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June 22, 2009

10 Things I Know About...Search Engine Optimization

PHOTO/COURTESY Matt Ward is the president and CEO of Central Mass Web Design in Gardner.
By Matt Ward

Matt Ward is the president and CEO of Central Mass Web Design in Gardner. He can be reached at matt@centralmasswebdesign.com.

10. Add Content
Your content needs to be page specific. Each page should have very detailed information regarding that page title. If your page title is “Boston Based Widgets,” then your content needs to contain those terms.

9. Edit Existing Content
You can edit your existing content to improve your rankings on search engines. Once you know where you rank and where your competition ranks, you can formulate a plan.

8. Improve Titles
Titles help search engines identify relevant pages to deliver to the user. If you don’t have a page title that includes relevant information for the search, your page may not be shown to the user.

7. Improve Page Names
If your content is related to dog treats, then dog-treats-for-your-pet.html is a strong page name. Remember to always be specific.

6. ALT Tags
Make sure you have Alt tags on your images. They produce the “tool tip” when you hover over an image. Google likes the ALT tag and can read it as text, so it uses it to rank the site.

5. Do Your Homework
Research what you want to show up for on a search engine. A great way to do this is to review your competitor’s web site and view their major topic points. 

4. Know Your Competition
Many of your competitors will have multiple web sites. They focus each web site on a division of their business. Make sure you review in detail each and every web site that they have.

3. Don’t Cheat
A common short cut to improve rankings is to “stuff” keywords into the HTML code of your site. Such tactics might work in the short term, but Google is on to this and will ban your site from their results if they notice.

2. Build Links
Google sees links that point to your site as an indicator that your site is important. It’s also important to note the text used to point to your site. Be sure to use the appropriate search phrase text that you want to show up.

1. Keep Improving
Working on your site is not hard, but finding the time to do it always is difficult. To solve this problem, try to schedule just one hour a week to update your site.

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