Why Search Engine Optimization

SEO is the process of structuring  a webpage (website) so it can be found by search engines, hence, potential visitors to your website.

In other words making your site content and the content attractive, relevant and visible to search engines and web searchers is extremely important in marketing on the web. Consider if no one could find your phone number, address or information online you would be out of business without even beginning.

Simply creating a website that looks good without consideration to SEO is like forgetting to advertise that you are in business.

A few tips to ensure your site is found online are as follows:

Page Title

The title of the HTML page should be relatively short and describe the page content accurately. Wherever possible, try to include keywords (without distorting the true purpose of the title).

URL Structure

If a user can look at the Address bar (or a pasted link) and make an accurate guess about the content of the page before ever reaching it, you've done your job. These URLs get pasted, shared, emailed, written down, and yes, even recognized by the engines.

Body Text

Ensure that your site includes keyword in the body text content, the general rule is 6-12% keyword density throughout the page. When planning your site consider the keyword relevance as well.

Alt Image Text

We recommend including alt text for all images on all publicly accessible pages. We also suggest adding images with good alt text to pages targeting competitive rankings.

Meta Description

Google currently displays up to 160 characters, Yahoo! displays up to 165, and MSN will display over 200. Any descriptions over the limit will be cut-off by the search engines, and will be replaced with “…”. Because of this, it’s best to limit your meta descriptions to 160 characters or less.