SEO Do's and Don't's

I often get caught up in the every day grind that I sometimes forget most small businesses are still doing things they should not be doing to get their site noticed online. It seems that more and more people every day continue to build websites and hope for their site to begin appearing in the search results. Getting traffic to your website once it is built takes time and patience. Many search engines use tiny programs, called spiders, which crawl the Internet in search of new web pages; as such your site appearing does not happen by chance. There is actually a method related to how you get your site noticed by search engines spiders.

I came across a list the other day of “Thou Shalt Not’s” related to optimizing your website. Let’s review them, understand them and follow them for it could be your future rankings at stake:

• Thou Shalt not repeat keywords over and over in the meta tags
• Thou Shalt not use the same title and meta description for each page of your site
• Thou Shalt not link out to a bad neighbor or neighborhood
• Thou Shalt not copy they neighbor’s content
• Thou Shalt not hide your content
• Thou Shalt not make doorway pages
• Thou Shalt not submit the same pages with different URLs
• Thou Shalt not use submission services/tools for repetitive submissions
• Thou Shalt not use frames
• Thou Shalt not believe people when they say, “we guarantee top ten listings”
• Thou Shalt not expect to find your brand new site in search engines after launching it just 2 days ago

What things can you do?

• Do the necessary research to find the best keyword phrases that relate to your business avoid general terms
• Use unique titles and meta descriptions for each page within your site
• Create unique content that will entice your visitors to continue visiting your site
• Ensure there is logical navigation, good site structure and descriptive link text throughout your site
• Make sure your site is crawlable, stay away from all flash or all graphic sites that search engines can’t or won’t crawl
• Keep in mind there should only be one address to get to your site, two separate addresses can be www.yourdomain.com or yourdomain.com, to a search engine, that means you have the same content at two addresses in other words – duplicate content.

There are definitely more than what you see here, but you get the hint. The bottom line is do what is right there really are no quick fixes that give you long lasting results when it comes to optimizing your site. Google has quality guidelines take the time to read through them and you will reap the benefits of streamlined free traffic to your site.

The above list was taken from a variety of sources such as Webmaster World’s forum, Search Engine Land, WebPro News, and SEO Chat.

Starting Your Online Business

I talk to so many people on a regular basis about their websites and what they can do to help themselves gain more exposure online. I tell them its simple, offer more content within your site and eventually it will happen for you, but it certainly will not happen overnight. There are other things that can be done as well but the most important thing to do is pay attention to the content within your site. One of my biggest challenges day in and day out is talking to business owners about expectations. Many people build a website thinking that once the site is launched traffic will come and people will begin to buy their products or services. Remember the saying, “Rome was not built in a day”?

When first getting started, just like with any business, it is important to earn credibility. You can’t just open your doors to the public and expect them to come into your store and buy any more than you can expect a search engine to place you on page one of their results so that traffic will stream to your site right away, that would be silly.

So as a small business owner what do you do? Make a plan and really think about the best way you can present your products and services within your website. Inform your prospects and guide them by creating a content rich website that will not only help them to understand what you offer but will also help the search engines understand who you are.

Take a peek at this article The Keys to Creating a Small Business Website, and get going! There is exposure to be had and revenue to be earned!