So many of the clients who come to me wanting their website designed, or redesigned, also want to know how to get more website traffic and better search engine placement without paying for the "pay-per-click" sponsorships on the engines themselves. There are specifically two things you can immediately focus on to have the maximum impact, for the least amount of investment-HTML Tags and Search Engine Submission.



While HTML coding might not "be your thing," it is important to understand the fundamentals so you can strategically position your website with the various search engines.

Use Meta tags and web copy to your advantage.

When a search engine visits your website it will look at the page title, the Meta tags, and the body text. Before submitting your website to the search engines, pay close attention that all of your HTML tags, including Meta tags, are descriptive and accurately reflect your site's content.

Page Titles and Meta Description Tags

Many of the major search engines place the highest priority on page title and Meta Description Tags. Without a descriptive page title, your site may have a difficult time being found, as you are not indexed properly. The page title should be 5-15 words in length and include your organization name and a descriptive phrase.

Example-Home Page: Go-To-Market Strategies - a Seattle-based sales and marketing consulting firm.

Example-Secondary Page: Go-To-Market Strategies - Marketing Services.

After your page titles are determined, be sure to use a Meta Description Tag on your home page, as this information is what most search engines display to potential visitors in the search results. The Meta Description Tag should be a brief description of your company and be limited to 25 words, or 200 characters.

Example: "Go-To-Market Strategies is a sales and marketing firm that helps small to medium sized companies integrate the magic of marketing with the science of sales."

Meta Keyword Tag

The Meta Keyword Tag should include words or phrases that people would use when searching for your company's products or services. A good way to find the most popular keywords is to inquire with a major search engine about paying for a keyword. They will give you a list for your industry segment. You may or may not choose to purchase some of these keywords if your budget allows, but either way you should include the most relevant in your website's Keyword Tag. Again, try to limit the Meta Keyword Tag to 150 words or 1000 characters and review your keywords frequently, dropping off the ones that aren't working for you or are no longer relevant.

Body Text

As you consider your website copy and the tags and titles you plan to use within the HTML code, you must make sure the language between the two is consistent. If the search engine finds your tags don't accurately reflect the body text within the site, they will rank you much lower in search results, or possibly not include you at all. To verify content is consistent, use words or phrases that are relevant to your business (often your positioning statement) on your "home" page in paragraph form. The search engine will then compare all the Meta tags to the text on the actual page to be sure you are not in violation of their rules and regulations.

When creating your body text, do not try to hide your text by making it extremely small or by making it the same color as your background. Many search engines frown on extremely small text, light colored fonts on light background, and dark colored fonts on dark backgrounds. Today, a search engine will view hidden or small text as a spamming technique and penalize your website or completely remove it.

Also, be careful about pages built with graphics only. Without body text on a website, the search engine will see a blank page. It is true that a page containing graphics or a flash movie may look more attractive, but it can prove to be disastrous to your search engine positioning.

Submit your URL to all the major search engines.

You can do this yourself of course, but for the time and labor you would spend each month staying on top of it-and you HAVE to stay on top of it consistently to be effective-I recommend you use a service.

Finally, don't forget to promote your site on all of your marketing materials. This sounds basic, but it really is quite common for people to not include their URL on their business papers, marketing materials, email signatures, direct mail pieces, etc. Do a quick audit and make sure your URL is on EVERY communication piece.