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