Helpful Tips on Optimizing a Web Site
By: Mets Aquino | Posted: 05th July 2007
After spending so much time and/or money on designing and building your site, now the real problem comes. It is not enough that you have built a site and just let it hang there. In doing such, its like throwing away the money and time spent on this project to trash. You are done with the easy parts. Yes, you heard it right, those are easy compared to what you will do next.
To be able to get higher traffic, continuous optimization of your pages is necessary. It is done to have high search engine rankings and to have high pr. Here are some suggestions on optimizing a website:
Keywords
It is beneficial to take all the time that it takes to research for keywords and key phrases for your site. Never use irrelevant keywords moreover do not “keyword stuff” your meta tags. It has been abused frequently and as a consequence, most major search engine don't give much weight on the meta tags. If found to be in such violation, search engine will penalize your site.
Title Tag
Be short and descriptive as possible when writing your title tag. Keep in mind that search engines will compare it to the text on that page and rank it accordingly. In addition, it will help your users know what the page is about. It is also advisable that the same keywords contained in your title tag will be used in writing the main text on your page.
Codes
Who would not like a “clean” code? Even people gets dizzy in looking on a “messy” code and so as to crawlers. It is recommended to use another file for formatting and just “call” your CSS file when needed. That way, crawlers can scan your codes and find your keywords on the content faster.
Using Other Technologies
It has been said that using Flash technologies and other similar techniques can “hurt” your rankings because search engines cannot read such. It is true that it is better to use standard technology such as HTML but still Flash animations is more attractive to a visitor's eyes. Don't limit your design because of this. A good optimization can still keep your site up on the running in the search engine rankings.
Content
Don't get too carried away on designing your site. Make sure that you are creating a content-rich pages. It will not only help you on search engine rankings but also it will be beneficial for your visitors for they have come to look for information. They will likely come back if your site is well fed with valuable informations.
Sitemap
Having a well-designed sitemap helps both the users and the search engines. This will ensure that all the pages of your site gets indexed by the search engines.
Links
There are many ways to increase your link popularity. One way is to participate in link exchange programs by joining forums. This is the fastest way to do link exchange as long as the members in the forum are active. Just remember to be discrete so that they will not think that you joined to spam. With regards to your link exchange partners, make sure that they are related to your site to avoid being a link farm. If search engines find sites that have nothing in common with the content of your site, they will lower your overall ranking on their search results by lowering your relevancy rate.
Another way is to submit your sites to web directories. Avoid using software that automaticlly sends your site in a weekly or monthly basis. Bear in mind that the sites are being checked by humans and sited that have been submitted multiple times will automatically be disapproved. If still has no reply after 6 weeks, you can send an email to follow up.
The most important thing in link building is to focus on the quality of the sites and not the quantity.
Promotion
Make advertisements for your sites and submit it to as many ads sites as possible. You can also promote your site by making press releases, articles and mentioning them in your blog.
Hidden Link or Text
The most common way on hiding a link or a text is by using a font color similar to the background color. If found to be doing this, search engines will penalize your site and your rankings will drastically affected.
Cloaking Mechanisms
Never serve a unique, optimized page for the search engines and serve a completely different page to real users. This will risk your site on being penalized or worst being banned.
Looks like a lot of work? Well, it really is and it is quite a long process. But this will definitely pay off after a month or so. This way, you will increase the number of your unique visitors daily and get the return of investment and also the profit you are looking for. But if your focus is on the core business objective, one option is to hire the services of an SEO expert. Ask for referrals and do not hesitate to ask exactly would your SEO expert firm uses to achieve a good positioning for your site.
RESOURCE: Author Mets Aquino recommends ProAdultOutsourcing – a web design company that offers affordable custom web site design and search engine optimization services.
About the Author
Occupation: SEO
Mets Aquino recommends ProAdultOutsourcing - the leading provider of Internet Offshore Outsourcing Solutions since 2003 that offers web programming, search engine optimization, web site design and maintenance services for a LOW PRICE. Also accepts services for adult online ventures.
This article is free for republishing
Printed From: http://www.articlealley.com/article_183832_62.html
Back to the original article
Tags: search engines, title tag, traffic, phrases, search engine rankings, meta tags, money, flash animations, consequence, css file, formatting, using flash, website keywords