Three simple steps on Search Engines and Metatags

Nearly everyone in the web business will have something to say about Search Engine Optimization aka SEO. It is the illusive art of tweaking and modifying your site so that it is indexed and ranked well by the search engines. SEO can cost thousands of dollars if you contract out all the work and truth is...most small business owners don't need a professional they just need a little education and time.

SEO goes right into how you create all your products and write every page on your site. Your results will be better if you do it all yourself. SEO should be something you do out of habit. An external SEO firm will rewrite everything for you after you have already taken the time to create it and add it to your site. Isn’t it better to know how to write it well in the first place?

1. First thing is first. Have a brainstorming session with yourself and anyone else you can get to participate who knows your business well. Think words. What are words that people will use to find you and your business?
   Don't forget to localize yourself. More and more people are searching for companies close to home where they can support their community and those in it.


2. Next take that list of keywords you now have (think 5-10) and write or re-write your content to include those words. Odds are your company provides a service that you were either well suited for or you saw a hole in the market that needed to be filled. Consider those things when writing your content.
   I have two pages that are ranked #1 on google when you type in a random search term. For both of those pages when I was writing the content I was very aware that there was no good source of information about this on the web. I never submitted the pages or the site the results were 100% natural as a result of good keyword placement and indexing based on content.


3. Build links. I will admit this is a pretty broad stroke as I am going to include a lot in here but it all has to do with the same principle. Put your keywords in your titles. The titles of your pages, in your navigation and the links in and out of your site. "Click here for more information" means nothing to a robot but "do-it-yourself SEO" sure does. Consider rewording your links so that they always include relevant information to what they are linking to in the link text.
   This isn't limited to links on your site. Links to your site count too! If your url is www.septopia.com and you sell fine linens a link that says "septopia.com" isn't going to do you much good. But one that reads "fine bedroom and household linens" at Septopia.com would fare far better search results as far as robots go.

All of our SiteCM sites require that you provide us with Metatag information of a company name, keywords and a description. The thoughts behind this are that it gets our clients to start thinking about what that means. It is an exercise to welcome SiteCM clients to the world of SEO and online strategies. Metatag information isn't weighted near as much as it once was (though it still has it's relevance) and tactics to better your results are always changing but websites that provide relevant and current information and access to products will always give visitors what they are looking for and that is what counts.

SiteCM clients can access more information on this topic in their help area under 'Search Engine Optimization'