Search Engine Optimization
by Jeremy Cyr
11 Nov 2005

There are a few things to keep in mind when trying to optimize your web site's position in search engine results.

There's More to Life than Google
First, remember that search engine results aren't everything. A recent survey showed that even on many popular websites, search engines only contribute a small percentage of visitors (13%) while direct links from other sites (21%) and direct navigation (66%) accounted for the greatest visitor influx. Analyze other ways in which you may be able to drive traffic to your site. (Thanks to Jason Piasecki for the statistics.)

No Free Lunch
When it comes to search engines, remember that there are no shortcuts. Anyone who guarantees "Top Results" or "Submission to 400,000 search engines" or "Instant top listings" are either scamming you, using unethical tactics, or both. Getting good results will likely take work, analysis, and adjustment—patience is a requirement.

It's the Content
One of the biggest contributing factors to getting better result positioning is having good content. The content should appeal to the type of visitor you want to attract to your site, should contain terms relevant to your industry, and speak about your company's unique abilities. Make sure that your content is useful to your visitors. Not only will this help to keep the visitor surfing your site longer, it will likely foster linkbacks, which are very important.

Linkbacks you say?
Most search engines lend a great deal of credence to what the rest of the Internet community thinks about your website. This is measured by linkbacks, or "how many sites have links to yours." Consider trading links with associated businesses in your field. The more linkbacks you receive, the better your site will be ranked. If the site linking to you is popular, the linkback is even more valuable.

Page Titles
Make sure that the titles to your page (the text that shows up in the titlebar of the browser) includes your company name, and a complete description of the current page.

Open Directories
Become listed in an Open Directory- One of the best open directories is the Open Directory Project. Being listed here will help your page ranking, and will increase the likelihood of your page being indexed by more search engines. It will take some time for your listing to show up, be patient.

Be Good
There are many tactics used to 'fool' search engines. These include fake front pages, loading up a page with hidden keywords, and many others. These tactics are considered grounds for blacklisting by most search engines. If you are caught using these tactics, you may be banned from a search engine's listing. Avoid these practices, and avoid using firms who use these practices.

Analyze and Adjust - Rinse, Repeat
Most all web servers have statistics packages available. These allow you to determine what keywords people have used to find your site. You can use these statistics to make adjustments to your content. See what's bringing visitors to your site, and offer more of it. Relevance is important- It does no good to get a visitor to your site, if the visitor has no interest or use for your product or service.

Buy It
Consider a targeted marketing program. These don't guarantee search results, but do give you great control over how you are listed among advertisements. (For example, Google's "Sponsored Links" section, which shows up directly to the right of the search results.) Many of these are reasonably priced, allow you to budget exactly how much you want to spend, and give you very accurate statistics on how effective your marketing program is. The return on investment is very easy to track, and you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

In summary
Make sure that your content is good, and relevant.
Get links back from other websites.
Don't use unethical tactics.
List with an open directory.
Analyze and adjust.
And above all, be patient.

If you follow these guidelines, you should be well on the way to great results positioning.

Jeremy Cyr is a web programmer for Benchmark Productions. You can contact him through his partner page or by Email at jeremy@benchmarkproductions.net.

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