In earlier articles, I've discussed what elements contribute to an overall sound web marketing program (Put Your Website To Work) and I've written about the importance of good keyword phrases, suggested a few keywording tools available to help you create them, and discussed the difference between SEO and Search Engine Marketing, or SEM (Search Engine Marketing).
In this third, and final, article we'll get into the real "nitty-gritty" of search. I'll share the four primary aspects of your site you'll need to pay attention to if you want your ranking to rise in the organic (or non-paid) search engine result pages (SERPs). These are:
- Your site's popularity
- Proper keyword placement
- Writing copy for your site
- The need for a blog in your web site
How 'Popular' Are You?
One of the most important factors in determining your site's rank is its popularity, or incoming "link prominence." This refers to the number of links to your site from other relevant web sites. This idea of relevance is absolutely key: in order to be considered relevant, the site linking to yours must have content somewhat related to yours. In other words, because a friend of mine is in the lawn furniture business, a link from his site to mine would not be considered relevant; our businesses are entirely different.
Put simply, in the eyes of a search engine, the more companies or individuals (with content somehow related to yours) that link to your site, the more relevant you must be for that topic, in my case, photography.
One-way incoming links are considered to be the linking "pot of gold." When a site links to yours, it is as though your site, "A", is getting a vote from site "B". Search engines see the link as a sort of "endorsement" by their site for yours. While still valuable, reciprocal links generally cancel each other out unless one of the sites is ranking higher than the other. A one-way, incoming link to your site will very likely help to increase your ranking in the search results.
My links to other photographers are on a page which is not readily seen by visitors to my site. It is visible, so it doesn't violate any of Google's or Yahoo!'s terms of service, but it is at the very bottom of the page where a visitor is not likely to scroll to.
You've Got Your Keywords, Now What?
By now you've determined the keyword phrase that your potential clients are most likely to use to find a photographer or illustrator such as yourself. In the old days, you could simply insert that phrase into your site's HTML metatag for "Keywords" and have your site do well in the rankings. Keyword spammers, of course, ruined this for the rest of us by simply repeating keywords over and over within this metatag in an effort to deceive the search engines and to achieve higher rankings. Because of this, depending on the search engine, the "Keyword" metatag is either completely ignored or afforded very little weight in the ranking algorithms employed by the spiders.
Instead of the metatag for "Keywords", spiders now analyze three areas of your web page in an attempt to determine what the page is all about:
- The <title> of your web page
- The Descriptions metatag
- The text in your body copy
Your <title> tag should begin with your keyword phrase. For example, mine is:
<title>Detroit Photographer Editorial Annual Report Advertising Photography</title>
Eight to ten words should be adequate for your home page's title.
Next, the metatag for "Descriptions" is your opportunity, in a few sentences, to describe what your web site is about. Many search engines extract this text and display it in their listing of your site. Mine reads:
<meta name="description" content="Detroit photographer Blake Discher creates photographs for annual reports, leading magazines and advertising agencies. The Detroit-based photographer specializes in people photography throughout the world.">
Notice the keyword phrase "Detroit Photographer" leads the way.
And finally, let's look at body copy.
Content is King
There's a saying in the SEO industry: content is king. Those are words to live by: Google, Yahoo!, and the rest of the search companies strive to return relevant results when a user does a search, so the spiders look very closely at the text on your page. The first sentence of copy on my page is, "Detroit Photographer Blake Discher specializes in photographing people and travel for editorial, advertising and corporate clients." Again, notice that my keyword phrase leads the way. You'll want to mention your keyword phrase throughout your body copy three or four times. The spider will pick up the frequency of the phrase and determine what your site is primarily about.
As artists, we want to put our work front and center, and want aesthetically pleasing sites. We are reluctant to clutter up our home page with text. However, the spider relies on body copy. If your site's home page consists of just a photograph or an illustration and has no text (or your text is in a graphic), the spider will have a difficult time figuring out exactly what your site is about.
Within the last two months, spiders are now able to "look around" inside Adobe Flash content. So if your site makes use of Flash, be sure there is text included somewhere in it, not just images.
Join the Blogroll
Google is now indexing blogs, which means you have an opportunity to pepper each of your blog posts with your keyword phrase. Each of your blog entries should contain at least one instance of your phrase. You can also provide links, even ones to other pages in your site, to help raise your site's search rankings. Additionally, if you post comments to other blogs, you should include the URL to your web site in each of your comments. Those now become one-way links back to your site!
It's a Moving Target
The search companies change their algorithms about once every six months or so. In fact, those that pay particular attention to Google call it the "Google dance." That's why you may fall suddenly in the rankings, or climb suddenly. In either case, you really have to check your ranking several times a week and be aware of changes.
If you fall, check out the competitor's site that overtook your site. See what they've done differently and make adjustments to your own site. Of course, you could pay someone to watch over your site for you, but none of this is rocket science. The information you need to get to the top and stay there available on the Internet, you just have to have the time and desire to keep abreast of the constant change.
So...What's Next?
Now that we've gone through the 4 main areas that affect your organic search engine rankings, it's time for you to uses these techniques on your own website. Here are some ways you can get started:
- work on a list of relevant websites your site could be linked from
- start drafting your <title> tag and your Descriptions metatag
- Work on incorporating your keyword phrase into your site copy
- Think about ways a blog could build your SEO...and your business