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Search engines are in the business of providing pertinent, helpful results for their clients. They are looking for websites which are not only well designed, but also show expertise in their field. They use popularity and references (traffic and incoming links) as their main indicators of a website's usefulness and interest to the public.

Getting listed requires active self promotion. Simply building a website and placing it online will not automatically get you listed with the engines. First you need to meet their criteria with an optimized, well appointed website that offers compelling, well written copy and title. Then you need to get others to link to your website to show the engines that you are a site others would enjoy and recommend. If you have the time, get involved with the online community through blogs and forums - this will help you build an online reputation and help drive traffic to your website.

An entire industry has rapidly grown up around the business of marketing websites to search engines. This is commonly referred to as SEO. A good SEO Marketing Company or professional SEO freelancer is indispensable. Much like a financial consultant, they must constantly keep up with the tricks of the trade and the latest trends, using finesse and insight to navigate the complex and competitive online marketing industry.

So what is a new website owner to do in this environment? Firstly, make your website search engine friendly using the basic guidelines provided here. Submit your website to the search engines using SDW's Search Engine Submission service. Then you can begin acquiring quality links from other websites, try out the Paid Advertising services from Google, Yahoo and other major Search Engines, and get the word out about your website on all your correspondence. If you have the time, get involved online. There are a number of social networking places online available for you to frequent. Or, secure the services of a good SEO Professional and let them guide you through this process step by step.

Note: SDW does not offer SEO services.

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Adapted, with permission, from Stoney deGeyter's "Guide for Writing Optimized Text". Original article may be found at Pole Position Marketing's Forum, E-Marketing Performance.

Good website text is marketing copy for your business. Your website pages should have a clear sales message that entices the visitor to take action, such as making a purchase or a phone call. Be sure that every page contains a call to action.

Begin by creating a list of key descriptive words and phrases that describe your work and intent. Using this information, come up with a "core term" that defines your website. This term and the supporting information from your list should be considered during the writing process for all pages.

Website pages are driven by keywords, but must be presented on the web site in natural, conversational form for the viewer. Use your core term and supporting information liberally throughout the pages as often as good, readable copy will allow.

Writing Style: You should use customer focused language, making your pages less about "we" or "us" and more about providing solutions for your client's current needs. Questions should be anticipated and answered. Use of bullet points, paragraph headings, bolds and italics (where appropriate) is encouraged to break up a redundant text page while making skimming and scanning easier.

Sales Message: It is imperative that each page obtain the readers interest and provide enough information to help users make an informed decision. Not only features but also benefits must be used as part of the sales verbiage.

Headings: Every page should have a page heading which succinctly tells the reader what they will find on the page. Page headings are matter-of-fact and will almost always use the core term. (For example: Expert PC Repair and Computer Networking Solutions). If the content can be naturally divided into sections then paragraph headings should be used and written similar to page headings. Bolding your Heading is a good idea.

Page Titles: Each page must have a title. The title acts as the clickable link found on a search engine results page. The title must simultaneously inform the visitor of the content of the page, prove that the page has the information the searcher was seeking (keyword usage), and provide enough compelling information to make the searcher want to click through to visit your website. Titles should never be deceptive or provide information that is not found in the body content of the page. This will backfire on you. Your title may include your name and/or your company name for branding purposes, but emphasis should be placed on compelling keywords first. A page title should be approximately 8-12 words in length.

When creating your title, think about what someone might actually type into a search engine when looking for your kind of product. Put yourself in your client's shoes. If you provide a service that is localized, include the location in your title.

Example of a Good Title: Photojournalistic Candid Artistic Professional Santa Barbara Wedding Photographer - John Smith.

* Why does this work? Think about searches you have done and some of the strange, often unexplainable results you get. A title like this is descriptive and to the point. It lets the searcher know exactly what your website contains and is enough information for them to determine quickly if you can fill their needs.

Example of a Poor Title: John Smith Photo

* Why doesn't this work? It tells the viewer nothing about your work. If they don't already know who John Smith is, they have very little incentive to visit your website.

An area for titles is provided in the Text Wizard. Add titles to every page.

Descriptions: Descriptions are often displayed in the search results below the clickable title. Not all engines will use the description (Google writes its own for you based on the content it find on your website), but many do. The description should provide additional relevant information that could not fit into the title. Both core and supporting keywords, along with a few related keywords should be used in the description, giving the searcher as much information as possible in a short but intriguing paragraph. Description should be approximately 30-50 words in length.

Example of a Good Description: Photojournalistic Santa Barbara wedding photographer, John Smith. His award winning, professional, candid wedding photography captures your event in artistic black & white and color.

* Why does this work? It includes a variety of common keywords inserted into a readable form: photojournalistic, Santa Barbara, wedding, photographer, photography, professional, candid, event, artistic, black & white, color. This lets the viewer quickly determine if you are what they are looking for.

Example of a Poor Description: John Smith - Wedding Photographer.

* Why doesn't this work? It is not compelling or informative. It does not specify what type of wedding photography or where the photographer is located, both highly relevant items for a wedding couple to consider, and increases the photographer's chance of being lost in the crowd.

A description for your website may be added to the Search Engine Meta Tags section within your Text Wizard.

Helpful Tools for entering text into the Text Wizard

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This is by no means an exhaustive list, but is intended as a primer on search engine marketing to get you started. For more in depth information, use the links at the bottom of the page for access to virtually unlimited free advice on how to get your site listed well with the engines.

1. Research your key words

Start by deciding what it is that you actually want people to find your website for. What do you think your clients would type into a search engine box to find you? Your name is an obvious choice, but what if they don't know your name and just want to find someone who does what you do? Naturally, you want to show up as an option in their search result. More importantly, you want to show up on the first page of results. So how is this done?

Start making a list of keywords that you want to be listed for. Then narrow it down to 25, listing the most important ones first.

Try to focus on key phrases rather than single keywords. Using an Illustrator's website as an example, a key phrase would change your competition from the very broad category of "illustration", which could include everything from actual illustrations to the history of illustration, to the specific type of illustration that you do, such as "medical illustration."

Even deciding on what keywords to use can be more complex than you might think, as it should largely depend on what people are actually typing into a search box when they look for you, or when they look for people who provide the services that you provide.

Using the example above, what would someone looking for a Medical Illustrator actually type into an engine? Do they type "medical illustrator" or do they type "anatomy illustrations"?

Find out what terms people use by using one of the many key word search tools online, including Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker. For an extensive list of keyword search resources, visit Search Engine Watch.

2. Enter text in Text Wizard

Once you've researched your keywords, it's time to start adding them to your website. This is the most vital step to getting your site listed - providing content for the engines to actually index you for.

Engines use keyword frequency to determine how important a keyword is on a website, relative to other websites using the same keyword, so you should make liberal, but natural, use of your keywords and key phrases. (See our Guide to Writing Web Site Copy to the left).

Greater emphasis is placed on text located higher on the page so place your important search keywords and key phrases in the first paragraphs.

Most of the major search engines, including Google, will ignore the description and keywords you use in your Search Engine Tags and index you solely using the text they find on your actual pages and the text they find in your Page Titles. If you have neglected to enter text on your site, they could ignore you entirely.

3. Title your pages

Place a title on each of the pages of your website. This is a crucial step. It is like the title of a book. Just as a librarian would locate a book based on its title, a search engine will locate a website based on its page title. Therefore, your title must include the keywords you want to be found for.

Each page should have its own title accurately reflecting the content on the page. The more closely related the page title and page content are, the better the engines will respond. This also lets the engines know that all your pages have unique content and should be indexed individually.

The title will also show up as the clickable link when your site appears in a search engine result. Therefore make it interesting, descriptive and compelling in order to draw visitors to your site.

4. Use key phrases, not key words

Use key phrases instead of single keywords in your page titles and body text. This is also useful in the Search Engine Tags area of the Text Wizard. You have a lot of competition out there on the internet, so the closer your key phrases come to what you do, the easier your clientele will be able to find you. For example, "medical illustration" is better than "illustration" only. "Medical illustration education" could be even better.

Avoid excessive repetition of the same word. This is considered spam, and could get your site penalized by an engine. This largely refers to the practice of placing entire paragraphs of the same word over and over again on a page to try to game the engines. They are on to this trick. Your keywords should flow naturally within sentences.

5. Search Engine Meta Tags

Although not as important as the body text and Page Title, you should enter a description and keywords into your Search Engine Tags sections. Not all engines will use this information, but its good to have for those engines that do.

Your space for a Description is limited to two or three sentences so make them count. Internet users favor speed above all things, so be brief and to the point, but also be engaging, professional and interesting. This is your chance to draw visitors to your site (See our Guide to Writing Web Site Copy to the left).

6. Search Engine Submission

Once you have prepared your website, its time to submit it to the search engines. Every new website should be submitted. This alerts the engines to your new presence on the web, and gets your site into their index. This does not guarantee that your site will immediately begin ranking well for your keywords (its unlikely that you will enjoy a top 10 rank in your first few months), but it does get you into their system so that they can begin monitoring your website performance.

As your site ages, you will likely make updates to your website. You can resubmit your website to the engines after each time you make a significant change. This will send their "crawlers" to your site to take another look. Although crawlers will eventually come to your site on their own, some engines realize that people rarely update their website very often, and may only send their crawlers out once or twice a year. A new submission will send their crawler out on your time.

SiteDesignWorks Search Engine Submission includes all the major search engines like Yahoo, Google and MSN, plus hundreds more that you may never have heard of. Though these smaller engines may not get as much traffic as their larger cousins, every little bit helps.

Before your website can be submitted, it must be prepared for the engines. This is referred to as Search Engine Optimization and is essential for every website owner to do, regardless of whether they submit their website or not.

7. Get linked up!

After you've prepared and submitted your website, it's time to start promoting it. The most important thing you can do is get other websites to link to yours, provided that the other website is engaged in a similar business. This is called a "relevant link", and search engines view relevant links as an indication that you are a legitimate business, which other businesses in your field would recommend. In essence, a link is a Vote in your favor. But its only going to help you if the vote comes from a natural and relevant source. In other words, the other website should be about the same subject, or a related subject, as your own website.

In addition to relevancy, you also want links from well ranked websites. Naturally, the engines place more importance on links from high ranking websites than they do from unknown websites. In this way, you "piggy back" on the other site's popularity. And as an added bonus, when the other site gets traffic, there is the added chance that one of their visitors will click on your link and come visit your site too.

So how do you find websites to link to you? You probably already know many people in your business who would be willing to exchange links with you. You may also be a member of many online communities such as group portfolio websites, online galleries, artist associations, and other places where you can add a link to your website. If you aren't already a member of these other websites, it may be the time to start.

As tempting as it may be, do not engage in the large link trading schemes that people will try to sell to you to boost your search engine rank. Links are not about popularity, and more is not necessarily better. You want links from good websites that are also about the same subject that you yourself want to be listed for.

* Advice about Building Links

* Where to Build Links

8. Get listed with a directory

Submit your website to established directories such as Business.com, JoeAnt, Best of the Web, GoGuides, UncoverTheNet, Ezilon, DMOZ. Use the ISEdb to find niche directories. Many niche directories are part of associations which you can join.

These directories are reviewed by humans, not computers, so read their guidelines carefully before submitting your website. Don't include marketing hype in your description. Editors rarely like this. Be factual and make good use of your keywords.

Of special note is the Yahoo! Directory. An annual fee of $299 will get you listed for one year in their commercial directory. This may help your site get listed more quickly by the crawler-based engines like Google, who primarily use a website's incoming links to determine how they will list a website in their own index. Having a Yahoo link can be a great boon.

Not all Directories can help you. Many simply don't get any significant amount of traffic, and therefore pass very little value or traffic to your site. A little research goes a long way.

SearchEngineGuide on Directories

9. Paid Advertising

You might consider trying out paid advertising on the major search engine such as Google's Adwords or Yahoo/MSN's Overture. It is often helpful to use their programs in the beginning if you want a faster listing, even if only for a limited amount of time to get things started. Many people will cancel their paid advertising once their site begins showing well on the free organic indexes, while others always keep their paid advertising active for added traffic.

For more information visit Google Adwords and Overture.

10. Get Involved - Social Networking

The online community is just that - a community. Reputation is a valuable commodity and if nurtured, will drive traffic to your website. Get involved with the Blogs, Forums and other Social Media Marketing (SMM) avenues available to you, especially those related to your industry - most are Free and Easy To Use. As you contribute to the conversations, people will grow to trust you and be more inclined to give you their business.

Tips on SMMs:

1. Follow the SMM's etiquette and rules.

2. If the SMM allows, include your website address in your Signature.

3. Be professional but also be yourself. Having a "Voice" is important.

4. Set aside time for regular posts and contributions.

5. If you have an option to add a Profile, use it. Include meaty keywords. They can get picked up in Search Engine Queries and are very important. Be sure to link back to your own website if allowed.

On Blogs:

Many people will visit a Blog every week. Bloggers make regular contributions, often several times a week, to keep their audience interested.

Don't spend your time just talking about yourself. This is a common mistake for first time Bloggers. Your readers will stay interested if you provide them with pertinent information that they can apply to their own lives. Make your posts informative, tip oriented, educational, interesting, clever or amusing. Think of your Blog like a weekly article in a Newspaper or Magazine. The reader must find something that interests them or relates to them personally. Think about what would interest you as a reader, and go from there.

SMMs to Consider:

Blogger - Google's free online blogging software. It comes equipped with an established community of readers and contributors and is easy to use. A great place to start your own Blogging adventure.

MySpace - One of the first important social networking communities.

FaceBook - Similar to MySpace. Provides lots of useful tools and features.

LinkedIn - One of the foremost professional networking sites.

Flickr - A picture sharing network.

Digg - Visitors vote on favorite stories. Top billing on Digg can direct a remarkable amount of traffic to a website.

Reddit - Similar to Digg. Also very popular.

StumbleUpon - Visitors vote on favorite websites (Social Bookmarking).

YouTube - A video sharing network.

Craigslist - Top-Ranked forum for all sorts of things including advertisements for services and products.

del.icio.us - Very popular Social Bookmarking community - others online can view your Bookmarks or Favorites.

Imeem - A music sharing network.

Squidoo's List of Social Boomarking Sites...
Wikipedia's List of Social Media Sites...

* More Advice About Blogging

* Advice About Joining Facebook

* Advice on Choosing a SMM

11. Educate yourself

You do not need to be an expert, but you should be familiar with general search engine trends. Consider signing up for an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) email Newsletter for monthly tips and tricks. Some good ones include Search Engine Guide, eMarketer, and HighRankings.

12. Get Help - Professional SEO Services

If you don't seem to be getting the listing that you like, or don't have the time needed to devote yourself to a high ranking, it may be time to consider hiring an SEO professional. SEOs specialize in search engine optimization techniques, and due to the ever changing, highly competitive nature of the search engines, they are often your best chance of success.

If you choose to hire an SEO, do some research first. There are a number of companies and individuals out there, but not all are alike. An SEO professional is like a financial consultant - you must rely on their talent, competency, strategy and finesse to maneuver in this ever changing environment. Ideally your SEO professional should have a few top ranking sites in their portfolio. Get referrals!

Note that many SEO professionals charge a monthly fee with no guarantee of success. Some may take payment based on benchmarks, but remember, you really do get what you pay for.

13. Don't drive yourself crazy

Lastly, be realistic in your expectations. It's not about being in the top ten, competing with the largest corporations and design firms. It's about improvements - if your site is doing better than it was before, you're succeeding. Jennifer Laycock at SEG wrote a great article about keeping things in perspective:

Focus on Improvement, not Domination

 

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