| One of your ultimate goals when creating your | | | | browser itself. A lot of websites just have |
| small business website will be to ensure that | | | | the company name or the name of the page |
| the website can be found by clients and | | | | you're on up there-but I suggest placing your |
| prospects using Internet search engines (for | | | | keywords and keyword phrases up there. |
| example, Google, Yahoo!, and so forth). But | | | | |
| there's not a lot of understandable | | | | - META keyword tags: These tags are no longer |
| information available about what the average | | | | used for rankings by search engines. In fact, |
| small business owner can do to improve the | | | | their current main use is for your |
| number of search engine "hits" their websites | | | | competition to spy on you-they can view the |
| get. So, here are some tips that you can use | | | | source code of your site to discover the |
| to improve your site's ranking: | | | | keywords that you're optimizing for! However, |
| | | | the META description tags are still used-and |
| - Site coding language: The content of your | | | | they are essential to your search engine |
| website should be coded in HTML so that the | | | | strategy. The search engines display those in |
| search engines can read it. If you create | | | | the search results. |
| your site in Flash or include PDF documents | | | | |
| on it, then the search engines won't be able | | | | - Website copywriting: When you write the |
| to see the text-which means that they won't | | | | text for your website, make sure to repeat |
| understand what your site is about. | | | | your keywords a few times in the body copy, |
| | | | and use them in the headlines. Don't use them |
| - Keywords: When planning your site, consider | | | | so much that it the writing sounds unnatural |
| the words and phrases that your prospects are | | | | to someone reading your site, but do try to |
| most likely to use when running a text search | | | | use them a couple of times per page. You can |
| for your products or services. In many cases, | | | | include a keyword phrase on an average page |
| it will be easiest for a small business to | | | | about three times without looking silly. |
| optimize for a keyword phrase instead of a | | | | |
| single keyword. Most keywords are used to | | | | - Valuable content: If you make your site |
| frequently by too many sites for you to | | | | information-rich, then the search engines |
| easily rank well. And most serious prospects | | | | will have more content to index. And if |
| search using keyword phrases. Instead of | | | | you're writing articles, posting tips, or |
| optimizing for "psychotherapist", for | | | | adding information to your site about your |
| example, you will have more success | | | | area of expertise, there's a good chance that |
| optimizing for "San Francisco | | | | it will be full of keywords, which will help |
| psychotherapist". | | | | your ranking. |
| | | | |
| - Headlines: The headlines on a website are | | | | If your website includes these basics, you'll |
| one of the most effective places to put your | | | | have a head start on getting a good ranking |
| keyword phrases. Make sure that your | | | | from Internet search engines. As more people |
| headlines are coded using "H1" headline tags | | | | find your website, you'll have a greater pool |
| in HTML, not images. This will limit the | | | | of interested leads to work from. Since these |
| fonts that are available to stylize the | | | | people found you with their own search, then |
| headlines, but the sacrifice is well worth it | | | | there's a good chance that they're on their |
| in exchange for the results that you'll get. | | | | way to becoming a qualified prospect. A good |
| | | | search engine strategy paired with a strong |
| - Title tags: Title tags control the text | | | | website can convert those prospects to sales |
| that is displayed at the very top of the web | | | | for you! |