Targeted/Strategic keywords-The keywords you want your customer search to find your company. An example is “web design greenville sc” or “restaurants greer sc”

Content-What’s on your page-everything from images to text.

Sitemap-Includes all the pages you want indexed in search engines. Usually written in XML language.

Index-In this context it means all the pages that the search engine searches.

Tag-Html (or other coding language) element that surrounds specific content. Tags tell the browser, a header is a header and an image is an image. Ex. <h1>Logo Design Greenville SC</h1> Would tell the browser this is the most important header.

This is an image from my previous post on Search engine optimization. It gives you an idea of the Google Search layout:

The Google Layout Explained

1. Put Keywords in your domain name

Example: www.graphicdesigngreenville.com

2. Clip the .html off page names and use keywords in page names.

Example: www.pgraphics.biz/website-design

3. Put main site navigation as close to the top of the page as possible and don’t use images for your navigation!

It’s kind of common sense to make navigation one of the first things you see and most websites have this right because it makes design sense, but there are the exceptions-don’t be one.  Images shouldn’t be in navigation because google can’t read them.

4. Image ALT tags and URL TITLE tags

These are very important not only for adding keywords to but for user accessibility. If the viewer is visually impaired, these tags are read to them though a screen reader program.

5. Don’t create a completely FLASH-based site. Google can’t read it (yet).

An easy way to tell if the site is flash is by right clicking on the page. Flash is great for image slide shows and videos, interactive displays, but not for the complete site.

6. Get into the free local searches in Yahoo and Google

The local search usually is shown before the organic search.  See image below.
GOOGLE LOCAL – www.google.com/local/add
YAHOO! LOCAL  – listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php

7. Write content relevant to the keywords you want people to search for.

Google is trying to give the searcher the most relevant content to their search query. By having pages of content about the most searched keywords you want people to find you with will bring you higher and higher in google.

8. Use stragetic keywords in the TITLE tag of your page.

The title shows up on the very top bar of your browser window and usually is the second item in the code making it the first chance to give Google Search some keywords.

9. Use h1 (header) tags and include keywords in them

Don’t be afraid of a little html—the h1 header tags go around the most important headers on the page. Usually it looks like this: <h1>Logo Design in Greenville SC</h1>

10. Create a blog and comment on other blogs

Blogs are easy for anyone to update once they are set up. You can set up a blog on a blog site like blogger.com, on a separate domain, or on your current domain in a sub-directory. When you comment on someone’s blog, they usually let you include your domain, making it a good way to do tip #11.

11. Find sites that will link to you

It could be a site that targets the same customers, but is not in direct competition with you. The larger the site the better and the more relevant to your targeted keywords the better. Include your site on the obvious sites like Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn. Switch it up and include pages other than your index page (like a product or service page).

12. Create and submit a Sitemap to Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft

Sitemaps guarantee (99.9% of the time) you will be in the index, so people can actually find you.
Here’s a site that creates the sitemap for you: www.xml-sitemaps.com
You just have to download the file they give you to your computer and then upload it to your site.
Here’s where you submit your sitemap URLs:
www.google.com/webmasters
siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com
webmaster.live.com

These tactics produce the best results in local searches
These tactics work great for local searches. Most people search on a local level when searching for many services and products. When I search, I usually search “restaurants greer sc” or something similar.

Want more on the subject of Search Engine Optimization? Here’s a blog entry I wrote on that subject: http://www.graphicdesigngreenville.com/small-business-marketing/search-engine-optimization-myths-revealed/

Disclaimer: These are meant to help designers and business owners alike in creating the most effective websites. The information came from personal trial and error and reading SEO articles.

If you need help with your website, feel free to contact Design Smart.

Note: There are quite a few blog software creators. My favorite is Wordpress.org because of it’s ease of use, clean code and vast amount of FREE templates. Any reference to the blog interface is talking about wordpress.

Advantages of Business Blogs

• Naturally search engine friendly – Blogs help you create great site structure with tools like tags, categories, and links. The tools give you an excuse to add keywords all over your site as well as structure the site in a search engine friendly manner. For example, this page’s url, is graphicdesigngreenville.com/website-design/whats-all-the-fuss-about-blogs. You can see quite a few relevant keywords like “website design” and “blogs” as well as my domain which has “graphic design” and “greenville” in it. In my URL, “website-design” is the category. If you want to see all posts under this category just simply go to graphicdesigngreenville.com/website-design/. Google and other search engines like this structure.
• Gives your business a personal side – Blogs aren’t corporate and they shouldn’t be. It’s a chance to let some personality out! Your business website is professional, gives people facts, and sells to them. Your blog allows you to let customers know about your latest news in your business, give customers advice, and wish them a happy new year (or other holiday)! You have a chance to help  them out for FREE with your information and because of that they will have a positive memory in their mind about your company.
• Drives traffic to your business website - Your blog can drive traffic to your website, so when people are ready to buy, they can visit your site with more confidence in your products and your knowledge about them.
• You might become a blog star - If your blog catches fire, people can subscribe to your feed-that’s blog talk for you get lots more traffic to your blog and business website!
• You control the content – You can write freely, post images or videos and not have to pay someone to add it to the site. Once you complete your entry you just simply hit PUBLISH and it is live on the internet!
• Easy and Quick setup – If you need to get content up fast, you can purchase a domain name and hosting, install the blog, and have your first post up in 1 day!

Disadvantages of Business Blogs

• You control the content – Don’t get drunk on all that freedom! Keep your blog focused on a topic you decided on from the start. Keep the look consistent, your content relevant to your chosen topic and your posts spelling and grammar free.
• It needs your time and commitment – Are you ready to commit 1-3 hours a week to a blog. blogs that don’t get updated often are looked over quickly and forgotten (no rhyming intended)! If you start one, set an alarm in your calendar to write a quality post at least once a week.
• Popularity isn’t necessarily a good thing – Because blogs are great tools, many people have them and create them every day! (no one has an accurate number but technorani is tracking 133 million Blogs). The difference between you and them is you know how to use them to benefit your business!

My tips for a success blog

Create your blog on a separate domain from your business website that includes keywords you want people to find you with.  The main tip to keep in mind is to create content that viewers will read and make the content relevant to what you are selling. Also, strategically place your keywords into your blog by including them in your posts through tags and categories.

The cheapest way to start a blog is using blogger.com or wordpress.com (FREE). The only disadvantage is you will have their name in your domain name. For example, mine would be “graphicdesigngreenville.wordpress.com”.  An advantage of using these services is you can network with the other bloggers on those sites and drive traffic to your business website that way.

The thumbnail below is an example of a blog I set up for a real estate and business owner, Steven Sarkela who wanted to give people information on his Condo and Beach home rentals in Charleston, SC and the Folly Beach area. With a 10 minute conversation over the phone, he had his first blog entry up.  He picked out a theme, I modified it a little and had his site up in a day. Visit Steven Sarkela’s website at www.stevensarkela.com.

Steven Sarkela's Blog set up by Photo Graphics

Setting up a blog for you or your business can be more affordable than an actual website. Blogs are also a great addition to your marketing materials and existing website. Please contact me through my website www.pgraphics.biz, if you are interested in setting up a blog or need any of my design services.

HAPPY BLOGGING, Calvin