SEO: A Means for Site Survival

Part 2 – Where’s My Site?

Posted by Brenda Timm, Director of Strategic Communications & Online Services

In Part 1 of this series, I shared my thoughts on why your site’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts shouldn’t take a back seat during the Web development process. So the next logical issue is where to start?

To view Part 1 of the series click here.

Often times I’ll meet with a new client and hear how much work was put into the company’s Web site, but get a sense that the final product hasn’t produced the desired results. It’s usually something to the effect of, “I’ll search Google and my competitors show up, but my site is nowhere to be found” or “I don’t see my site until I click on the sixth page of listings.” My first question is what kind of SEO campaign the company has in place, and most times, the answer is “none.”

While there’s no magic solution to getting your site to the top spot on the first page of Google rankings (where we all want to be!), there are a lot of great ways to give it your best shot:

• Competitor analysis – What kind of SEO efforts are your competitors (the ones who are always showing up at the top) implementing?
• Keyword research – Which keyword phrases should you be targeting? Often times, SE tools reveal that the ones you have in mind don’t match what people are actually searching
• Tag optimization – Are you taking full advantage of meta and alt tags and targeting the right keyword phrases? Are you following the rules by not “overstuffing” tags, hiding keywords or doing anything else that can penalize your site?
• Copy optimization – Is your body copy sufficiently – but not overly – optimized? Is your site location-specific?

These are just a few of the tactics that can contribute to a solid SEO campaign and better rankings in the major engines. Whatever you do, my best advice is that SEO should be a major focus and never become an afterthought.