Search Engines, Web Site Text & Meta Tags

by Pam Jones

Identifying the keywords for your web site is one of the most important things you can do. If you are building a new site, you will want to cover this base prior to even beginning to write the text for your site.

If your site has been online for awhile and is not getting the traffic you think it deserves, you might want to take a look at optimizing the pages for the search engines.

A few things could be affecting your rankings:

• The site was never optimized to begin with. You would be surprised at how many sites we run across that either do not have meta tags or keywords in the text of the web site – or they contain keywords that are irrelevant to the site and NO keywords that ARE.

•  The site may have been optimized at the time it was designed, but if it has been six months or more since you have looked at the text and meta tags, it is possible that the optimization is no longer effective with the search engines. The search engines change what they look for on a frequent basis and what worked today may not work tomorrow.

• The web site may be penalized due to past optimization tactics that are now considered spam by the search engines.

• Remember that the terms people use change over time. What may have been a popular search phrase last year may not be as popular today.

Your first objective is to know who your target audience is and how to reach them. You need to target the correct keywords and search terms in order to generate a keyword list that will bring the most amount of quality traffic-visitors who will BUY from you. There is no sense getting top ranking in the search engines for terms that are not being used to find what you have to offer.

The first step in the optimization process is to do some research.

• Talk to your co-workers, business partners, friends and customers. Ask them what terms they would use in a search engine if they were looking for your type of business, service or information - other than your business name.

• Make a list of 5-10 terms and phrases

• Research these terms with the search engines

  • Use a keyword suggestion tool for additional ideas. Type "keyword suggestion tools" in your favorite search engine. The results will show you a variety of terms used close to the terms you type in. Some will also provide you with approximately how many times that term was searched for during a certain period of time. My favorite is WordTracker.

Now it is time to evaluate and select the terms you will use in your site text and meta tags.

You will want to ask yourself:

• Is the phrase relevant to your site content or the specific page being optimized?

• How many other sites are targeting those search terms?

Remember that the more targeted your keywords are the more targeted your traffic will be. Don’t try to target every search phrase or term on your Home page. You will want to select the five to 10 most closely related phrases to target. The others will come into play on the individual pages of your site. By all means, DO NOT try to target everything on your Home page if your services span various target audiences.

Incorporate your chosen keywords into the text of you pages as well as the meta tags and alt tags for graphics, etc. Resubmit your site to the search engines and be patient. It does take time for some of the search engines to index sites.

When your site has been optimized and resubmitted you still need to keep track of results. Watch your web site logs. Keep track of the terms that are being used to find your site and which search engines are sending you traffic. Are the search terms targeted? Are the referrals from search engines increasing? Which search engines are bringing you the most traffic? You may need to refine your text and meta tags a few times in order to achieve your desired results. DO NOT RUSH THIS PROCESS!

Would you rather spend your time operating your business than sitting in front of a computer screen optimizing your site? Or maybe you would rather be floating the river or skiing on a snowy mountain slope (depending on what part of the world you live in)? Let us help you get your site in tip-top shape. We are familiar with what the search engines are looking for and continue to educate ourselves about the current trends and changes. Visit our web site at http://www.clearwaterwebsolutions.com/seo.htm for details.