Work Your Web Site

More and more clients are aware of their Web site's SEO, that is it's search engine optimization. Simply, clients want their Web site at the top of a search result.

But I'm alarmingly surprised to find so many companies invested in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or AdWords campaigns as the only method for optimizing the power of a company Web site. A PPC campaign is one way to help boost a Web site's traffic, but it is certainly only a piece of the puzzle. You want your company's Web site to rank organically in a Google or Yahoo! search. So, your Web site needs to be optimized to work for you beyond your PPC campaign.

A lot of a Web site's SEO happens in the back end programming - so you need to trust the company with which you are working. Transparency about Google Analytics and where your PPC campaign dollars are going is key. A lack of transparency in either of these areas should be a red flag.

When a programmer is talking about your Web site's optimization code, these are some of the things you should expect to hear:

1. The description, title and keywords should be programmed for each page.
2. Text should be properly coded in html as a header or paragraph.
3. Your pictures should have names in the code, because Web site crawlers can't read a picture... they read the code.
4. You should have Meta data on your site with keywords.

These are things that are apparent to a programmer, but there are other things that you can easily observe.

1. Your home page should be dense with key words while still being readable.
2. You need some page of your Web site to receive frequent updates.
3. You want to monitor Google Analytics and change key words, news content and PPC campaigns accordingly.
4. You want to interlink to parts of your site within your Web copy, not just in your navigation bars.
5. You want outside sources, such as a twitter, facebook, vendor or client post to be linking to your Web site.
6. You want each of your primary services to have their own page - with titles.
7. Are you registered with Google Maps and Yahoo Maps?
8. A video!

It takes several months to fully optimize a Web site, and it is a constant work in progress. Much in the manner of a public relations campaign, you need to be consistently monitoring, adjusting and updating to match the ever-changing standards for Web site grading.

If you have questions about your Web site's optimization, contact Marketicity today at 618.281.6648.