There’s no way around SEO

You’ve built your website, added a shopping cart and gorgeous pictures, and waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  Where’s all the traffic.  Why haven’t they found you?

Regardless of how beautiful or efficient website you may have, there’s simply no way around it.  The internet is not a place where “if you build it, they will come!”

Search engine optimization is one strategy that you can’t ignore.

It’s not all that difficult — rocket science and brain surgery are much more difficult and takes longer to learn.  But you have to be careful who you learn from and what you learn.  There are all sorts of “tips” and “tricks” that folks online guarantee will quickly take you to the top.  But beware.  If you use the wrong “tips” and “tricks”, you might get your listings listed on the back pages of that favorite search engine — or even nowhere to be found at all.

It doesn’t take “tips” and tricks.”  It takes a bit of knowledge and time.

In some future posts, I’ll talk about some of the things you should do to increase your standings in the search engines.  Equally important, however, are some of the things you SHOULDN”T do.

1.  Forgetting the title tage for each page.  The title tag appears at the top of the browser and tells the search engines what the page is about.  Forgetting to include it is just like your forgetting to sign a letter you send out to your customers.

2. Using the name of your business or the url name as the title tag for each page.

3.  Stuffing the title tag with a list of words such as:  gift baskets, gourmet gift baskets, holiday gift baskets, gift baskets for kids, mother’s day gift baskets, and on and on.

4.  Using the title tag to welcome your customers.  It’s great to have a friendly website but the title tag is not the place to tell them how glad you are to have them there.

5.  Keywords meta tags, that are well written and contains just one or two keywords, is the way to go but unfortunately most search engines ignore them.  But a keyword meta tag that includes a long string of words or trademarked names of other businesses can get you penalized.

6.  Typing your keywords over and over again at the very top or bottom of your page  is an old trick that can hurt you.  How many websites have you seen that have every state in the Union listed as places they deliver to?

7.  Hiding words by using the webpage background color for the color of the text.  This little “tip” can get you banned from Google.

8.  Using keywords, that have nothing to do with your website,  to trick the search engines into sending traffic to you.

These are just a few things that can create problems with the search engines.  Seach engine optimization is very straight forward and doesn’t require tips and treats.  We’ll be talking about this more later.  In the meanwhile, make sure that you aren’t making some of these seach engine killing mistakes.

5 thoughts on “There’s no way around SEO”

  1. Eve, it is much easier to optimize niches than it is for broader terms. There’s so much competition for the broader terms that even using good SEO, it is difficult to get top ranking, partly because there is more to the ranking than just SEO. That is why using long tail keywords is so important. Even with Amazon listings, you can really optimize the listing according to everything you’ve read but Amazon still ranks those sellers who sell a lot higher than those who sell little.

  2. Following Joyce, my new site from Big Commerce is great but not enough hits, apart from my niches. Added the seo tags but not seeming to do much.

  3. Linda: No, you don’t have to know html in order to build a website but knowing a little bit helps you do some tweaking. I use Frontpage which has been replaced by ExpressionWeb. I know enough html to change the code in my site and to have the ability to read it but not enough to build a whole site without Frontpage.

    There are other programs that can be used to build websites, including prostores (which you’ll see an ad for on this site). With something like Frontpage, Dreamweaver, Expressionweb, etc, there is a learning curve. With prostores, it’s more of an easier learning experience and you can make your own changes.

    You could also pay someone to build one for you. They would need to teach you how to make changes and the way they build it would determine whether you can make changes or they would have to do it.

    There are a number of options depending on your knowledge and experience.

  4. I don’t have a website. I am just now reading all I can about the internet business. Does this article mean that I need to learn HTML to get the website right. I know that Front Page is probably easier to learn but I remember there are some drawbacks in trying to get published. Another question would be paying someone else to “make” your website for you. Would you then have to know HTML etc. to be able to “change” it if necessary? Thank you.

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