When was the last time you reviewed your SEO?
With the global economic downturn, a great many companies have reduced their marketing budgets, moved away from traditional advertising and moved their money into online marketing strategies. As evidence of this shift, statistics show that as many as 90% of all online purchases are derived from the use of simple keyword searches on search engines such as Google.
Such information merely highlights the need to implement a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy with the purpose of attracting quality visitors to a site. A smart SEO campaign will start with a complete review of a website and its content as well as an evaluation of competing sites. During this review period, you will be seeking the best keywords that visitors will enter into the search engines so as to locate the product or service you will be offering.
Review your content
This will be an in-depth review since you will be seeking to discover the actual terms people use instead of just the terms you believe they should enter. During this review stage, you could also take an objective look at the content on the site. Are your web pages are written in such a way that it makes your company look like you are experienced in your field? And, if you offer a service, are you including your own articles in the site so as to build up your reputation? If you’re selling a product, are consumers allowed to leave reviews? Don’t forget that search engines like to see regular fresh content being deployed on a website.
This is just the beginning stage and it starts to lay the foundation required for revising content within the framework of an overall SEO strategy. This critical review process can lead to several more surprises. For example, many companies will invest a great deal of money in an outside firm to develop and publish their website only to discover that a component as basic as meta tags was not coded in the proper manner. Make sure this has not happened to you.
Review your keywords
Every page on the website should target a unique keyword. Repeating the company’s name in the title page makes very little sense as it uses up important potential keyword space. In most instances, the company name is found within the webpage address in order to allow the search engines easy access to index it.
Most people will not be searching for a company’s name. Instead, they will be entering keywords designed to describe a specific product or service. When a site is properly optimized in this manner, it improves its chances of appearing near the top of search engine results.
Review your meta tags
If you’re new to the concept of search engine optimisation and meta tags, don’t worry about the ‘geek speak’. To view those meta tags found on the site, click “View” on a web browser and click “Source” or “Page Source”. This will enable the display of a critical source code for the webpage. The title tag of the system displays the title of the page that can be found at the top of your web browser. These keywords are designed to present the search engines with the page’s keywords.
The description will generally appear in the results of the search engine in order to show what particular content can be found on a webpage. If you’re checking through the particular content on a webpage, check the source code to make sure that keywords are included in the meta tags.
Keep in mind, such a review can take a lot of time and there is an extended process that goes into it. However, here’s a brief checklist to help you look over your web pages:
- Have the meta tags been optimized?
- Can a visitor locate contact information in a simple manner?
- Is a website too graphic-intensive that the loading process takes forever?
- Have you placed alt tags on the images?
- Are you offering helpful content on each and every page?
- Would a visitor to the site consider the content to be informative and useful?
- Does the site contain a number of Flash movies? Search engines do not pick up on these and they can take a long time to load and run.
- Does the site present information detailing the company including the history, mission statement, place of operations, and information on the management team (if appropriate)?
- Are you offering a content about your professional field?
- Does the site include a blog designed to connect with visitors to the site while enhancing your rankings?
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