Thursday, March 31, 2011
Harish Bhatt
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Natural Search, if implemented correctly on your site, will allow your web site to come up consistently in search results. SEO is an art form versus a science. This is due to the fact that search engines continuously change/tweak the algorithm(s) they use to rank sites. However, there are some well known rules of thumb:
- Think key phrases instead of keywords. Consider how you think--you don’t think about one word at a time. Instead, you tend to think in phrases. So, when people search, they search using phrases not words. So, concentrate on key phrases instead of keywords.
- Identify phrases you want your site known by. Consider the purpose of your website, and think of phrases to describe that purpose. Keep a running list of those phrases. Add to these phrases every few months, so you are au courant.
- Examine your site map. Your site map tells you how your web pages are organized. Look at your web pages and then examine their content. Map web page content to relevant key phrases.
- Update a minimum of one web page every day. Have at least one web page that gets some type of feed. Even better would be to have a blog on your website that is updated every day. Web crawlers love words. The more words you have on your web site that are relevant to your site, the higher the chances of your site being ranked higher. The additional content every day adds icing to this concept. Having fresh updates every day encourage search engines to reevaluate your site fairly frequently.
- Use popular phrases. Make sure your site uses popular phrases on some of its web pages. This indicates to the search engine that your site is up to date and relevant.
- Link to other relevant web sites. You increase your chances of coming up consistently in search results by linking to other sites that have complementary information to your site. Also, reverse this strategy and encourage non-commercial sites to link to you. This increases your credibility in the SEO world.
Implementing SEO on your site is not difficult, but it is a time-consuming process. Realistically it may take you a year or longer to achieve top ranking. SEO is not for the faint of heart. It’s a process that needs to be implemented daily until success is achieved. And even then, you need to be vigilant to maintain your ranking.
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