Set Now Solutions specializes in online marketing and web-based productivity solutions.

Many businesses and non-profits think of optimizing their web site AFTER it's built but the best approach is to build a web site with search engine optimization in mind form the start. If your optimizing after your site is built - don't panic - you can still get a heads up over the competition.

You and your staff can do a lot of search engine optimization yourselves such as researching keywords, writing and optimizing great page content and contacting web sites asking for a link. Don't have time? You can hire a Search Engine Optimization Specialist but keep reading this article so you know what to look for when hiring someone.

Content Rules
The old adage holds true - a website with good content, and lots of it, will help your website rank well in the search engines. In the old days, you could get by with having great META description and keyword tags; but, today, META tags have a lot less influence on a page's ranking. Having a good web site 'content strategy' is the key to getting your site listed well in the search engines.

Links from Other Sites
This tactic will help your ranking in the search engines and it will drive more customers too! Links to your website from social media sites, blogs, and other websites are a very important factor in search engine ranking.

Selecting the Right Keywords is Still the Main Key
Researching what keywords people are using to search for websites like yours makes sense on two levels:

1. you will be better found in the search engines for words people are actually using to find businesses like yours
2. your page copy will stand-out to the web site visitor who came to your site using those search terms

We're not saying you shouldn't pay attention to compelling and stylish graphic design because how a site is designed is equally important to search engine ranking. Maybe that's a topic for next month?

Search Engine Happenings.

• Advice for web sites less than a year old. Google has a history of taking six months to a year before a new site is allowed to rank well for competitive terms. The scuttlebutt is that this may be changing BUT we still recommend that you continue with your SEO strategy of adding excellent content, getting linked from other high ranking sites and optimizing every page for the right keywords.
• Web Sites that have been around aren't in the clear either. Update your site frequently. There is a rumor that Google may be dropping sites that have not been updated or one's that have not acquired any new links from other sites for over a year. Regardless of whether it's true, it doesn't hurt to update your website at least once a month to be on the safe side.

Content Rules

You will need to choose whether you can use the copywriting capabilities that you have in house or whether you need to hire an SEO copywriting specialist. Companies can also purchase syndicated content. Here are some tips on choosing what to do.

Most writers think the content part is easy but this is actually the hardest part. Writing great copy for the search engines and for your site visitors is a delicate balance of communicating with a human and a robot all at the same time.

The important thing to remember is to balance the customer's experience with optimizing for the search engines. For example, some SEO experts tend to create content with a lot of keywords but it is unreadable to a web site visitor. Marketers tend to write content from a marketing angle and may use 'jargon' words that most people would not think to type into a search engine to find your product or service.

You will need to balance between communicating with your audience and getting the search engines to index your site properly. Can your writers achieve this?

To ensure the content you've created gets seen by the search engines, remember to optimize each page's Title, META and ALT tags, based on your chosen keyword, before submitting the new pages to search engines.

Keeping Track

Links from Other Sites

Another strategy is to create a blog. Not only will it build brand awareness but it may drive traffic back to your site via keywords in the links. This will improve your page ranking with Google and others.

Add these to your 'To Do' List

1. Get links from websites with a high 'Page Rank' to link to you. If they also happen to use similar keywords as your site, that's the best case scenario.
2. Get links placed on pages with few outbound links. You do not want to end up on a site's 'links' page.
3. Get your keywords into the text of the link.
4. Get listed in the major search engines and directories first; then, shift to the topic-specific directories to get the larger engines to see the 'theme' relevance of your site.
5. Where to ask for links? Trade directories, press releases, articles, vendors, and customers. Be creative!
6. Be part of the popular crowd and AVOID reciprocal links with pages that are designed solely for exchanging links.
7. Don't waste time getting links from sites to just increase your link count. Find sites that have people who might click through and BUY something from you.
8. Make sure people linking to you do not include the rel="nofollow" attribute within the source code of the link. Google will not credit your page for having that incoming link.

Selecting the Right Keywords is Still Key

1. you will be better found in the search engines for words people are actually using to find businesses like yours
2. your page copy will stand-out to the web site visitor who came to your site using those search terms

Since a lot of marketing copy uses jargon that people would not think to type into a search engine, you will need to ask your customers, employees, even people on the street, the keywords they would type into a search engine to find a vendor like you. Think of these words from the perspective of the audience coming to your page. Parts of your site may have completely different target markets with different keyword usage. Take that into account!

Conclusion: Have lots of great content, use keywords people are typing into search engines to find services like yours, and get popular websites, blogs and social media sites to link to you. It's really not rocket science — it's just very labor intensive. That's why a lot of the big companies outsource their SEO talent. If you aren't sure what route you should take, give us a call.