Getting your website to rank well in the search engines is an ongoing process. Just like any other effective internet marketing strategy it requires that you do some work. If you take the time to do it right the first time, it will pay off with lots of targeted, organic traffic. Targeted traffic and building a relationship with your readers is the key to good website conversion.
Before getting started though, there are three things you need to consider. If you use each of these keys in preparing your website, and you submit your website to the search engines, your site will rank well, and you’ll get plenty of targeted traffic.
1. Website Analysis
Although building websites in HTML will help you create search engine friendly pages because it’s easy to read, if you are serious about building a website that ranks well, you need to use a website building script. The value of using a script is that it makes your site easier to organize. It’s also easier to change the look of your site.
One of the most important factors in choosing a script is to make sure it is search engine friendly. A search engine friendly script will get more easily indexed by the search engines because they will be able to read it.
If the site offering the script offers a demo, try the script out. Make sure that it’s easy for you to use, and that you understand it. Make sure you understand how to customize it so it has the look and feel you want. You want your site to look professional.
Offer an organized menu for your visitors. Make sure it is easy for them to find what they are looking for. Include a search box on your site, if possible, as many visitors will use search on your site to find what they are looking for.
If it’s not possible to offer search, at least make your site easy to browse. Don’t make your visitors click more than twice to find what they are looking for. This means building your site “wide”, and not “deep.” The more times visitors have to click to find what they are looking for, the more likely they are to click away.
Look at on page optimization factors. Are your pages internally linked in a way that will lead your visitors to further information? Will these links take your visitor deeper into the site? In other words, is your site organized in such a way to make it sticky?
2. Keyword Research
Keyword research really is your first step. After all, you want to know how much competition you have for the topic you have chosen for your website. You also want to know exactly what searchers are looking for. If you optimize for the wrong keywords, no one will find you.
Include your keyword research as part of your website analysis. There are tons of free keyword research tools on the internet to help you find the right keywords. Use these keywords when writing your content, as well as optimizing your website.
Also, use these keywords to write your promotional content like articles. This will help you brand yourself, and it makes your content more relevant.
3. Linking Strategies
Once you have built your website and submitted it to the search engines, you want to start building your linking strategy. Linking is where you exchange links with sites that offer similar content. You may also submit to directories that are related to your topic.
To the search engines, a link from another site is like a vote for your content. It makes your content more relevant to the topic if there are other sites that point back to your content.
Besides finding relevant directories to submit your site, writing articles is also an excellent way to build backlinks to your site, especially if there are a lot of high ranking article directories related to your topic. Even if there aren’t, links from these sites still make your content more relevant. A one way link from another site is also more valuable than exchanging links.
Do your homework before building your website. It will help you avoid a lot of problems, your site will easily get indexed by the search engines, and it will rank well.
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jinger jarrett is the author of “internet marketing for free: the guide,” available on amazon.