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Health & Fitness

Just as in Real Estate . . . Your Website Location is Vital to Your Success!

One thing certain about the internet is – if you want to know something about anything or purchase something – there is already a website that exists.

Finding what you seek is the challenge. At least, for those who wish to be found. For those doing the seeking, the challenge is more about trusting the search engines have taken you to the right place. This conundrum can be solved twofold, should the following steps be taken when developing a web page.

In order to develop a relevant webpage, (meaning a website that actually contains the product or information that a web user is seeking), one should understand how search engines work. A search engine is a web application designed to hunt for specific keywords and group them according to relevance. SEO, when done correctly, helps you to create your website in such a way that when a user performs a search, your pages appear organically on the first page of SERP (search engine results page). The trick is not to embed every variation of a keyword that is related to your product into your website, but rather identify targeted keywords that will drive traffic to your site.

In order to identify targeted keywords, you should first discover the audience that is available to your product or service and how to reach them. Understand the demographics of those you wish to visit your site. Gender, age and income are just a few of the many metrics you will want to measure in terms of identifying your target audience. By understanding your targeted demographics, you can better select which keywords to use for search engine optimization.

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You also need to know the answer to “what is your target market looking for?” It is universally understood that users of the internet are seeking to find a website that fulfills a specific purpose. Does your website fulfill a specific purpose? If so, what is that specific purpose? When you have successfully answered these questions, be sure to focus your websites content toward things that would be of interest to those seeking your product or service. Include how-to articles, product comparisons, and reviews in your content – to attract visitors to your site that are looking to make an informed choice when buying a product or service.

If the mantra of real estate is location, location, location, the mantra of SEO should be keywords, keywords, keywords.

Search engines use algorithms to categorize and rank keywords in order to deliver to the web user the pages they are looking for. The more relevant your website keywords are to the user’s query, the higher ranking your page will achieve. Keep your keywords clear, concise and simple. If your site is to promote your ice cream shop, use keywords like ice cream, ice cream shop, as well as clarifying words like soft ice cream, ice cream parlor, and ice cream sundaes.

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Having an SEO-compliant website enhances your sites chances of having the highest SERP ranking (aka prime location) for a keyword search.

Make sure your web pages contain heavy searchable text versus too much Flash animation and images. Search engines have difficulty understanding non-text content. Be sure to label all your images with an Alt attribute (a description of the image) with text that describes the image. Embed keywords into your hyperlinks. In the case of the ice-cream shop, a page could contain a listing of all the ice cream flavors. A hyperlink to that page is wise. Two rules of thumb for SEO are satisfied by this maneuver: the keyword ice-cream is hyperlinked and an internal link is generated in the site.

Be sure to brand your website by having a clear subject-matter theme to your site. Images and content should both reflect your products and services. Search engines tend to break up a site into subjects for easier categorization. The more obvious your sites brand is, the higher ranking your site will get for your particular subject matter aka – your product or service.

In alignment with keeping a consistent message, it is equally important to be methodical with the implementation of your website. When you make updates to your website, be sure you perform the tasks the same way each time. Your site should always have the same look and feel for long periods of time, without massive reorganizations every time you make an update. Search engine robots categorize where things are when they visit your site and expect to see them again when they return. Imagine what it would be like if every day you travel to work the exit numbers are changed and detours are at every major intersection because of ongoing construction? This is what the experience would be like for returning users and Google bots! Not a good one.

Your website location is vital to your success.

Follow these rules when developing your content rich/keyword relevant website to guarantee that users seeking your products and services will find you. Satisfy the needs of the search engines, (providing keyword relevant web pages to internet users), and in turn, search engines will satisfy your needs for sales opportunities.

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