Search Engine Optimization

Google is one of the hardest search engines to get a "new company" listed on right away. Most new website owners, don't realize that it takes time for search engines to find you. In order for them to find you, you have to advertise and spread the word about your website. For most, it takes several months to a year to get a hit in the first five links on a Google search specifically. It's a statistic of the web, that if someone searches for a product or service, they will most likely click on one or all of the first five and sometimes, but rarely go to other links after that. Most of it has to do with the popularity of a website, in fact, I would say 80% is based on popularity and 20% is based on referrals. For instance, if you Google a common word, or a name brand, such as "Wal Mart" your first hit will be WalMart.com. Where as if you Google somthing less common like "Coco" who knows what you might find, but chances are your search will also be about "Cocoa" and perhaps even "Milk" at some point.

There are also ways to get listed on Google that are easier then web page optimization itself, although only if money is not an issue. For most small business types and start ups money is always an issue, so this may not be an option, but it's good information to have. You could become a paying sponsor. Paying sponsors are the ones that are highlighted in the various colors when you do a Google search. They are guaranteed a spot on the search or searches pertaining to what their company does for that industry the search is pertaining to. When you pay Google money, they profile your company; give you a marketing configuration set up with a login and password, tools, etc. You get a certain amount of "clicks" before you are removed from that spot for a "designated" amount of time. For instance, if I had a.company.com and I was a paying sponsor giving X amount of dollars, Google would have a designated number of "clicks" from users clicking my link that would be allowed before I was delisted on that search. After that, my listing would go off that search and it would restart again after a "designated" period of time.

When you are optimizing a web site, you need to optimize the pages themselves. Each page, may be of different or the same kind of content. One of the good ways to optimize a website, or web page, is by doing the reading, picking out main points and utilizing those words and the associated compound words related to that material in question. Often times, if you put a word like "The" into your tags and you are never going to find your website on a search engine unless you get 50,000 clicks a day with a search of the word "The"(obviously making a point). An alternative would be, if you used a word or words such as "Associated Content" you will get a much more specific search and chances of finding a site associated with exactly "Associated Content" are very probable. When you put in the search words or phrases in the tags, you are providing the meta-information about your page, such as descriptions and keywords for search engines and refresh rates. Those words inside those tags are where your Meta-Crawlers come in. Meta-Crawlers are what places like Google, Yahoo, etc etc.. use to get refreshes on pages, updated content from pages, specific phrases, page hits, etc etc. The more specific you are in the beginning builds, the better off you will be in the end.

Another good example is if you Google "Matt Geier Associated Content", you will get hits on the words "Matt" - "Geier" - "Matt Geier" - "Associated" - "Associated Content" - "Content" - "Matt Geier Associated" - "Matt Geier Associated Content", as well as various variations of each of those too!

You need to take some time to dig into the context of the pages you are trying to optimize for Search Engines, use good words that describe the specifics of your product and/or services. Spending an applicable amount of time to use the best words and word combination, and phrases possible to describe that web site or web page and get that appropriate information into the tags that need to be there.

In the end, you will find that it pays off. Don't get discouraged because you can't see your website on a search engine. Spread the word, advertise, do your due dilligence until you can say you've done everything you can. Then go and find yourself out there.

Matt Geier - 03/06/2007