SEO - Search Engine Optimization

What is Search Engine Optimization...

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of "optimizing" your web site to improve your chances of top rankings on the "organic" search results pages of Google, Yahoo! and MSN. It is important to ensure that your site is search engine friendly prior to submitting your URL to the major search engines. SEO is an on-going process, it's not something you do upon setup, then forget. It is imperative that you continually update your site and track results of those efforts.

To get started, you should first analyse your existing site:

What are the keywords or keyword phrases that visitors would most likely use when searching for your type of products or services?
Who is your competition on the web and what types of keywords and phrases are they using?
What other companies can you established a recipricol link with?
What do you know about blogging and how it can help you in the search engines?

Once you have an idea of who your web audience is, and where you stand with your competition, start to work on improving your site.

Is your site graphically pleasing and easy to navigate?
Have you identified all of the obvious and not-so-obvious keywords?
Are all of your keywords relevant? Don't mislead.
Have you added hyperlinks to your keywords whereever possible?
Do your meta tags contain "unique" titles, descriptions and keywords for each page?
Is the content area of your site easy to read and easy to follow?

Now that you have your existing site in order, you might want to add the following prior to the registration process.

Prepare several "new-unique" informational pages for your content updates. This will allow you to add new material, while you are working on the SEO and registration process. These pages can be in the format of a newsletter, a specials page, etc.
Prepare a sitemap for Google and Yahoo! to refer to--it must be in the required format.
VPASP stores should also prepare Google and Yahoo! feeds, is possible.

Search Engine Optimized Title Development...

We combine top quality writing with an in-depth understanding of natural search engine optimization to develop interesting and engaging titles for our clients' content campaigns.

The Power of Effective Page Titles

Aside from the quality of the content itself, the title is the single most important on-page element on a page.

What makes titles so incredibly important?

The title will determine how many people choose to click and read your content.
The title is weighted very heavily by search engine algorithms and can dramatically impact how high your page ranks for individual keywords.

What the Experts Say about the importance of Title optimization:

(Source: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors)

Andy Hagans http://www.andyhagans.com	"title tag has consistently been the most important on-page SEO factor for the past few years."
Russ Jones http://www.virante.com	"Most important for CTR in SERPS, but generally the most powerful HTML tag you have at your disposal. I chose moderately weighted because of the duplicate content issues. A good title tag can help a little, a bad title tag can ruin a page."
Christine Churchill http://www.keyrelevance.com	"If you have time to do only one SEO action on your site, take the time to create good titles."
Elisabeth Osmeloski http://searchenginewatch.com	"Not only is it one of your strongest chances to impact rankings, it is undoubtedly your BEST chance to convert a searcher to a visitor within the SERPS. Get the click, get the conversion."

How to Write an Appropriately Optimized Title

It takes creativity and in-depth search engine optimization knowledge to develop highly effective and properly optimized page titles.

Here's a list of the most important things we consider when developing page titles for our clients:

As with the page content itself, titles must be developed first and foremost for humans.
Google encourages using keywords sparingly to help them understand what your page is about.
Using keywords too often in your title and content can make the content sound awkward and will hurt the user experience.
Over-use of keywords in your title can cause an over-optimization penalty from the search engines.
Titles should be engaging; hinting at something unique and special in the content, that entices people to click and learn more.

Search Engine Keyword Research...

Keywords are the starting point of any successful content project. We begin with keywords to discover topics of interest to write about for your site. Once we locate these keywords, we use them sparingly within the titles and body of each article, post, product page, press release, or other form of content page we develop. This technique of keyword-inclusion is based on advice offered by Google, and is meant to ensure that the search engines understand what the page is about, without over-optimizing the page to the point that humans find it awkward to read. It is a delicate balance, but over time we have come to perfect it.

The Purpose of Keyword Research

The goal isn't just to target keywords that will rank in the search engines (remember that content is for humans, not search engines). The real goal is to discover how people are searching for your product or service, so that you can give them the information they seek!

Keywords – the Great "Interest Indicator"

What better way to discover what people care about then looking at what keywords they're searching for? Keywords are the best possible "interest indicator". If no one's searching for it, no one's interested in it... and when it comes to writing great content, why bother writing about it if no one's interested?

How Keywords Eventually Lead to More Search Engine Traffic

By regularly giving people the information they're searching for, over time, your site will gradually develop an audience that trusts you as an authority in your topic. This will lead to more sites linking to yours, which, in the end, will help your content rise to the top of the search engine ranks.

What Does Google Say?

Here's what Google has to say about researching keywords, and including them sparingly in your site:

"In creating a helpful, information-rich site, write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic. Think about the words users would type to find your pages and include those words on your site."

Source: Google Guidelines

Search Engine Friendly Web Design...

No matter what your web design needs, we can provide a comprehensive solution that will surpass your expectations when it comes to aesthetics, as well as search engine results. From small business sites with a few simple pages, to large-scale, database-driven, corporate sites with advanced technology requirements, we can give you the site you’ve always dreamed of.

What Makes Our Web Design Services Unique

Many web design firms focus on visual design elements, but don't always give adequate focus on high quality content. This is understandable since content is not their main area of expertise.

While the aesthetic elements of a site are obviously very important in terms of conveying your company's professional image, we believe that high quality, search engine optimized content should be at the heart of any website design. All other elements of the site should be designed to allow your content to shine. In the long run, this will produce a much more robust website that appears alive and growing with fresh, high quality content. This, in turn, will cause your ranks in the search engines to rise, generating more and more free search engine traffic over time.