Search Engine Optimization That Works For You
Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is a process that increases visits to your website by ranking your website higher in searches for specific keywords. For example, if you are a family law attorney in Atlanta, GA, search engine optimization would help your site rank highly in a search for "family law attorney in Atlanta"—ideally, your site would be placed in the #1 position.
Let's get to it, shall we?
Start with your keywords
Keywords or key phrases or words that people will use to search for services similar to yours. Using the same example as above, your keywords may be "family law' or "atlanta". Each page on your site is considered separate by search engines and can contain its own set of keywords, but should have no more than three or four unique keywords per page.
It's important to determine these keywords up front, and it's important that they accurately describe your business. While it may be nice to rank #1 in a search for "family law attorney in Atlanta" , that's not useful if you're an intellectual property lawyer in Chicago. For most businesses, your keywords will be your products, services and industry-related terms.
Integrate your keywords with your content
One way that search engines rank your web pages is based on the ratio of times your keywords are mentioned within the text of the page overall. It's good to keep this percentage at about 5%. For example, if you have a total of 300 words in a web page, each of your keywords or key phrases should be mentioned around 15 times. If, however, your web page content begins to sound manufactured and doesn't flow correctly when read, it's better to err on the side of readability for a visitor.
The goal of search engine optimization is to have visitors get to a page so that they can perform an action, such as calling your firm or subscribing to your newsletter. Make sure that your articles are written for them, not a search engine. Otherwise, you may get a lot of visits and no calls because your information probably won't make sense.
Promote your website through other websites
Another method search engines rank your website through is popularity; the more pages that link to your website, the more value is assigned to your website. The best way for companies to get these inbound links is to list your website in online directories. Many are free, but it's also useful to subscribe to paid directories as well. As an added benefit, listings in online directories will display your website for people who may be browsing or looking for services that your firm provides.
Helios Studios has experience developing sites that rank well in today's top search engines. If you would like more information about search engine optimization and the benefits it can provide to your website and business, please contact us through our online form, or request a free consultation.
This service is in phase 4 of the Helios Studios web development process: Deploying your website.