Search engines, in most cases,
should not be considered the
"end all" for advertising and promoting
your web site. When
done properly it can generate a significant
amount of traffic
for almost no cost. It will take a little time
and effort
though. But, the pay off can be multiplied times
over.
There are millions of web sites, with more being
added daily.
Guess what! A great many of them fail to use
proper meta
tags. These are used by search bots to index your
site.
Here are a few tips and tricks:
1. Use your most common keywords in the title.
Most search
engines will weigh these heavier in their ranking
system.
2. Use the plural form of your keyword. (example:
"books",
instead of only "book". When a person
looks for either
"book" or "books" your web
page will be pulled up.
3. Use both upper and lower case spellings of
your keywords.
(example: books, Books, BOOKS). More than 3
common forms of
the same word will not help much. Although,
common
misspellings can help.
4. Use combinations of your targeted keywords.
People
generally search using phrases containing two or
more
keywords. (example: "storage
facilities", "STORAGE
FACILITIES") To really target your market,
add the words
"self, "SELF" and "your
city/state". Lots of visitors that
can't buy your product/service aren't of much
value.
5. You must use meta tags. Many search engines
index your
site by the meta tags. These go between the
<head></head>
tags in your html and will not show on your web
page. View
the source on one of the top ranking web pages
for specific
examples.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>your title goes here</TITLE>
<META NAME="Description"
CONTENT="your page description">
<META NAME="keywords"
CONTENT="your keywords go here">
</HEAD>
Here's an example from one of our web pages.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>A to Z free, low cost internet
marketing resources,
bulk email software,ezines</TITLE>
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION"
content="Grab the latest free and
low cost software, tips, tricks and tools. Get
more
visitors, repeat traffic and create more income
from your
website!">
<META NAME="KEYWORDS"
content="internet marketing, Marketing
, free ezines, FREE EZINES, E-zines, bulk email,
BULK EMAIL,
software, SOFTWARE, web site promotions, home
study courses,
selling on-line, sales help,
advertising,">
</HEAD>
6. Use a good combination of your 10 to 20 best
keywords .
Keyword rich text is often the deciding factor in
your
ranking. HINT: Try to use your strongest keyword
at the start
of each paragraph and/or search phrases early in
the text if
possible .
7. Fill the ALT tag in your image links with
keywords.
8. Every page of your site should be registered
with the
search engines, not just the title page. HINT:
Many of the
search engines will re index your site
periodically and if
there has been no change you could lose
positioning, so keep
your content fresh.
9. Warning! Keyword spamming is a technique that
some
people have used in the past to gain good
ranking. It's done
by repeating your keywords over and over. Then,
changing
the color of the text to match the background of
the page.
Many search engines will penalize you if you are
caught doing
this.
10. Create & customize a unique web page for
each major
keyword. Design it specifically for each major
search engine.
This will take some time but, once completed can
dramatically
improve your rankings. HINT: Make sure it
contains a link to
your index page and a few others as well.
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