Search engines happen to be one of the fundamental ways that Internet users find web sites. That's the reason a web site with good search engine listings can see a dramatic increase in traffic. Good listing remains atop on the wish list of every website owner. However, it is common knowledge that many web sites do poorly in search engine rankings. Or worst still, they may not be listed at all because they fail to take into consideration how search engines work.
Finding out ways and means to get visitors to come to your Web site can be a fairly challenging task. Here comes search engine optimization to bail you out. Search engine optimization means making it sure that your web pages are accessible to search engines and focused in such ways as will improve the chances they will be found.
When you focus on search engine optimization, you do not employ tricks or hacks, but instead write your pages so they provide exactly what your customers want whilst simultaneously showing it to the search engines effectively.
Here's how you go about it.
Choose your target phrase
If you wish search engine optimization to work for you, you have to determine one phrase that best describes what your page is all about. This is precisely what is called target phrase. In choosing target phrase, following points should be borne in mind:
- Your phrase should be an important part of the page information.
- It should be accurate. One of the commonly tried hacks with search engine optimization is to try to optimize on a phrase that isn't accurate for the content of the page. It is better to simply avoid it. It may backfire.
- It should be popular . Your target phrase should be one that people are likely to search you with.
You can resort to the following search engine optimization tools to better choose your target phrase.
- Overture is an effective tool for assessing popularity as well as brainstorming ideas for target phrases.
- Google is highly useful for brainstorming target phrases.
- Word Tracker will be of your help in assessing popularity and also comparing how the competitors use the target phrase you're after.
Evaluate your competition
One of the vital things to focus on while developing your web-site presence is to evaluate your competition and rival competitors. Attempt an analysis what's working for them; how they market their products and services, and even evaluate their target phrase and description tags.
One thing here may be taken note of that the more popular a target phrase is, the more competition there is likely to be. Sometimes, therefore, it makes sense to target a less popular phrase where you can corner the market rather than aiming for the highest popularity phrase.
The following do's on your part will help you in this backdrop.
- Check out Yahoo and Google to see what shows up when you search for your target phrase.
- Examine the pages on the first page; analyze where and how they use your target phrase. You can use the "Cached" page option in Google to get your targeted phrase highlighted.
Make your website content driven
Search engines, especially search giant, Google loves content, content, and content. The more rich content you provide using your keywords or target phrase the better you page rankings will be. The best method employed here is to update your pages 2 to 3 times a week, for an instance Monday, Wednesday and again Sunday. While updating the content regularly, you may work well on focusing on your keyword or target phrase.