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 What You Need to Know to Obtain a High Website Ranking
Volume:2 Issue:4 - September 2007
Getting your website highly ranked for a given service is a sure way to boost your cosmetic services income. However, gaining top rankings - commonly known as “Search Engine Optimization/Marketing” - remains an elusive and confusing topic for most people.
What is known with certainty is that getting top rankings are no longer “accidental”. A website must be content-optimized and advertised in appropriate places on the internet on an ongoing basis in order to come up near the top of search pages.
I am amazed at the number of new websites that are launched with no
attention to the elements required to make the site visible on search
engines. This is no more clearly evident than in my own experience
indicating that website aesthetics still seems to be the primary concern
for many clients. This is misguided. Your website’s content, and not
its looks, is able to affect search engine ranking and attract new
visitors. This is not to imply that the look and feel of your website
should take a backseat to its content; rather that content and search
engine optimization should receive the same focus as aesthetics when
redesigning/launching your website. Here are some specific Dos and
Don’ts for you and your web developers:
Do:
- Hire web developers who demonstrate knowledge of the methodology
required to optimize content of your website
- Conduct keyword and competitor research
- Select appropriate keywords to be ranked for services on which
you are trying to focus
- Set appropriate keyword density for your keywords
- Optimize your content to emphasize your keywords
- Create "robot text files" on your website to welcome search
engines
- Produce keyword ranking report for keywords of interest
- Create a search engine friendly sitemap
Don't:
- Don't take your existing website offline while you redesign it.
This is the equivalent of changing your office and not leaving a
forwarding address. Taking down an existing website (or even individual
pages) will effectively erase your internet footprint; it could
take months or longer to regain your position. Decide which links
are of value to other sites and keep those links alive
- Don't over-optimize your content. All major search engines penalize for over-optimization by actually decreasing your page ranking
- Don't fall victim to people who promise to deliver
top rankings overnight. Top listing takes time. Unethical or illegitimate
practices can get you banned from search engines such as
Google and Yahoo! - this means your website may not come
up on a search page at all
- Don't start out by trying to be all things to all people. Select
a few services that you want to optimize and focus your efforts
on ranking for appropriate keywords; then move onto other services
Finally, remember:
- There is a saying within search engine optimization circles: content
is king. Well written, original content that is rich (not over-optimized) with appropriate
keywords will attract the right target audience for your cosmetic services
- Retaining top rankings is an ongoing effort. The internet is changing
and search engines routinely alter their search algorithms; any
optimization effort must reflect these changes
Our web development team takes these factors into account and
delivers a website that is ready for ongoing optimization. Please click here to email for more
information. |
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