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5 Important Search Engine Optimization Tips

Search Engine Optimization. A term that creates controversy with just about every conversation I have! It seems that everyone has their own opinion of how it works and what it can do for their websites. It's my hope to "de-mystify" SEO and provide you with some practical and useful tools to help you increase traffic to your websites.

First, let me ask, are you satisfied with your website traffic? Frankly, that's a loaded question! Just about everybody says they are not. The problem is, what can the average dealer do without hiring an expert to step in and work on their websites?

 And what about Facebook? If you haven't incorporated this in to your overall sales and marketing plan, what are you waiting for? Now is the time and it's free! We all want to gain better placement within the search engines, ensure that our customers have an enjoyable shopping experience and be better connected on a social level. 

 So, how exactly do you go about this? Here are a number of tips to help with optimizing your website and make better use of Facebook. Read these and give them a try. I'm sure that you will see it's not out of reach for the average web user to get results.

 Tip 1:               What exactly is Search Engine Optimization?

 Simply put,  search engine optimization (or SEO) is making your website visible and relevant to both search engines and search engine users. Utilize these three key ingredients to accomplish a good SEO strategy:

Content. This is what drives repeat traffic and helps your website get noticed by search engines. Relevant content, especially when enhanced appropriately with good keywords and phrases, will feed hungry search engine spiders!  I can't stress this enough, content is key in effective search engine optimization.

Add pages about your services, staff, events and helpful tips. Share your experiences with whatever makes you an expert or stand out within your community. The more unique content you can add to your website, the better.

Keep it Simple. Websites that place high within search engine results have this single trait in common. They are all simply designed, with a minimum of bandwidth taxing graphics, slow loading animations or other burdensome components.

Search engine spiders LOVE websites that are clean and easy to navigate because it makes it easy for them to get to what they're looking for... wait for it.... CONTENT!

Great Meta Tags. This little line of HTML code contains metadata (or a description) about your website. It doesn't have any effect of how the page looks and is not seen by viewers who visit the website.  It adds a description within the search results.

For example, perform a Google search for vintage banjos. Notice how vintage banjos appears in the title?  Next,  take a look at the short description that follows. This is the meta tag. Experts agree that 15 words is the optimum length. Write yours today.

Tip 2:               Know Your Target Market

Understanding your audience is a big part of a successful SEO strategy. Identify who your targeted customer is and tailor your content accordingly. Remember, every surfer uses search engines. You absolutely need to help them find you.

For example, your business sells vintage banjos, then your target audience are banjo players and collectors, right? Don't assume the search engines will magically determine this is your niche. They are not mind readers. They're basically computer programs and need help finding your website and connecting you with potential customers.

Your target audience knows what they want and are searching for it. You need to know what that is before you can deliver what they want. Here are a few ways to help figure this out.

Rely on your network. Friends, family, co-workers and customers are invaluable resources when trying to figure out who your target customer is. Ask questions and write down what they might search for in your targeted topic, what are the most important things they want to learn about or purchase, what they wouldn't look for, etc.

Do your research. Check out your local library and scour the online archives of the Music & Sound Retailer to look for articles that relate to your particular topic. See what the industry "buzz" is about.

Join the crowd. Locate and join user or discussion groups and see what people are talking about. Take an active role in them and share your expertise.

Do your research. Don't automatically assume that what you search for is what your audience is searching for. Keep adjusting your keywords and phrases in regular intervals.

Tip 3:               It's All About the Keywords

Keywords are targeted words and short phrases that determine which category your website will be listed under in search engines. Web searchers use these words and phrases to find relevant websites. Doing your homework and selecting targeted key words and phrases will help you gain more traffic

Each page of your website should have one to three related keyword phrases that are site-specific. For example, you may have a page all about vintage banjos. Good phrases to target on this page would be: vintage banjos, antique banjos, banjo restoration, banjo collectors etc. Be sure to list any relevant brands and models too!

Use your keywords throughout your website and place them where they make the most sense. Don't go overboard because this is frowned upon by the spiders and can hurt you. Remain persistent, it takes a while to get the hang of this. Once you've mastered it, you'll see how this can benefit your website and increase traffic.

Tip 4:               Proper Placement of Keywords

Now that you have your list, you'll need to actually put them somewhere. The more places you can reasonably put your keywords, the easier you will be found. As mentioned, don't overdo it.  This is called "keyword stuffing" and search engines don't care for this tactic.

Some choice places for keywords include: above your logo, in the subheadings, headlines, within content, within links, product descriptions, events pages and as alternate tags for images. Always remember that search engine spiders are robots and are not intuitive. They are looking for an exact match to the keywords that are placed within your website, not words that are close.

This may sound like a lot of work. Frankly, it is. However, by learning this the correct way from the beginning and continuing to tweak your keywords and phrases for optimum search engine results, there's no doubt that your rankings will eventually go up. Patience is key.

Tip 5:               Use Your Keywords in the Title Tags of Your Web Pages

A web page's title tag is one of the most important factors for how that page will rank in the search engines. Each page at your site should use a title tag that matches the search term you're trying to get the page ranked for. This is especially important at your main page. The title tag should also describe the content of the page in a concise and accurate manner. This helps the search engines decide how relevant the page is to a particular search term. The more relevant a page is, the higher it will rank in the results for that search term.