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Setting Up Your Own Website |
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Setting Up Your Own Website |
There are people who make their living doing Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short. Here are three pages outlining some basics you can do yourself.
[I. Before You Start]
[II. Getting into Search Engines 101]
[III. Getting into Search Engines Advanced]
Before you start submitting your site to search engines and directories, make sure your pages are search engine friendly. You need to make sure the <head> of each page has a title tag and metatags for description and keywords. Metatags are tags embedded in web pages, not visible to the visitor, that some search engines use to categorize your site. Not all search engines use these metatags, but enough do to make it worth your while. Definitely add a different title to each page, and a description tag. The title should be about 65 characters long, and the description about 150 characters. Here's a brief tutorial on creating metatags.
Then make sure your pages really talk about what you want to be listed under. For example, this site is about setting up a website. The phrase appears several times on the home page -- not in a spammy way, just embedded in the text. A good, free tool for testing how well your page is optimized is instantposition.com. SEO Chat, Scrub the Web and IWebTool have free keyword density analyzer tools that show you how often a word or phrase appears on your page.
If you find you need help in accomplishing this and other SEO tasks, you may wish to sign up with a Search Engine Optimization Firm
A sitemap can be a simple web page listing links to each your pages. It's not only helpful for visitors, it also helps search engines find all the pages on your site. There's a free tool to generate a sitemap in the format Google wants it at xml-sitemaps.com
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A new or revamped website is a good excuse to send a mailing to customers and prospects. Mail out a postcard or flyer announcing your URL. Offer special incentives to people who go to the site.
Or offer a free item, such as a pen or a Tshirt to people who visit the site.
Let people know it's there. Frequently, it's easier to remember a URL than a phone number. Tell people they can find your address or phone number on the website (and make sure it's there!) Use it in your ads. Instead of repeating your phone number three times and hoping people listening to your radio ad will memorize it, give your URL.
