Learning how to design a search engine friendly website and understanding the concepts explained in internet marketing white papers is as easy as understanding the basic concepts and principles behind search engine optimization. Search engine optimization (SEO), can effectively assist your website in attaining higher rankings on search engines such as Google or Yahoo!. In its most basic form, a definition for SEO would be defined as the steps taken to optimize your website and the pages included so that search engines will easily be able to find and list it appropriately when people search for terms or words which are relevant to your company. However, attaining that higher ranking requires more than simply just choosing an obvious website name or advertising your product on the Internet; and while the afore mentioned steps wouldn’t hinder the performance of your site, there are many other factors that contribute to learning how to design a search engine friendly website which, can help you to achieve the highest level of optimization for your website.

There are 5 types of sites, each with unique goals. They are:

i. Commerce – Goal – generate revenue, increase conversion rate of visitors to buyers and increase average order value.

ii. Content – Goal – generate revenue through advertising. Want to increase frequency of visits. Also, increase the stickiness of the site. Increasing page views is critical.

iii. Self Service – Goal – Reduce business costs and increase customer satisfaction. Want to provide an alternative for visitors to get service online while reducing service costs. Increase usefulness of online information and the time it takes to find it.

iv. Lead Generation – Goal – drive people to site by providing value besides generating revenue. It’s about motivating the customers to register so they can feed the leads to a sales force or marketing team. Their objective is to lower the cost of acquiring the leads. The goal is to increase usefulness of online info, increase the use of offline purchase incentives, and increase visitor registrations.

v. Branding – Goal – increase traffic to site and brand awareness.

Learning how to design a search engine friendly website with is one of the first steps in search engine optimization, while the end objective of most SEO strategies is to turn clicks into purchases or leads. You may have a site that is somewhat popular, yet you are still struggling with sales. In many cases, consumers are interested in purchasing your product or service, but once they are on your site they get lost or disinterested in the content and chose to look elsewhere. Learning how to design a search engine friendly website appropriately, and implementing a quality SEO can and will efficiently address the many aspects involved in optimizing your site so that not only is your site ranking highly on search engines, but also turns those potential consumer into returning customers.

The process of learning how to design a search engine friendly website well, along with gaining a complete understanding of search engine optimization and internet marketing white papers can be a very complicated process. However, for a business to successfully use the Internet for advertising and boosting site traffic, it is imperative to generate real interest, click-throughs, and action which can create revenue and results. In other words, your business must translate search engine rankings into site traffic and profits with an appropriately constructed site and a properly implemented SEO strategy.

Follow these ABCs of search engine optimization to learn how to design a search engine friendly website, understand the concepts explained in internet marketing white papers, and also help improve the results of your rankings: Appropriate keywords, Basic Coding and Development, Links and Confident Clicking.

Appropriate Keywords

The keywords you choose for your website should not only encompass the significant aspects of your business, but they must also be words which are commonly input into search engines when potential customers are trying to locate the products or services you offer. However, choosing keywords which are too broad will make it more difficult for your website to get many hits because there will be a great deal of competition, while choosing keywords that are too specific will not allow your site to rank in many searches because the general public will not use those words when performing their search.

If your company is a real estate banking firm, your efforts would be best served by choosing keywords like, “real estate banking”, “home loans”, “mortgage advice”, and other words aligned with your business. Using more general words, such as “bank” or “real estate” are not very cost effective in a Pay-Per-Click campaign because you may accrue clicks from people who are searching for a different type of bank, or people interested in buying or selling real estate. It is imperative that you select keywords which will generate real interest in your website. Choose words which not only represent your business, but also the reason why potential customers would want to visit your site. By doing this, you’ll get more efficient rankings and results.

Search Engine Optimization agencies can help define your keywords. The right agency will discuss your business needs and analyze your site. That can advance your Search Engine Optimization effectiveness and results much more quickly.

Basic Coding and Development

We mentioned keywords and how to incorporate them responsibly, but there is a wide range of parameters which the various search engines employ (and change frequently). Therefore it is important to know how and where to include your keywords. Basic coding includes meta tags, page titles, and the content on the site. It also includes being aware of what coding and technologies mask content from the search engines (such as flash). The site should be developed with these needs in mind; search engines can “feel” inconsistencies and patchwork efforts, which in turn can and will hurt your overall ranking.

The meta tags should include the appropriate keywords defined above. It’s not a place to get tricky nor is it a place to merely repeat the same word over and over again. Page titles are often under-utilized but are also one of the first places search engines look to either identify a page or perform checks and balances on the rest of their findings. Both meta tags and page titles should be appropriate and consistent with your business. Creating “clever” names for the page titles that aren’t aligned with your business or don’t generate intrigue will leave your well-listed site void of hits and results. Also, ignoring the page title completely will prevent your site from acquiring those high rankings.

Site content must also consistently represent the company’s actual products and services. The content can still be created so it attracts more real search engine “interest”, it’s important to remember not to completely abandon the intent of the text in favor of keyword inclusion because it still needs to effectively communicate to the viewer. Some sites make the mistake of altering their content in favor of keyword inclusion to the degree that once visitors arrive, the pages don’t make sense, resulting in that customer searching elsewhere. Sites need to have the appropriate keywords included sufficiently, but not awkwardly or excessively within the content.

Links

Links from similar themed websites are crucial to driving relevant traffic to your site. Not only do links from similar themed websites increase your rankings but they generate targeted traffic that is more likely to convert into a sale. Building incoming links to your website is one of the most important things you can do to increase organic search engine rankings. When another website links to your website it is in essence “voting” for your site. It’s saying that there is worth while and useful content on your website and search engines like Google take this into account when determining where your site ranks. It’s important to stay away from “link farms” which are sites where anyone can add a link solely for the sake of increasing links. Many of these have been banned and negatively effect your site.

Confident Clicking

This is the reason that the rankings you do garner should instill intrigue and confidence in a potential customer that your site is the one they want to visit and possibly patronize. This is the “push-comes-to-shove” aspect of SEO where all your hard work and investments or time, effort, and capital will start to pay off.

If your listing generates the action you were hoping for, the next step after instilling Confident Clicking in your customers is to ensure that your site enables action. Bridge or Landing pages should be aligned with the specific keywords, tags, and titles the search engine has identified. Different interests should lead to different pages. Revisiting the bank example, if you are searching for “mortgage rates” and find a highly ranked site that looks credible, but click on it to land on their home page, you might not take the time to navigate through the bank’s site to hunt down their mortgage rates. Proper Search Engine Optimization can help send them straight to the “mortgage rates” page, delivering more results more quickly. Remember, the more clicks it takes a customer to find what they are looking for, the more likely they are to return to a search engine and try again with another company.

This also enables more responsible tracking. With better tracking, you’ll know which pages from which words generated what levels of activity. This will help you identify if it’s the site, the coding, the text, the bridge pages, or the overall interactive marketing strategy that needs to be addressed.

Implementing these strategies requires awareness of the traps and the successful paths to creating rankings, capturing interest, generating clicks, and then translating those clicks into action. Learning how to design a search engine friendly website and properly implementing the processes described in internet marketing white papers can help you to solve many of your traffic related problems, while an aptly applied search engine optimization strategy can enable results.

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About the author: James Dolan, Director of Search Engine Marketing at Corporate Search Optimization, has specialized in the field of internet marketing for over 7 years. You can contact him at james@corporatesearchoptimization.com.

Source: www.corporatesearchoptimization.com

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