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Expose Your Web Site At one point in time, "SEO" (aka Search Engine Optimization) was something everyone wanted to do, no matter what the price. Lots of companies made tons of money optimizing sites with keywords and other "tactics" to get higher rankings in search engines. Over the years this has changed - for the better, actually.
The "top dog" in the search engine world is Google. The top in the directory world is Yahoo. So, most people try to cater to those two companies. There are some notable others, such as MSN.
The one thing that hasn't changed is the enormous competition to try to get your virtual foot in the door with these engines and directories. Take a market like ours for instance (Web Design and Graphic Design). By some miracle we were able to get in the regional directory at Yahoo, but it was very hard to get anywhere else because the market was so saturated. We were using keywords (phrases, really) such as "find affordable web design". Oddly enough, we made it into Google's #1 slot (sometimes we're in the top 5) with "high end web design". We also have a Google Adwords campaign where we try to target certain markets (for instance, we've done ones like, "web design for musicians" and "corporate web design").
Now, optimizing ONLY for "keywords" is becoming more and more obsolete. For instance, Google is not interested in keywords in special code tags ( tags) on your webpage. What they are interested in the most is: content - and good content (content that a human being would want to read, not a search engine robot), frequently updated content, and "trusted" links (any links coming in to your site - for instance, sites you have traded links with - from sites that follow all the Google rules).
So how do key words still come into play? Well, it's always a good idea to put a keyword or two in the Title area of each web page (what is seen at the very top of your browser window). You can also integrate keywords into the description code tag on your website. And of course, you can use a keyword here and there in your page content (IF it makes sense and does not compromise the quality of your text).
Still, just adding these things on to your web pages do not automatically mean search engines will find you. You would still need to submit your site (with Google, you can do that here: http://www.google.com/addurl/). But what we have found that is even more important than simply submitting your site to search engines is getting inbound links to your site and in turn getting more recognition from engines like Google. To get more exposure, try checking our Google's AdWords program or Yahoo's Sponsored Ads (http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/intro101.php). It also can't hurt to submit your site to relevant directories (you can usually do an internet search for something like "(your business type) directories" and pull up some useful listings).
One way to get inbound links and keep your content fresh and informative is to have what's called a Blog (short for web log). You can view our blog here to get an idea of the kind of things that are posted: http://www.jvmediadesign.com/blog/ Basically, you try to target your market with relative content. Either write about things you think your customers would be interested in, or pull content you think they would be interested in from sites such as http://www.ezinearticles.com.
There is one more important step you would need to take with the blog and that is what is called "pinging". Without going into a lengthy explanation here, I've written another article on what a blog is and what to do with that can be read here: http://www.jvmediadesign.com/blog/blog.php?id=38 And if you do end up writing something on your blog, you might as well submit that article to some of those content sites like ezinearticles.com or http://www.goarticles.com. If you do, make sure to put your website link in your author bio or at the bottom of the article - that way, anyone that uses the article on their website will also be putting an automatic link to your site. When we first started our blog we were a little skeptical but kept at it and within a month we were showing up more in Google and Yahoo.
I hope this info is helpful and that you now have the knowledge of several viable ways to get more exposure for your website.
Sherry Holub
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