Globi's Newsletter :: Volume 5, Issue 8.3 - September 2005 ::
Thank You for Your Interest in Empowering Your Business on the Web
And thank you for your interest in receiving this newsletter.
Search Engine Optimization 101
After all these years, there's still so much buzz in the market about Search Engine Optimization (or SEO for short). As with most subjects, the number of myths seem to far outweigh the number of truths.
Why not test yourself in this quick True or False exercise to see how you measure up to those in the know:
Answers
Keywords are the most crucial part of your planning.
True! - Research what your target audience would search for, and use these phrases in the visible, readable, text copy of the site. Make sure you research the keywords that your clients would search for, not what you sell. Paragraph headings are important for breaking up the text.
True! - In addition to breaking up the page and making it easier for humans to read, Search Engines have also been sometimes known to put a little more value on headings than on regular text too, so use your keywords here.
Page Titles are not visible and therefore not important.
False! - The actual Title of each page is the wording that appears in the title bar of your browser - it's not in the normal page content. Even so, this is the most critically important text as currently Search Engines put high value on this, and use it to display search results. Knowing this means that this text has to be sure to catch visitors' attention and get them to click through to your site.
Good Meta Tags will get me to the top of Search Engines.
False! - There are many Meta Tags, the most talked about being "Keywords". Yes, keywords are important, but need to be in the visible text copy - see point # 1.
Meta Tags are invisible to the visitor and have been so abused in the past as a method to get higher rankings that Search Engines completely ignore them in their ranking algorithms now.
Some Search Engines still use the "Description Meta Tag" in the display of search results, but not in evaluating relevance. Therefore put them in if you have the time, but if you don't, it shouldn't be a big deal.
Inbound Links will increase my website's popularity.
Maybe - Linking strategies have started to lose value primarily because crappy reciprocal link exchanges were created to cheat the engines. While it's currently still a good idea to get lots of inbound links - quality ones are what will drive traffic to your site. For example, if Microsoft links to you from their home page, it can by no means decrease your web traffic.
Search Engine Optimization should be done when the site is complete.
 False! - In general, SEO should be part of your site planning and creation. It's not an after-sale band-aid for traffic. Rather build your site properly in the first place, and then invest your money in some decent and specific marketing - like Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and other niched advertising.
To no surprise, when it comes to Search Engine Optimization there is no cut and dry all-mighty answer to this moving target. Furthermore, staying at least even mildly on top of it can sometimes feel like a full-time job, but perhaps the best rule of thumb to consider is keep it simple, and content is king. Don't worry about Search Engines - worry about your site visitors.
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