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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Overview

Search engine optimization or “SEO” is used for making your website easier to find on search engines with their search terms. For example a person types in “how to ride a bike” on google. The person is most likely to click the first few links that are shown. SEO helps you rank high for your search terms. Easy WebContent Site Builder provides tools to help you with your on-page SEO.

Video Tutorial (Search Engine Optimization with HTML Editor)

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Please note:
This section is dedicated to providing you with tips and recommendations on search engines and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. The information and the links below are provided as is. We take no responsibility or liability in the information provided and results you may achieve with your website.

Search Engine Optimization in a nutshell:
There are no big secrets to optimizing a web site for search engines. In fact, a few basic principles, if followed properly, can weigh heavily on where your website pages will end up against other web page results on popular search engines.

There are millions upon millions of pages of web content out there and while you can work hard to build and update a great website, it can be quite frustrating to not get reasonable results from the top search engines.

Although there are thousands of web sites Today nearly 90% of searches are conducted on just a few of the most popular web sites. They are primarily Google.com, Yahoo.com, and Bing.com. Each search engine uses a specific search algorithm (the method by which it decides which results, and the order by which to display them). What can you do to make your web site more attractive to search engines?


What can you do to make your web site more attractive to search engines?


STEP 1: Optimize Your Website for Search Engines

The first step is to optimize your website to make it highly attractive to search engines. This is done with a few basic but important techniques.

In the world of search, content remains king! This means the relevancy of your page on the search engine results pages (SERP) is primarily based on the content of your web pages and how it weighs against a searched word/phrase when compared to other sites competing against yours. In short, if your content is highly relevant to a search then it has a good chance of ranking high on search results.

For example if a user searches for the word "apple cider,” a web page's content that is all about apple cider will show at higher position than a web page’s content that is just about "apples."

You would want to have enough content in your pages to support and allow enough keyword density (repetition of your desired term) in your web page. In fact, web pages with little to no text content have a great chance of not ranking high on search engines vs. pages with more relevant content. After all, content is what matters most to readers of a web page once they land on a page and get passed the visual cue of the layout.

Tip: When selecting your keyword terms, think of yourself as a visitor looking for your product/service. What specific term would you type in an engine to locate your site? Chances are that is what other users will use to locate your site as well. There are also many valuable tools available that will help you choose relevant keywords. In addition to content, the next important factor is your meta tags. What are meta tags? Click here to learn more.


Where can you manage your meta-tags on the HTML Editor?

Once you load a web page in the editor, if your page contains existing tags, they will accessible from the "Page Properties" section of the editor panel.

Page Properties and Meta Tags

Once the "Page Properties" panel opens you can see your Page Title and other relevant Page Meta Tags.
You can simply click "edit" to manage your meta-tags under the "Page Meta Tags" section.

Page Properties and Meta Tags

Quick Tip: Vary your meta tags. Try to optimize tags of each web page specific that particular page’s content. This greatly helps enhance placement and gives character to each of your web pages to a search engine.

Meta tags are primarily composed of 3 major elements:

Title Tag:
This is what appears on top of your browser as the title of your page. Use your most important key term at the beginning of your title and keep your title under 10-15 words.

Keyword Tag: This is a list of keywords that relate to your website / web page. Use no more than 15-20 keyword/short phrases in this area and separate by commas. (Also useful, keywords do not have as much impact to Google as do title and description tags)

Description Tag: This is a short description about your page and its topic. Keep your description under 20-25 words and make sure you use at least 3-4 of your most important key terms within your description.

 

STEP 2: Submit your site to engines

Make sure your website is submitted to a search engine! It only takes a couple minutes to submit your site to most engines. Below are the links to the top three search engines. If you have not already submitted your site, you can visit each link below:

Google: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=add+url+to+google&btnG=Google+Search
BING: http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx?FORM=WSDD2
Yahoo: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

You may also strongly consider submitting your site to DMOZ.org; it is not a search engine but a directory and it can take months to be included in the directory. Most sites listed on dmoz.org get higher priority in the results pages of major search engines over those not listed.

Note: You only need to submit the main page of your web site (ex. http://www.mydomain.com/) or its sitemap (a web page that lists all the pages and is linked to all pages of your website). If your site navigation is user friendly to search engines, it should be able to eventually find it's way to all pages of your website.

Be patient because it can take days or even weeks for a search engine to crawl your web page and begin indexing it in their results.

How can you check if a search engine has indexed your web site?
Simply go to that search engine and enter your web site URL (ex. www.mydomain.com) in the search bar and if it returns any results with your domain name. If it does simply a result with your domain name, this indicates indexing of your web site (but not necessarily placement in the engines' search results which can take longer; refer to below section about sandbox effect)

 

STEP 3: Don't forget the rabbit holes

Get listed on smaller more specific web sites!
This is very important to many search engines. It is a fact that the more websites with relevant or similar topics to your site (specially popular sites) link to your website, the more attractive your site will become to a search engine. (Think of it as having friends in school – The more friends you have, the more popular you become). The same theory holds true to most search engines.

This does require time and it is recommended you conduct SEO over time. On average, expect to dedicate 1-2 hours a week over the course of a couple months to SEO (including locating and submitting a link to your site to related websites, directories, and resources). Over time, your website ranking will increase and your site will target better traffic (not only from better search placement on engines, but also direct traffic from the many sources you have been listed on!)

 

STEP 4: Check for results and make adjustments

You don't need to check for results daily. If it is your first time submtting to a major search engine, you may need to wait a few weeks or even a month or two to get indexed. You can detect traffic from search engines by relying on Google Analytics; a powerful free statistic program which can track virtually all external traffic to your website, including the keywords your users type to locate your web site and which search engine they are coming from.

You can take advantage of this data to find out which keywords are working for you and which are not. You can then re-visit your site content and meta-tags and make minor adjustments and check for any improvements in your search engine placement. Engines can revisit a page ever few days and update their index for updated results.

Not many site owners get indexed highly on search engines on first try. So don't be discouraged; rely on basic and proven techniques and over time you can see noticeable results in your web site traffic.

 

Additional Notes and Comments:

Sandbox Effect?
If your website is new or has never been submitted to the search engines (Google in particular), it can take up to 2-3 months for the engine to give maximum ranking to your web page(s). This is known as the Sandbox effect and it is this way mainly to rule out those abusing the system. As a result, be patient with getting listed on engines such as google.com.

Selecting keywords
Carefully select your keywords. Select highly specific 2-3 word combinations and avoid general terms. For example if you are selling women's athletic shoes, avoid using simple keywords such as "Shoes", but more specific terms such as Women's athletic shoes, athletic shoes for woman, female athlete shoes, and so on.

What should you do after the fact?
Again if it is your first time submitting, allow a few weeks or up to 2 months and then track your results. Once you have submitted your site, check the search engine regularly (every 1-2 weeks) and in the search input your domain name (ex. mydomain.com). If you receive results with your domain then the engine has indexed your site. However, it may take longer to be ranked higher in the search results. Therefore, you want to begin entering the specific keywords you selected and see if you can find your web page(s) in the results.

What kind of results should you expect?
There is no crystal ball when it comes to SEO. Companies charge big money to optimize their sites for search engines. It requires patience and diligence and if you are in a highly competitive market with millions of pages/websites indexed for your desired keyword/phrase then you will have a more difficult time showing up high on a search engine for that term. A tip would be to use even more specific terms/words and make minor adjustments over time to assess your results. Note: If you are on the first 1-3 pages of search results and competing against tens of thousands or more web pages, be happy with your results.

Note: If you are on the first 1-3 pages of search results and competing against tens of thousands or more web pages, be happy with your results.

Final Thoughts:

Be patient, be proactive and avoid tricks and abuse of techniques.

- Optimize individual pages of your site for specific key terms.
- Concentrate on the title tag of your pages (include your most important keyword in your title)
- Include your important keyword and short phrases in the description tag of your content
- Increase keyword density (Include your highly targeted keyword/phrases from your title and description in your page content as often as you can without abusing or repeating too often to avoid penalty by search engines) In short, if you read the content and it makes sense then it should also avoid penalties by most engines.

 

Additional resources for search engines and search engine optimization:

Itswebrelated Search Engine Articles
Do-It-Yourself SEO Tips (From About.com)
Tips for Ranking high at Google