Search Engine Optimization Tips

	At least a couple times a year, search engines changes the way they score and rank websites. Many times websites can drop significantly because they may rely on borderline techiques that the Search Engine catch on to or sometimes websites are too focused or reliant on any one technique. It's imperative that the webmaster, seo consultant or any person managing your website seo understand the changes with search engine techniques and algorithyms as well as understand core key priniciples. Even after you understand the methods Search Engines use to score and rank your website, they do a re-shuffle at least once a month and you may rise or fall in the rankings depending on how well you optimized your website versus your competitors. The actual re-indexing or shuffling happens near the mid to end of every month when most search engines re-index or re-shuffle their pages at which point your website can gain or lose a ranking. If you dramatically change your page or if the search engines catch you cheating your page will significantly drop or be de-listed. Google being one of the major search engines coins this re-shuffling as the "Google Dance". As a part of this reshuffling whether on Google, Yahoo, or other search engines. If ranking in the top 10 is important to you, then it is key for you to optmize your website (SEO) on a monthly basis as well as measure your performance, document your changes, and watch your competitors. The main factor that will help you rise or fall is your performance versus your competitors, so a monthly ranking report and a competitive analysis is vital for you to rank in the top 10. There are many factors that contribute to your ranking, some of which include placing keywords in these areas: Page Title Tag = The Page Title that appears on top of the browser page Meta Tags = Website HTML Code (seen only by Search Engines, not by visitors) Image Alt Tags = Website HTML Code that tags each image for Search Engines to read Page Content = The actual page text. Optimizing keywords within the actual content Robots.txt file = A file on the server that allows or disallows search engines to see your website pages Exteral Links = Links to your website Internal Links = Links within your website to other pages, such as your navigation Link Anchor Text = The text within your links URL Structure = Keywords within your domain name or directory and file structure Other factors include: Page Frames or iFrames SEO = Do not use pages with a frame structure Flash SEO = Flash sites are difficult to read by Search Engines. It takes both technical, marketing and webdesign skills to optimize Flash for Search Engines. Database Websites = Using databases to automate the page content makes it much harder to rank within the Search Engines. Search Engine spiders and crawlers can many times get stuck in an endless loop within a poorly written database page structure. At the very least, it's much harder to see your pages versus a static .html page. Some website file extentions instead of .html would include .asp, .aspx, .jsp, .cfm, etc. SEO Landing Pages = Pages within your website that is optimized for a particular product or service category, as well as other pages that are build for external campaigns. SEO Informational Pages = Search Engines weight content high, so the more relevant informational content you have the better chance you will rank higher within related areas. Search Engine Marketing and Optimization Plan (SEM and SEO) = Having an integrated SEM and SEO plan provides synergy for your overall business and marketing goals. There are also many other factors that contribute to your ranking score, however the above is commonly missed by the majority of websites. - Visit our list of clients, or - Contact us directly for more information.