By Jennifer Henderson
The other day, an acquaintance of mine was complaining that the company she just started doesn’t yet show up in online search results. She speculated that it’s because she needs to improve her keywords. While she’s right (we’ll talk about keywords in the next blog post), there are other factors she can look at to improve her company’s visibility in search engines. Certain modifications to a website will improve the chances the site pops up in a search result. The process of making changes for this purpose is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Google points out in its Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide that many SEO tips are “essential ingredients for any web page.” However, most people are not getting the most out of their website. This blog post highlights some of Google’s recommendations and discusses tools you can use for SEO.
SEO tips
As I described in the previous blog post, when you use a search engine, you are not searching the entire Internet. Instead, you are searching that company’s index of the Web (for instance, Google’s index of the Web, or Yahoo’s, or Bing’s, and so on). Therefore, you need to take certain steps to make sure your site gets recognized in the search engine’s index.
Here are just a few of Google’s tips:
- Title tags are an important aspect of SEO
A title tag tells users and search engines the topic of your page and is placed within the <head> tag of your HTML document. Programs like WordPress, though, ask you to provide a title tag or SEO title (you don’t have to embed it using HTML). Google suggests choosing a title tag for each page of your site that communicates the topic of that page. For instance, don’t just call a page “New Page 1.” Instead, include information about the content of the page in the title. For instance, the SEO title for this blog post will be “What Is SEO.” Make sure the title is short. If it’s too long, Google will only show a portion of it in the search result. - Don’t forget the “meta tag” or “meta description”
A meta tag description provides Google and other search engines a summary of what the page is about. It is usually a few sentences and is also placed within the <head> tag of your HTML document (again, programs like WordPress will just ask you to provide a meta tag). Be descriptive as possible when writing your meta tag. In this link, Google provides helpful information for improving your meta tags. - Write quality content
Google points out that the number one way to increase your site’s visibility is to provide good content. Users recognize valuable information, and if you’re providing it through blogs, etc., they will share your site with others. The more times your site is shared, the greater chance it will start appearing in search engines. Write easy-to-read text and make sure you don’t fall into the trap of writing content to appeal to the search engines. Your users are the ones who matter most.
Free SEO tools
Luckily, a number of free, online tools exist that will analyze your page. Microsoft, for example, has created Free SEO Toolkit, which helps improve the visibility of your website in search results. Search Engine Watch provides a list of additional no-cost tools, including ones that will analyze the effectiveness of the images you include on your site.
If you are using a website creation tool such as WordPress, you can add plugins that will analyze your site. Search Engine Watch also lists essential WordPress SEO plugins.
Whatever your method, it is important to look at your site’s SEO. If you find it too time-consuming, experts like Carole can help you achieve results. If your site isn’t showing up in a search, you’re not getting the proper exposure your company needs. We are going to explore this topic in upcoming blog posts. In the meantime, we’d love to hear about your own SEO tactics. Please comment in the section below.
