Getting more visitors to your web site means, quite simply, getting good search engine positioning. And, if it's all about search engines, it's all about Google. Google has become the most dominant search engine in the world. Here are a few statistics. Google's index contains over four and one half billion web pages and they are adding more every day. They perform over 200 million individual searches each day and Google search engines are visited by 82 million different people each month. Impressed, there's even more. Google provides search data to AOL, AT&T Worldnet, Compuserve, Earthlink, Go.com, iWon.com, Lycos and Netscape. They account for over 60% of all traffic that goes to web sites through search engines. In addition, other search engines are beginning to quietly partner with Google to gain their technology.
If you optimize your web site for Google, you are going to be in pretty good shape with the other search engines like MSN and Yahoo.
While Google technology is proprietary and closely guarded, it is based on two concepts. The relevance of your web site to the search query and importance of your site based on Google's criteria. This primarily involves links to your site's web pages from other pages and other sites.
Linking is a very big deal to the Google ranking algorithms (the complicated mathematical formulas search engines use to rank queries). More on this later. To improve your web site's relevance and important, it is necessary to pay attention to terms like Key Words, Page Ranking, Page Rank and Page Title.
Web designers hate to hear this, but without good copy that carefully describes what your site offers, you are out of the search engine loop. The automated web programs that Google sends to visit your web site, called Googlebots, simply can't read images. They only collect information from the text on your web pages. You've probably visited web sites that offer a fancy multimedia opening page that you can skip and go to the home page. The Google spiders not only skip it, they go to the next web site and never consider anything from that site. As far as Google is concerned, it simply doesn't exist.
Key words are the foundation of a successfully optimized web page. A key word is a word or short phrase that someone enters into a search engine. The better the key words and phrases on your site match, the higher your web site will appear on the search results. Where you appear is called Page Ranking. Think about your web searching experiences. How many times have you gone to the 2nd, 3rd or even 4th page? If your Page Ranking for a specific search is over 30, the chances are slim to none that anyone will click on the link to your web site. That's why key words are so important.
So how do you find and use good key words? Key words and phrases should be developed before you write the copy for your web site. First, write down the answers to these important questions about your site. Exactly, what do you offer? What makes you different from your competitors? Do you have a specific marketing niche? Specifically, what is that niche? How will visitors benefit from your web site? Think like a customer. What are they looking for? What problems do they have that you can solve with your products or services? What are your solutions to those problems? Take lots of time with this exercise, as the answers to these questions will form the building blocks for your key words. Do not use buzzwords, jargon that relates to what you do or marketing words and phrases. Again, think like your customers!
Once you have done that, there is a terrific little tool you can use to formulate and test your key words. It's calledWordtracker and can be found at www.wordtracker.com
Wordtracker is an on-line tool that finds every possible variation of search phrases, including misspellings that people have typed into search queries. It will also tell you how many times these words have actually been used in search engine queries. It also tells you how many web sites that offer similar products and services use these words. Wordtracker is not difficult to use, but does takes some getting used to. Before spending any money, take the tour and try the free trial. The free trial is really for understanding how Wordtracker works. It only uses information from a few minor search engines. If you want Google, you must sign up for the full version. Get comfortable first. Another good thing about Wordtracker is that you can purchase usage for a specific period of time. If you know what you are doing, are prepared and only interested in a single web site, a day's usage is well under $10.00. A week's subscription is well under $30.00.
Wordtracker is one of those great little Internet secrets. It is the choice of search engines and web site optimizing companies. Use it and watch your traffic increase.
Key words are never a "one and done" proposition. You should be constantly reviewing your site for changes and adding new words to your copy. Web site changes are also a positive to the robots and spiders who don't like to see static web sites. Check your web statistics. Look for the key word visitors used to find your site. You can find new words and adjust or validate your Wordtracker results.
What about Meta Tags? They are still there, but apparently not to the Googlebots. They look for the actual copy on the web pages themselves. However, it doesn't hurt to add key words and phrases to the Meta Tag code.
After a little work and a few false starts, you have produced your key words and phrases. Now, where do they go? Each web page needs to be optimized. Plan on using one or two key word phrases per page. If possible, use them more than once. Use both the first and second choice phrases on your home page. As you get into the web site, use the phrases that pertain more specifically to the actual page. Use your top phrase on the contact us, about us and the other not so relevant pages on your web site.
