Make belief – The official blog of Renaissance Creative

No, this is not an article about health food or ways to make your website more “earth-friendly”. It’s about using search engine optimization (SEO) effectively, to make your website more profitable. These days, there seems to be as much buzz about SEO as there is about that other global trend, “going green”. And while I’m as passionate about the earth as anyone, my goal here is to help make your business more sustainable!

While I am a steadfast proponent of integrated marketing that targets the public through multiple channels (on and offline), there’s no denying that nearly all commerce today ultimately runs through or around someone’s website. Everyone from retailers, to Realtors, to physicians, to landscapers increasingly rely on websites to help their prospects find them. That means it’s critically important for businesses to make their websites as visible as possible. It also means there’s a lot of competition to contend with.

Some people assume that the best paths to visibility are through such methods as listing your information in online business directories; using paid advertising strategies such as pay-per-click (PPC) and/or banner advertising on niche portals; or leveraging social media, by doing things like blogging and/or creating pages within sites like Facebook, MySpace or Linkedin.

It is my experience that while each of these elements has the potential to contribute to a well-rounded online marketing campaign, none, alone or in tandem are as important as focusing on the intrinsic content, structure and overall quality of your own website to achieve high page rank in “organic” (non-paid) search results.

Paying for visibility on niche portals (think, Realtor.com, for Realtors), offer the value of targeted marketing, but nowhere near the power of simply being found via organic search on major search engines like Google, MSN, Yahoo or AOL. And while I hesitate to confer even more importance on these internet moguls- the fact is that most consumers today conduct searches by going straight to their homepages and using their browser bars to look for, well… everything!

Understanding this, one might mistakenly assume that utilizing PPC programs offered by the major Search Engines themselves (such as Google Adwords), might well be the Holy Grail for search visibility. But, not so fast– there are other factors to consider: 1) Once again, you’re paying for search results. When you quit paying, you quit getting results. 2) Despite the fact that you’re paying to appear on the first page of results, you are also clearly identified as an advertiser, separated physically (via position on the page), from organic search results. Organic results are universally perceived as more credible, thus making them more likely to be clicked on. 3) Paid results through one search engine won’t necessarily help you with another, whereas a well-built, optimized site will provide increased visibility across all search engines; and oh, by the way—cost you less in the long run.

Finally, social networking is terrific if you’ve got all day to blog and upload videos, but most do not. And while blogging can be a powerful tool to increase search visibility, beware: If you start a blog and let it go stagnant, it can hurt your search rankings, as search engines will ultimately treat your site the way you treat your blog— by ignoring it, based on the assumption that it just isn’t as relevant as it once was. And advertising on social sites? Hey, you might as well interrupt my neighborhood pool party to show me your ad and risk getting pelted with onion dip. Get out of my social space, already! (Think Facebook’s recent revolt).

So, what’s a website to do, to get a look? Focus on “organics”!

1. The most important elements to consider when building a site are that it be well-organized, easy-to-absorb and simple-to-navigate. You want to establish a unique selling point, call to action and focused conversion path. A visitor landing on your home page should know within 3-5 seconds where to go next to purchase your product, register for information, or perform a desired action. Last year, Google announced that their Page Rank system was beginning to factor in landing pages’ load times. People want information quickly and Google was responding to this. So should you. If your conversion path has multiple steps, such as adding products to a shopping cart then checking out, make sure each step is clear and intuitive.
2. Focus on quality content! Provide valuable information relevant to your business that references specific terms and concepts unique to your site with text on as many pages as possible, weaving keywords into compelling copy. Often, it’s not the broad keywords you might have imagined that people are using to find you, but very specific ones. Search engines typically index the first 500 words of copy on each page.
3. Pay CLOSE attention to title tags! Nothing is more important than these single lines of code that define page titles, seen at the top of your browser window. These are the link text for search engine results. Ideally, they succinctly describe what your business sells and where you are located.
4. Avoid tags with too much competition and be geographically specific (i.e. instead of “Doctors”, “Florida Doctors” or “Jacksonville Doctors”, think, “Jacksonville Beach Pediatricians”).
5. Keep content fresh and updated. New content to existing sites is automatically indexed when added. If new information is added frequently, it indicates that your site is current and relevant!
6. Avoid 100% Flash websites. While search engines are getting better at it, they can still parse very little content from Flash-based sites. Balance usability with creativity by combining HTML and CSS with some Flash in contained areas, or transitions.
7. Try to cultivate as many relevant incoming links into your site as possible. These is a powerful strategy for achieving great search results, but manipulation can lead to penalization. For more on this topic, refer to the, “Link Your Way to Better Search Results…” entry in this blog.
8. Add a “site index” (an “outline” of your site). This can help search engines, as well.
9. Make sure your web address is present and highly visible on all other marketing materials.
10. Understand that search optimization is a process. Search algorithms and methodologies are constantly being refined by Search Engines to suit public demand. If you don’t have time to deal with it, find someone who does. Think of your website as one of your most valuable employees and dedicate the same time, effort and resources to keeping them “happy”.

By just following these few simple rules, you’ll have your website well on its way to “going green” and visitors flocking to your online environment!