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Optimize Your Website...and They Will Come
By Susan L Reid (c) 2008

What's the big deal about search engine optimization? Isn't
it enough that you've put up a website, purchased some
Google AdWords, and sent out an email to everyone you know
announcing your site? In short, no. There is an art and
science to search engine optimization (SEO), and it is
critical for web-based businesses to know, understand and
utilize if they want to drive quality traffic to their
website via the Internet.

Where do you begin, though? How can you possibly know whom
to trust or what to do first with so much information out
there on SEO? Do you buy links or not? Pay per click or go
organic? And what about those SEO companies who are
aggressively promising #1 rankings? When it comes to search
engine ranking, there are a lot of rumors and myths about
what will increase your rankings and what won't.

Debunking Some Popular Search Engine Ranking Myths

- Pay per click (PPC) ads will either help or hurt organic
rankings. (Organic simply means the process by which web
users find websites having unpaid search engine listings.)

Debunked: PPC is categorized differently than organic
listings. There is no effect, one way or the other, on
ranking.

- Websites are banned if they ignore Google guidelines.

Debunked: While it's a good idea to read Google Webmaster
Guidelines or Google 101: How Google Crawls, Indexes and
Serves the Web, you are not banned if you ignore their
guidelines.

- Websites are banned if they buy links.

Debunked: Sites are not banned. The links just aren't
counted.

- Copy must be a certain number of words, use a specific
keyword density, and contain bold or italicized keywords.

Debunked: It used to be thought that there was a magic
number of words used or certain times a keyword or keyword
phrase should be repeated. Not so. Same with bolding and
italicizing. They don't do anything for ranking.

- Duplicate content will get your website penalized.

Debunked: It will just get filtered out and not counted.

- Reciprocal links won't count.

Debunked: Every link counts, to a certain extent.

- SEO companies can increase your rankings without doing
any on-page work.

Debunked: Run if an SEO company tells you this.

According to SEO expert Jill Whalen, SEO isn't magic and
isn't a crap-shoot. "SEO is about making your website the
best it can be for your site visitors and the search
engines." Want to help the right kind of people find your
website? Then you need to design your site so search
engines can find, crawl and index your pages.

Seven Ways to Get Your Website Crawled

- It's better to have one main website with numerous
domains pointing to the main domain, than to have
mini-sites or multiple sites with similar content.
Mini-sites and multiple sites with similar content do not
increase search engine listings and are frequently viewed
by search engines as SPAM.

- If you do have several stand-alone websites, make sure
each serves a different target audience and has unique
content with different domain or sub-domain URLs.

- Search engines need to be able to follow internal links.
To make that happen, use tags, text links, image links, and
CSS menus. Spiders have difficulty with JavaScript menus,
pop-up windows, drop-down menus, and flash navigation.

- Choose keyword phrases that are most relevant and
specific to what your web page is about. Think from the
perspective of someone searching for what you are offering
on your site. Ask, as if you were they: What would I search
for if I am looking for something on your page?

- Validate your keyword phrases through either paid or free
services, such as Keyword Discovery, Wordtracker, or Google
AdWords.

- Check for keyword competitiveness. Take into
consideration the size of your business. In this case, size
does matter. If you are a major player with a major brand,
you can play in a larger competitive pond than a smaller
company just starting out. Know what size pond is right for
you, and check for competitiveness by putting:
allintitle: "keyword phrase" in your browser and check the
number count.

- Once you have your keyword phrases validated and checked
for competitiveness, use them in anchor texts, clickable
image alt tags, headlines, body text copy, title tags, and
meta descriptions. Meta tags aren't all that important for
crawling.

SEO can be both intimidating and exhilarating. Intimidating
because it seems as if just about everyone has an opinion
on what it takes to get a high ranking in Google, so it's
hard to know what to believe. Exhilarating because, once
you understand the method behind the madness of SEO, you
see the art and science of it. Then it becomes fun and easy
to come up with a strategic plan about where to place
keyword phrases, how to write copy, and what size pond is
best for your company to compete in. Optimize your website,
and they will come.
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Dr. Susan L. Reid is a business coach and consultant for
entrepreneurial women starting up businesses. She is the
Award-winning author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The
Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success. Susan
provides intuitive small business solutions, powerful
attraction marketing tools, inspiration, and direction.
Visit http://www.SuccessfulSmallBizOwners.com and download
your copy of her latest free business success article.
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