WRITING YOUR WEBSITE
by Susan Greene
If you're looking to attract new customers for
your business, one of the most economical means of advertising
is the Internet. Sure you can buy paid listings on most search
engines. However, most professional website copywriters agree--The
most cost-effective way is to "organically" obtain a high ranking
for your keywords on search engines, that is, without paying
for advertising.
Your goal should be to gain
placement on page 1 or page 2 because, let's face it, most
searchers (myself included) can't be bothered going through
the thousands of websites the search engines bring up for almost
any search request. Searchers will typically go through the
first or second page seeking the most relevant listing. If
they don't find what they're looking for, they're more likely
to change their search request and use different keywords than
to keep plowing through pages of search results hoping to luck
into the right one.
So how do you get on page 1 or page 2 without buying a sponsored
(paid) listing? As an Orlando, Florida website copywriter, I
get asked this question a lot.
Because Google is the #1 search engine, I tell people to target
their copy to meet its requirements. Unfortunately, those so-called
requirements, which are actually sophisticated algorithms, are
not published anywhere. Furthermore, Google keeps changing them.
Google intentionally keeps their
algorithms secret so that website copywriters (like me) and
web designers won't be able to "fool" the
search engine into giving them high rankings. Keeping them secret
also helps Google maintain its edge as a superior search engine
over competitors.
So back to the original question: How do you obtain high rankings
for your website without buying paid advertising on search engines?
Most web writers would agree, the key is to keep in mind Google's
main objective--to provide the most relevant, informative websites
for search requests. Follow these tips and you should do well
in the rankings:
-
Have unique, useful keyword-rich
content. The more the better.
-
Continually add new, relevant content to keep
your site fresh and growing.
-
Have good keyword-rich title tags and meta tags
which truly reflect the content of your site.
-
Use a hierarchical structure so that
your site is user-friendly.
-
Have sitemaps with links that make it easy for
the user to find and get to what they want.
-
Design sites to work with any browser.
That means you may have to ditch that fancy flash introduction
you were so proud of.
-
Have other sites that are relevant to your business
link to you.
-
Also link to other sites that could be relevant
to your visitors.
-
Don't cross-link with link farms (useless websites
with little information of value created primarily for the purpose
of exchanging links) or spammers.
-
Don't try to use any tricks to fool Google or
other search engines. Eventually you will be caught and penalized,
the penalty being banishment from the search engine. Ouch!