Maximizing Your Internet Presence Basic Website SEO: Part 2

Last week, in Maximizing Your Internet Presence Basic Website SEO: Part 1, we looked at three basic search engine optimization elements that should be included in your agency website. To refresh your memory they were:

• Domain Name: Include keywords, if possible. Don’t over hyphenate.
• Title Tag: The tag should be targeted AND clickable.
• Back Links: Create links on every website page that link to other pages within your own website.

This week I will provide you with three more basic elements that you should make sure your existing websites contain.

Page Name: Another important SEO element is the name of each website page. Many websites we review have a generic and/or non-descriptive page name. For example, www.mydomain dot com/?3z42.php vs. www.mydomain dot com/workers-compensation-insurance-tips.html.

Every page on your website should have a name that contains keywords that accurately describes the information contained on that particular page. Pay attention to the appropriate keywords you want to be found for and make sure the page that contains that information has the keywords in its page name.

Meta Description: The Meta Description should not be ignored. While it will not affect the search results as much in the past, it still is an important element to make sure you pay attention to. This is the second feature anyone will notice about your site, before they actually arrive on the page. So use keyword rich content with compelling text to encourage them to click on that search engine listing to visit your site.

Meta Keywords: Meta Keywords are certainly not used for ranking, but they should be added to each page so that you can keep track of what the page theme is ranking for. Some folks are concerned that using them this way would allow others to “steal” your keywords, but frankly there are so many other tools out there that they don’t have to view your meta keywords to find out what you are trying to rank that page for.

These are just the basics that can help your page rank better. There are additional factors that you may want to add depending on your site.

• Pages Names: Named according to the page content.
• Meta Description: What people see on the search engine results and can get you better click-through.
• Meta Keywords: While search engines don’t use these, you can use for tracking purposes.

As you continue to work on maximizing your Internet presence, making sure you have the basics correct is key. Each of these tips may not impact your search rankings as much by themselves, but together they add up to results that can really help your agency be more “findable” in web search.