however it will definitely be worth it in the long run when you are ranking high on the search engine.

Comprehensive Search Engine Optimization Produces Top Website Rankings

Top site rankings and free SEO analysis on the major search engines are most effective when using comprehensive search engine optimization for your website or blog. The key to high rankings is a search engine marketing plan that covers all areas of website optimization and one that is not complicated but easy to complete using free SEO tools. Webmasters want their Websites on the first page of Google, MSN and Yahoo when they put their keyword in for the search. Search engine positioning is not too difficult for those who want to do it themselves when using an organize plan.

Here are the website optimization areas that you will need to cover in order to ensure high rankings on the major search engines: Accurate description of Website, clear metatags relevant to your content, keywords, having your text body descriptive of your main topic, finding one-way links, quality search engine submission, proper wording of document title, building high traffic Web Pages, tools for validation, creating and submitting RSS Feeds, writing and submitting effective articles, writing and submitting press releases, creating and submitting blogs, building and submitting a site map, proper use of FFA sites, submitting to Web Directories, classified advertising, effective email advertising and traffic boosting tools like toolbars.

Comprehensive search engine optimization is your best guarantee to having a high ranking on the foremost search engines. When you use all of the information and tools that are available on the internet you will get your site noticed on the search engines with a high ranking for your keywords. Realistically this can be accomplished by the do-it-yourself person who really wants a top ranking and only wants to spend a little bit of money. Having comprehensive website optimization will require many working tasks, tools and some helpful information that is easy to find.

Webmasters want to achieve top website rankings with little expense and are willing to perform as many tasks that they are capable of doing own their own. Some webmasters will pay thousands of dollars to a professional SEO expert to have their websites on top in Google and other search engines. The choice is yours depending upon your business budget. There are many ebooks that you can purchase for a small fee that will provide the detailed plans you need for comprehensive search engine optimization. Information on search engine rankings is available on the internet by doing some simple searches or look for SEO article author’s.

Most webmasters would like as many free website ranking online tools that they can acquire in order to help with their budget. There are some free SEO online tools across the internet that will be a great help for website optimization. Some of these free SEO tools are complied in a directory showing you many different optimization tools to choose from. Some SEO directories will cost a small amount of money but may contain over a hundred free optimization tools. Purchasing these SEO directories will save you much time and effort from doing your own searches to find these free SEO tools on the internet.

The Step Most People Miss in Google Search Engine Optimization

Google search engine optimization isn’t something new for anyone. There are some basic items that almost everybody knows and then there are another not so obvious things. This article is a discussion of the secrets to Google search engine optimization that includes the not-thus-obvious things.

Thus allow us to begin by discussing the already known aspects to make sure that we have a tendency to set the foundation right. As you may already be aware off, optimization involves on-page and off-page SEO.

The on-page SEO consists of the following.

“              Including the keywords within the title, description and within the URL, if possible.

“              Produce the “keywords” meta tag with the main keywords for your website. Keeping the keyword density to concerning three% of the full content.

“              Produce some backlinks from the inner pages to the webpage you want to optimize with the identical keyword as the anchor text.

“              You would possibly even want to figure on your LSI keyword usage etc. but these are all sophisticated stuff on behalf of me and I don’t recommend all of those to any newbies.

All of what you have got done on top of offers Google a honest idea of what are the keywords that you want to induce ranked for and starts the process of Google search engine optimization. But this can be simply the beginning of the process. Now you need to induce into it in an exceedingly bit additional detail and “stamp your authority” to show Google, your intentions. This is often done by the “off-page” SEO.

The below is all that is involved in “off-page” SEO.

“              Get an enormous quantity of excellent quality backlinks ideally from webpages that are PR4 or, higher.

“              Ensure that you employ the same Keyword as the anchor text.

“              Guarantee that the links purpose to the inner pages of your websites instead of the home page because this can be what appearance more natural.

“              Produce more backlinks with a diversity in IP and work additional to induce additional of.edu and.gov links.

All of these above said aspects of SEO are what majorly forms a half of Search Engine Optimization. This is often what normally most of the folks inquisitive about Google search engine optimization will, but there’s one final step that decides if all of the above work produces results or, not.

This can be to urge the pages that are backlinking to your indexed by Google. How will you are doing it? This is often important because it’s solely then that your backlinks can carry value and obtain your up there in the search results.

The easiest manner of doing this can be to send a ping about these webpages to the varied pinging services. You’ll additionally want to position a link to these pages on the varied web 2.0 sites. You can additionally write some blog posts at places like Tumblr that would in flip guarantee that these backlink pages get indexed by Google. Though all of those may sound a expensive affair, it’s not. With the change in the means net selling is completed, a ton have changed about all of those aspects as well.

SEO : Search engine optimization (tutorial 01)

Definition :

Search engines serve you to show your website or your products well ranked if you deal with SEO with efficiency, frequently, and in organized manner.

So Customers or internet simple surfer see you when they want the category you’re working on.

In Google for example there is two type of ranking :

website natural organic ranking , and payable business website links usually in the upper part of your search result page, with background colored .

From many expertise resources confirm that natural organic keyword listing (wish means after SEO optimization working) is much better and stay longer than business payable PPC  (pay per click) ranking.

SEO gives you more traffic than Pay per Click methods.

SEO help create online brand

Key word research :

-       Google : insight, trends

-       Yahoo

-       Microsoft MSN or BING

Where you can subscribe or just use their tools

Wordtracker
SEOBOOK
SEOMOZ
FIREFOX Add-ons like : SEOquake

-       You search for hot topics if you like to work on existing successful subject (this depends on what your website is about, or you marketing strategy )

-       Another method is by choosing undocumented or poor ones , you have the advantage here to be high ranked on search engines if and only if you write good content and promote your subject or your ideas in the way it become frequently searched in SE.

-       You have to collect existing documentations and articles about related topics to you, try to write a rich content full with chosen keyword and its variations.

-       When you target your competitors over network after searching your keyword, you have to get much data  from their web pages about their meta tags for example, which websites their exchanging with, or back linking from.

-       If you have (hope so) html and some scripting knowledge you can open your competitors web page source code and collect information about header tags meta tags keyword density and so on….

-       Those kind of information help you to chose the appropriate way

Important : unused or poorly used keyword are sometimes extremely useful to get high ranking over search engines or getting high traffic for example writing or sharing files and videos, so having good SEO tool free or commercial one is a the first building block you have to achieve, then you have to get a bloc-note and write down everything that interests you in that way when you get out far you can think about you next target, and steps to proceed.

On line page optimization and offline  :

Page structure, layout, and general design

To have good ranking you have to don’t include full page with untitled images, cause this way you’re blocking search engine crawler to recognize you content, so you lose lot of opportunities.

Meta tags are the first attribute that search engine like google look for.
Second thing is header tag …. Wich are included into your page body
Correct URL’s are very important too, you should keep URL short with good webpage filename related to what your page is about
Search engines are enable to know what your web page images are about until you label them
Create a simple sitemap is and extremely basic and standard step for every webmaster want to go ahead in SEO strategies, having XHTML sitemap is also important, cause those sitemap are asked when you want SE crawler to fetch you website pages and content.
After set upping your website, you have to check for crawling stats, link stats and errors ex :

The W3C Markup Validation Service
The W3C CSS Validation Service

Google offer webmaster tools you can

3 Search Engine Optimization Rules That You Should Follow

Search engine optimization is the single number one way to get high traffic to a website. Sites which rank in the top of search engine returns for popular search engines get many times the amount of traffic as sites which rank farther down.

So whether you just have a website you want to get traffic to or you have a product site you are looking to increase traffic to, there are some simple search engine optimization rules to follow which will help you make the most out of those keyword searches that millions of people run every day.

Follow the Search Engine Optimization Rules of the key Search Engines   – If you do not know what the guidelines are about correct search engine techniques, you need to find out.

If you break the rules, you might think you are outwitting the search engines in the short term, but your websites are guaranteed to suffer from no indexing or being dropped if you try to take short-cuts, especially if you believe the promotional sales letters put up by some self-proclaimed Gurus.

You need to learn the Search Engine Optimization Rules to develop the best SEO  techniques, such as using  relevant returns and appropriate keywords since they can become indexed. You will notice sites such as Wikipedia ranking near or at the top of almost all relevant search engine returns.

This is because they have been indexed as having accurate and relevant content. The search engine wants the user to have the best experience possible, so these sites are almost always at the top.

Creating a Site Map is very important to all the top search engines, and then you need to notify them of the url where they can find your site map.

Creating a Blog on your site, that pings the search engine whenever your site is updated with new content or specific blog posts, is essential in today’s www environment.

Make sure you are fully utilizing the free website services of network sites like Squidoo, Geocities, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Stumbleupon and similar.  They provide good high Page Rank linking to your site, and a flow of interested readers who click through to your site as well.

There are many, many online sources where you can learn for free how to use these to optimize your website. You can also use YouTube and similar video sites to promote your site.  You can use your free Windows Movie Maker software already on your computer!  Just add some graphics and you can record a message or just load some jazzy music as a soundtrack.  It really can be fast and fun to create witty or dramatic videos, and they may become ‘viral marketing’ tools for you as well.

You can also create free eBooks and reports that your visitors can download from your site to make it more ‘sticky’ for visitors, as search engines also pay attention to how long your visitor stays on your website when they create rankings.  If you load the free book also to Scribd.com the search engines index the book, and the tags you loaded there.  Sometimes Scribd will index your new book within 30 minutes of you loading it!

Remember Every Page – Every single page counts when considering the search engine optimization rules. While the home page may be the one you focus on, it is important that all relevant pages take advantage of search engine optimization rules so that people have an even greater chance of coming across your content.

Make sure you fill your tags and titles on each page with relevant search engine keywords.

Check every page to make sure you don’t have any broken internal or external website links, or broken graphic links as search engines loathe this problem.

If you are not an expert in preparing html code, you need to buy software like Dreamweaver to be able to follow the search engine optimization rules, as they react badly when your code breaks them.

Keep It Natural – One of the most important things to remember is to keep your content natural. Basic search engines optimization rules require you to fill your content with keywords in order to rank high.

But if that content comes off as spam or is impossible to read because it focuses only on keyword percentage, the site may be indexed as spam with search engines, ruining your ranking. You want to have a site that appears to have been written for an intended purpose other than simply ranking high. Relevance is key, but natural flow is what keeps people coming back.

If you follow some of these simple search engine optimization rules, you will find your rank quickly rising in search engine returns. If you follow some of these simple search engine optimization rules, you will find your rank quickly rising in search engine returns.  You can also watch your progress in SEO by keeping an eye on your Alexa.com Rankings as that is updated daily, and gives you plenty of warning if your sites are slipping in their performance and rankings.

They have numerous bots working for them, crawling the web and determining how content should rank. If  you follow these search engine optimization rules, you will surely have a site which returns at a high rank with relevant content.

To ensure your site is following all the search engine optimization rules, and you are a ‘newbie’ to website building, it may be best for you to hire the services of a SEO consultant so that you can learn from an expert.

Benefits of Search Engine Optimization

When it comes to online business presence, many businesses are familiar with search engine optimization (SEO) and its benefits. If you are not, you might be asking “what are SEO services and do I need search engine optimization?”

If you have an online presence, are not currently using SEO services and do not have a plan to address search engine optimization, then the answer is most definitely yes, you need it.

Search engine optimization is a strategic approach for improving the online visibility of a given web site or a web page as it pertains to ranking on search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Search engine optimization assists the organic searches looking for your business or services, with the goal to improve where a site appears in the search results list. The closer your site is to the top of the search results list, the better your chances are of being visited by consumers and web site visitors.

Search engine optimization can target various types of searching; local searches, image and video searches and industry-specific vertical searches. SEO services are what gives a web site an improved web presence.

Not all search engine optimization is used for business or positive purposes. “Black Hat SEO” or “spamdexing”, is an SEO technique utilized to degrade the relevance of search results and reduce the user experience with search engines.

Some SEO techniques include tactics like link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning to try and manipulate Search engine results. Recently, search engines have modified their algorithms to look for sites that employ these techniques so they can remove them from their indices.

Another pitfall to be aware of is the risk of using a less than reputable or inexperienced SEO company. Improperly implemented or formed SEO strategies can damage your site and company’s reputation. It is important to research the potential advantages, as well as the potential damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Using a proven, professional SEO provider will save you time, stress and money.

When doing your “due diligence” you will want to find out as much as possible about a potential SEO provider.

Depending on the confidentiality agreement, examples of the SEO provider’s work or client lists may or may not be available, but it’s worthwhile asking. You can also request a copy of their confidentiality agreement for review while you’re at it. This is a good document to have in many situations so you should be familiar with it.

The SEO provider should be able to tell you how long they have been in business. If the company has been in SEO for just a short time, you should inquire about the time and experience that the staff who will service your account have in the industry.

Ask what results you can realistically expect to see, within a given timeframe. The SEO industry is not an exact science and you should be wary of any claims of “page one, result one, on all search engines.” Industry experts have seen and overcome the regular algorithm changes of the various search engines, and know that results will shift in position from time to time. They should be upfront and honest about this fact.

An SEO company’s experience in a specific industry, country/city, or internationally may also be relevant to your situation. A well rounded search engine optimization company should be able to discuss with you how they will address each of your specific needs.

You should inquire about what search engine optimization techniques would be applied in your situation. Obviously, most companies are not going to walk you through a “how-to” of what they do, but they should be able to answer this question from an overall strategic standpoint.

Finally, both you and the SEO service provider should be clear on how often communication will occur, and what those communications will entail. An experienced company will update you on the changes made to the site, provide detailed recommendations and give you some explanations of why the changes were made.

Your research into a potential SEO service provider is important, because overly aggressive marketers, companies using search-engine-result- manipulating scripts, and companies that employ many other shortcut techniques can actually reduce your relevance in key search engines, and in some cases, they can result in the removal of your site from the index entirely.

Some of the services that SEO companies offer can include providing a detailed, comprehensive review of your web site’s content or structure, including keyword research and content development.

They should have some sort of technical advice on developing the web site in terms of hosting, redirects, error pages, etc. and have the ability to recommend beneficial changes.

A good search engine optimization company should also possess obvious expertise in specific markets and geographic areas, including those that you require.
The SEO Company should have some expertise with how Google’s algorithm crawls, indexes and serves the web, and should understand Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
In addition, a good SEO company should not put links to their other clients on your doorway pages or offer to sell keywords in the address bar. They should not get traffic from “false” search engines or spyware, and they should distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear on search results pages.

Finally, if they have had domains removed from Google’s index, are not listed in Google, operate with multiple aliases, falsified WHOIS info, or own shadow domains, then you will probably want to look elsewhere.

By choosing an experienced, professional team when it comes to search engine optimization, you can enjoy increased traffic to your web site, stay ahead of algorithm changes, and maintain a healthy presence in the search engines for years to come.

How To Select A Search Engine Optimization Company

A search engine optimization company can be an invaluable asset in your Internet Marketing campaign. They specialize in knowing how to raise your search engine positions, monitoring those positions on the regular basis, and adjusting their strategies to account for undesirable results in any given month. Since this takes a lot of time, effort, and specialized knowledge, it can be in your best interest to go to an outside source rather than try to maintain high search engine positions on your own.

However, like every business, there are good companies and there are lemons. Knowing the right questions to ask and the criteria to look for will help you in choosing an affordable, effective search engine optimization company.

When looking at different companies, begin by considering the approach they employ to raise your search engine positions. Steer clear of companies that use cloaked, doorway, or bridge pages to raise your positions. These techniques violate most search engine policy, and in the worst case scenario, will only get your website severely penalized, if not removed entirely from a search engine’s index.

A cloaked page is a page that is created which is invisible to the regular visitor to your website. The cloaked page is coded to detect a search engine spider and divert them to this special page, which is set-up to artificially boost your search engine position. Doorway or bridge pages utilize the same concept, but often reside on an entirely different server. Google, one of the largest and most important search engine on the Internet, will remove your website from their index if they detect you have cloaked pages. Never, never employ any company that uses this technique!

Another important element is to get a guarantee that the company you hire will not work with your competitors while they are working for you. Obviously, this would seriously compromise the effectiveness of the search engine optimization campaign. Be aware that some companies will use the success they achieve for your website to sell their services to your competitors. So get your guarantee in writing, and make sure it is legally binding.

Of course, one of the most important factors you want to check out is the company’s track record of results. However, don’t take the company’s word for it. They will undoubtedly be slanting their results in order to sell their services to you. To go beyond their simple statement of success, ask them a few pertinent questions, and verify their answers.

Ask them which engines they have achieved the best results on. The ones that are important are the most popular engines, and these are the ones you want to see good results on. Since the popularity of search engines can change with the landscape of the overall Internet, check out the Nielsen NetRatings page at Search Engine Watch.

Next, find out what keywords and phrases they are claiming great results with. It’s easy to get high rankings with unpopular words. For instance, the keyword “cat leashes” will get high popularity ranking because no one else would think of using it. What you are looking for is good results using popular keywords. Check out the software Wordtracker, available at www.wordtracker.com. You can order a free trial, or a subscription ranging from 1 day to 1 year. This software rates the popularity of keywords and phrases based on actual search engine use.

Next, look for good results over an entire site that the company claims to have successfully worked for. You want to see a wide range of positions over a number of different search engines using different keywords or phrases for the entire site. Request a report for any client the company claims to have done well for. This report should show good positions on a number of the most popular search engines for a variety of different, popular keywords and phrases.

When you are checking out search engine optimization companies, make sure they have actually done the work they are claiming to have done. Some companies will use other company’s results in order to get you to sign on with them. If you are in doubt, call the company they are showing you results for, and ask for the name of their search engine optimization company.

It’s important to keep in mind that a successful search engine optimization campaign will result in maximum exposure across a wide range of popular search engines using a variety of keywords and phrases. This is the formula for a successful campaign, and you should always keep at it in the forefront of your marketing strategy.

Ask the search engine optimization company you are considering for a report that shows you rankings across a number of popular search engines for a period of at least six months. Remember: search engine marketing is a process that is continual, and you need a company that not only understands this, but keeps constant tabs on your search engine positions. That company must also be able to adjust its strategy in the event that search engine rankings drop.

Since search engine marketing is an ongoing process, your positions must be constantly monitored. If you want your search engine optimization company to do this for you, request a sample of a monthly report. It is essential that this report should show rankings for the most popular search engines. Don’t be impressed by a report that only shows great results for a limited number of small search engines. These are fairly easy results to acquire. Also confirm that the popular search engine results they are showing you are indeed the popular search engines currently.

Be sure the sample report the company shows you is in a format that you can easily understand. For example, it could be in the form of a chart that covers a period of at least six months and presents data such as the top 50 positions broken down on a monthly basis or the top 5 pages each month. Then, ascertain that the company you are considering actually monitors these positions or pages every month, and that the sample report they show you includes findings and recommendations for the specific site. This insures that the company will actively monitor and make adjustments to their strategy on a continual basis rather than simply gather statistics on your positions. You need a company that is actively participant in your search engine marketing campaign, not just an information gatherer.

Obviously, your finances have to figure into your choice of company, but bear in mind that a search engine optimization company is crucial the success of your marketing campaign. It is not just a casual accessory. If you cannot afford a company that will do a thorough and reliable job for your website, you might consider waiting until you do have the finances in place.

If you have to find a company and can’t wait for your finances to catch up, you may be able to find an affordable company that will also be able to supply quality, reliable work, such as a fairly new company. Just remember that there are risks involved with using a company without a proven track record–and that risk is your money! Don’t take that leap unless the company can supply you with a least a few references.

References are the most reliable indicator of a good company. Don’t use a company that won’t show your references because of any reason, confidentiality included. Remember–even doctors will provide references! The firm you choose should provide you with a minimum of two references, one that is from the past, and one that is current.

When you contact these references, be prepared to ask precise, specific questions so that neither of your time is wasted. Ask them what their experience was like with the company, such as their availability to answer questions and deal with problems and their ability to meet deadlines. Ask the reference to rate the overall performance of the company.

Find out if the company requested that the reference make significant changes to their web pages that affected the visitors coming to their site. You are looking for a search engine optimization company that can balance the needs of both search engines and site visitors without compromising either.

The most essential question to ask is whether the work of the search engine optimization company resulted in higher profits for the reference. Without profits, it doesn’t matter whether your positions are at the top of the list or not.

Search Engine Optimization Tips | Prominent SEO – St. Louis, Missouri

15 On-Site SEO Tips

On-site search engine optimization consists of controlling the content and code of your site in a search-engine friendly manner designed to improve organic traffic. Understanding how a search engine spider reads and interprets your site is the backbone of an on-site SEO plan. The utilization of keyword research ensures that your content is optimized to improve your site’s search engine rankings on Google, Bing, Yahoo, local searches, and meta search engines. If your search traffic is not as high as you would like, review the 15 basic on-site SEO tips listed below from the experts at Prominent SEO:

1. Solve any Canonicalization Issues

Canonicalization sounds complicated, but it simply refers to picking the best URL for a site and then being consistent with that URL with your links. If this site had a canonicalization issue, visitors could reach the home page by typing in www.Prominent SEO.com, Prominent SEO.com. www.Prominent SEO.com/index.html, www.Prominent SEO.com/index.asp, or even other URLs. While a vistior could reach the same version of the home page, for purposes of optimization, the search engines would be confused and the SEO benefit of incoming links could be diluted. Sites need to pick one URL and use 301 redirects back to the main URL for alternative URLs, as well as maintain URL consistency throughout the site. Social media content and other off-site promotion of your main URL should also be consistent.

2. Keyword Research

Analyzing what are the most important keywords used on the search engines to find your site and your competitor’s sites is essential to on-site search engine optimization. Online keyword tracking tools, Google Insights, and Google Analytics are just some of the available resources which can be used to research the keywords and the keyword phrases most important to your site. On-site SEO is a moving target so keyword research has to be ongoing to adapt to new search trends and find competitive advantages,

3. Keywords in Site Navigation

After identifying the most important keywords, it is productive to implement the keywords themselves into your site navigation. URL’s should always be optimized to include the important keywords most relevant to the content on the page. Navigation which is Flash-based or is a graphic image should be changed or at the very least include spider-friendly text.

4. Fresh Content

A static web site with content that does not change will not rank as well as sites with fresh and relevant content. Find a way to introduce fresh and topical content to create a more dynamic site both for your visitors and for search engine spiders. The use of a blog has particularly high SEO benefits, but should remain hosted on-site by the use of a blogging platform plug-in.

5. Avoid Black-Hat SEO

Hiring a company that employs black-hat SEO tactics like keyword stuffing, improper redirects, link farm exchanges, mass e-mail, spam marketing, site cloaking, or using doorway pages can lead to your site being penalized or even banned by Google and the other search engines. If you are worried that someone working on your site used one of these tactics, consult a SEO professional for an evaluation.

6. Breadcumb Navigation

Easy-to-follow well-organized navigation is both easier for your visitors to surf your site and for search engines to catalog and index your interior pages. Make sure your navigation flows logically and that your site does not contain broken links. Larger sites with more content and multiple authors may find it advisable to use a content management system (CMS).

7. Is Your Site Balanced?

A site that ranks high on the major search engines is typically well-balanced between text, links, images, and widgets or other applications. Search engines can penalize sites loaded with too many links or too few relevant content pages. Make sure your site has a SEO-friendly mix.

8. Server and Hosting Issues

The server and hosting company you use is an important part of SEO. Site load times has become more important to search engines. Run a diagnostics test on your site to make sure your site compares favorably. Sites using shared servers need to be especially careful not to be associated with the bad behavior of other sites on the server. Make sure that your site is not suffering from any server or hosting issues.

9. Spidering and Robot Issues

HTML code of all web sites contain code that instructs search engine spiders and robots what to index on your site. In some cases you may have have pages that you would like to prevent from being indexed. For example, if your site allows comments and a search engine spider identifies spam within those comments, it is your site which could be penalized. If you are not sure that your site is optimized for robots and spiders consult with a SEO expert today.

10. Content Management

Managing your new content effectively is an important part of your site’s on-going SEO. New content needs to be found easily by frequent visitors, as well as becoming part of your site’s navigation. Organizing content into categories, guides, article archives, or even tutorials is a positive step and increases the chances your fresh content will be found and indexed. Sites with multiple authors and daily content may need a content management system (CMS) to organize their new content efficiently and quicky.

11. Sitemaps

Creating a sitemap is typically the job of a webmaster or the person running your site. Once just a collection of your site’s links, today it is essential that the sitemap used by your site is completely search-engine friendly and optimized.

12. It’s All in the Code

A comprehensive SEO plan involves a top-to-bottom evaluation and validation of your computer code. Every fragment of your HTML, ASP, PHP or XML code is fair game for search engines and typically web designers have not optimized the code to the maximum level. Coding errors can, in some cases, penalize your site by preventing it from ranking higher on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and the other search engines. Consult a SEO expert for an evaluation of your site’s code and for suggestions on optimizing it properly.

14. Where SEO and SEM Meet

There is a lot of common ground between search engine optimization and search engine marketing. For one, the ultimate goal is the same: driving traffic to the site. Make sure that your SEO and SEM efforts are working together in tandem. PPC campaigns, geo-targeted campaigns, and seasonal marketing campaigns should all be running concurrently with on-site content and keyword changes to your site and blog

15. Search Engine Traps

A search engine trap is a fatal flaw in your site that can prevent proper indexing or ranking. If your site has consistently ranked poorly, despite aggressive SEO and search engine marketing, it could be due to a search engine trap. Complex HTML issues on a site or the use of Flash, Ajax, ActiveX Controls, or Dynamic Widgets could have led to the inadvertent search engine trap. Enlist the help of a SEO professional to find if your site is suffering from a search engine trap and find an effective remedy for this potentially terminal problem