Keywords Build Links that Unlock a Website's Potential

A website is like a balloon floats through cyberspace. For some people a website marketing strategy provides them with the direction that they are traveling in as they navigate the search engines hunting for people that are looking for them. Using links that are attached to the website, a marketing plan allows consumers who are searching the World Wide Web to find the individual sites that have something to offer them. 

People use the search engines to guide them through a maze of websites to find the information they want to see. This is where keywords come into play. A keyword is designed to make it easy for someone searching the web to unlock the information that they are looking for. Search engine marketing allows a website to use keywords to optimize a website and build links that anchor the website and make it easier to find. Like the anchors that are attached to a ship, the links to a website hold it in place so that is not being tossed around in the ocean of websites that appear online.

There are more than 300 million websites on the Internet and each year more and more people launch a site that is designed to promote certain products, services, organizations, or individual people. There are entertainment sites, non-profit charities, and news services online that have something for everyone on the planet to look at. While people have different interests and look for different websites to visit, they are drawn to the places that appear in the results of a web search because they associate a series of keywords with the information that they are looking up.

Keywords and phrases help to single out the hundreds of millions of websites from one another by allowing differentiation. No two websites are identical even when they are based on the same template, so it makes sense that keyword optimization helps to set each individual website apart from other sites that are hosted online.

Link building adds to the presence of a website in the search engines by increasing the number of times a keyword appears on the Internet. Articles and blogs that are written about a keyword and include the same optimized words that are associated with a website provide the anchors that link the site to the search engines. When someone enters a keyword search into their browser bar the results appear based on the popularity of the website (or how many times it has been linked to relevant material online).

It is important to build links on a continual basis. Even after reaching the first page of search engine results there is a need to constantly add content to the Internet that links information on a website to the related articles that are published online. When building links it is important to use the same keywords in the same order as they are coded into the source code of a website and included in the written content that is provided on the pages of the site. Together with strategic campaigns that target an ideal consumer audience the selected keywords provide the means to attract people to a website from all over the world.  

Whether you want a local audience in the same city and neighborhood to visit your website or you are looking to spread the word about the benefits of your services, products, or information that appears on the pages of your website, you can use keywords to build links that improve the placement of your site in the search engines by adding anchors to the information you are hosting online.

Plan out Web Content to make Optimization Easier

In developing a website I find that the more information I can write on a page that is related to the individual or a business the better that information will be utilized by the search engines. What do I want to share about a business or individual and what will be relevant to the goal of optimizing the website as it is launched are questions that every developer should be asking them self. The development of a website takes a lot of work and can be a lot of fun to build, but for me the most important element of any website is the writing that provides the content for visitors to read. With the goal of having the search engines return my site to the top tier of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) I think about the information that I am writing and how it will  be linked by the keywords in a logical way throughout the site. 

A review of what the business offers is more important than the look of the website or the different visual effects that are used to draw in unique visitors. Of course the more professional the design of a site is the more appealing it is to an audience, but it is important to remember that a website is a vehicle for sharing information or closing a sale. For this reason I sit down and map out what I want to say before I move into any production work for a website that I am working on. (I should mention here that having a map of the site helps me to create the content for each page ahead of time and reduces the need to add or edit text as the site is coming together.) The content writer should address the questions of who, what , when , where, why and how (a.k.a. the "reporter's rules") before putting pen to paper or fingers to a keyboard. This approach to developing content answers the all important questions that a reader wants answered. When writing content ask yourself is meaningful and relevant. If it is include it, if it is not leave it out. 

Before I create any graphics I make sure that the story of the website (the content) makes sense. Because I can get lost in the creation of the design I make it a point to have each page fleshed out in writing so that I can tell my story with the right words before I add pictures to the text. I also understand that the traffic I receive (or will receive) comes from the search engines that are redirecting the online audience to the published site. Keeping this in mind I write out each page and include the description that I want to add to the Meta tags in the coding before I start to build the individual pages. If I need to tweak the content or add a line that makes more sense to the reader I can do so as I am putting each of the visual elements onto the page. But without a clear direction on what I want to say before I begin to develop the site I can get lost in the codes and images that make up the website. 

By keeping a focus on what I want to relate to the audience and following the "reporter's rules" as I write I can come up with the phrasing that makes sense and has a logical flow from one page to the next. By understanding that the most effective and compelling words will also be read by the search engine robots and indexed for optimization purposes I make sure that what I say makes sense and is relevant to the ongoing marketing media strategy that I am developing to go along with the website. With some well written content the work of optimization supports the website and establishes the relevancy of the keywords that are included sparingly on each page of the site.

SEO 101: The basics of Website Design

When designing a new website it is important to include the components that will allow the site to gain momentum within the search engines once it has been indexed by the spiders and robots. (Keep in mind that spider or robots refer to the search engine programs that crawl through a website and mark the content that can be extracted and read by the search engine). 

One buzz word that is thrown around by designers and programmers is "site architecture." Basically site architecture is the layout of the pages of a website and should be in a format that is easy to read and follow. Using logical pages that guide a visitor from the home page to other pages on the site, the architectural elements of the code should be easy to navigate. (This means that page frames are out.) Including a site map in the design of the pages allows the spiders to quickly index the entire site and draw out the relevant content that will be on file with the search directories.  No matter how many pages are being added to the site the map page is one of the most important elements of internet marketing and is very often overlooked by people that feel it is not necessary to break down their site. However this is a mistake that can cost the website brownie points when it's time to go live with the launch of the new site.

Within the source code of the HTML are Meta Tags that allow the programmer to add a series of keywords invisibly to the site. Although the search engines allow programmers to include keywords in the code the rule of thumb is to limit the keywords to no more than 20. Stuffing the site with keywords will only get the site into trouble and may get it banned from the more popular search engines. Along with the tagging of keywords Meta tags also allow for unique page titles to added to the site. About 10 years ago the pioneers of SEO realized that instead of marking their pages "home," "about," and "contact" they could actually say something that distinguished a website from every other page on the web. Using the Meta tags to create a unique title for each page and add a description allows the site owner to put up a sentence or just a few words that can be indexed and remembered by the search engines. Keeping in mind that the wording of the Meta tags should reflect the keywords that are used in the written portion (the content) of the website, programmers that are building a website can ensure that the relevance of the content is aligned with the offerings of the company. This brings me to the next point I want to make.

Because the search engines look for content that is the same as what a person making an inquiry is asking for, it is important to keep everything on the site relevant to the work that is being promoted by the keywords. Choosing the right words to say makes an impact on what the search engines will naturally link back to the website and return in the results of a search. With the philosophy that more is better some people overload their site with text that rambles on and goes nowhere. Keeping the content of the site to no more than 500 words per page will help to narrow the results and make the site easier to find. Using between 300 and 400 written words is the optimal amount that can help the spiders to index a site, but again the relevant content that relates to the offering of services, products or information is the most important thing to consider when writing for the web. Using the keywords naturally within the page content is also considered vital to the success of a website. However keywords must be limited to only a two or three uses per page. Any more than three uses of the keywords and the search engines might think that the site is being stuffed and drop the site down in the rankings instead of moving it up.

Finally, I want to address photos, pictures and Flash animation. If used in moderation each of these can aid in the promotion of the website to the search directories, but to make them stand out they must have a written description in the coding of the site. As the spider and robot programs are reading text only they do not see pictures and only note an image file is in use. Without a description that can be indexed pictures have no meaning in optimization and are lost. Likewise animation that is attractive and clever is not marked and sites that built entirely in Flash can only be tagged on their homepage. Therefore animation is not a preferred source for building a website. If you are looking for an animation it is best to embed it into an HTML coded site and tag the file so that it can be indexed for search optimization.

With these basic tips for building a website that is optimized for the web you can start making an impression on the search engines, but there is a whole lot more that still needs to be done in the way of online marketing before any website will reach the top page of a search result.

Until next time,