Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The question asked most often by our clients is "How do I make my site appear higher in the search engines?" Seems harmless enough, but the answer is the most complexed in web development.
Regardless of why you have a web site, whether its for your local group or organization all the way up to a full blown corporate site with eCommerce, you want people to be able to find it.
There are basically two ways to improve your search engine rankings. One involves paid advertising with the search engine which will then place your site higher in the rankings and make sure it appears on more searches. This method is not always the best because it's basically a shortcut to getting a higher ranking and it can be expensive over time.
The second method, known as "Organic SEO" involves using techniques to improve your site's marketability on search engines which in turn will increase its ranking. The goal is to have your site be the one someone finds when they type in a search phrase that is related to your site. The problem lies in the fact that there are millions of websites on the internet and the methods that the search engines use to rank pages is for the most part "top secret", making it harder to figure out what exactly works and what doesn't.
However, armed with the proper knowledge and a game plan a site developer can implement several techniques that will greatly improve a site's rankings. There are several things that we know search engines consider when ranking website pages. Here are some of the more important ones:
- Page Content
- Words in the page Title
- Words in the URL
- Internal Links from other pages in the same site
- External Links from other websites
- Keywords
- Use of Images
- Age of the Domain Name
As you can see, there are a great deal of factors to consider when creating and marketing a website. Having an experienced web designer will help make sure that your site will have the best chance of getting higher search engine rankings. This does not just apply to new websites, existing websites can be evaluated and many SEO techniques can be implemented into an existing site to help improve its search engine position.
Al Roberts
AWR Web Design, LLC
http://www.awrwebdesign.com
