When optimizing your web site, use only 2 or 3 keywords per page. That way, you can focus on using the selected terms consistently through out the page content and in the meta data (titles, descriptions, alt tags, etc.), making your page more relevant for those terms. Using too many keywords on a web page could end up dilluting the vaule of the keywords, so limit the number used on each page.

The topic of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can certainly be a complex one, and for many small businesses it seems like talking about SEO is like speaking a completely foreign language – possibly a language from outer space. But there are some key concepts that, while not entirely simple, are vital to understanding the importance of SEO and what it takes to see a web site listed in the top search results.

Too often, small businesses think that by adding some meta data to a web page or using what they believe are good keywords is going to help them get noticed (and listed) in the search engine results. Unfortunately, those items alone will not make much of a difference to a small business web site’s rankings.

So to help you get a handle on what it takes to improve your web site’s search engine rankings, here are five key concepts that you really should know:

1. Like it or not, getting top listings in the search results will probably take some ongoing work on your part.

   Unfortunately, a web site is not something that can be on your “to-do” list, and then crossed off the list when the site goes live. If you leave your web site unattended and let it go stale, your visitors will stop visiting, and the search engines will have absolutely no reason to keep your site in their search results. Why would they? The web grows and changes everyday with new information, new resources, and new technology that people find incredibly useful. The search engines’ job is to give searchers the most useful, up-to-date results possible, and if your site isn’t growing, changing, and adding value, then it will be left behind.

2. Meta data is only part of the picture – even “keyword” meta data.

   Meta data is the behind-the-scenes code on a web page that tells the search engine spiders all sorts of useful stuff, including what the web page is supposed to be about. But the visible content on your page must support the information in your meta data, so the search engines can see that your page is really about what you say it is. It is important that the meta data and the page content match; however, it is only one of many factors taken into account by the search engines.

3. Keyword research is not optional.

   I cannot tell you how many times clients give us the keywords they think customers would use to search for their business, but when we run the testing, those terms don’t even show up as being searched on at all! In order to be found in a search, you must use the keywords that people actually type into the search engines when looking for your type of products and services. Why would you optimize your site for keywords that nobody ever types into a search engine? That’s why real-time keyword research is essential – let the data tell you what keywords customers are using in the search engines, don’t just guess!

4. Search engine algorithms rely heavily on inbound link scores.

   It’s true – search engines do rely heavily on inbound links as part of their criteria for ranking web sites; at least that’s how it works right now. When search engines first started out, they based rankings on meta data keywords. When scammers figured out how to cheat that system, search engines developed algorithms that gave value to inbound link counts, which is where we are today. No doubt this will again change as search engines continue to evolve. But for now, getting quality inbound links from reliable authority sites is one of the best things you can do for your search engine rankings. Although it is still only one of many factors taken into account when ranking a site, it is one of the biggest factors.

5. Track and measure your search engine results every month.

   Let’s assume you add a new FAQ to your web site every month. It’s great that you are taking the time to do this, but is it working? Does it drive more traffic to the site? Do people come back to that page every month to check out the new FAQ? Does that new FAQ ever show up in the search results? If you are not tracking and measuring, how will you know if it is a good idea to do this each month, or if you are just wasting your time?

   Or let’s imagine that your site falls from position number 6 to position number 106. Without regular tracking and measuring, you probably wouldn’t know the site had slipped, and you would miss the opportunity to intervene and take the necessary action to get it back in the top 10 again.

While there are many, many factors that contribute to how a web site ranks in the search engine results, these five concepts are among the most important. When you understand these concepts it can be much easier to find direction and take action for your own web site. So even if SEO still seems like a foreign language to you, just think of these five concepts as a basic “translation.”

Most of us are well aware that the search engines frequently change their algorithms to improve search results for users (and foil spammers), which can make it challenging for small businesses just to keep up. But as web technology continues to evolve, it also creates new opportunities for small businesses to improve their SEO strategies and boost their rankings as well. Social media (sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Technorati, Digg, etc.) provide an excellent opportunity for small businesses to not only promote their products and services online, but also to gain significant ground in the search engine results.

One of the most critical components to getting top search engine rankings is the number of inbound links and link popularity a web site is able to build. Although there are several existing link building strategies available to small businesses (e.g., press releases, directory submissions, article syndication, etc.), social media can help create additional high-value, on-target inbound links that are essential to achieving top placements in the search engines.

For example, each time you use Twitter to publish a link to new content on your web site, that link gets “planted” on the Twitter page of each person following you, and has the potential to spread even further as your followers share that information with their own network of contacts.

Integrated Social Marketing (ISM)™
If you have properly integrated your social networking profiles together, that same Twitter “tweet” could then be fed via RSS to your Facebook business profile, your corporate blog, your LinkedIn account, and any number of other social sites that you have set up for your business. It’s not a far stretch to imagine the link you broadcast on Twitter could reach dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of other places on the web, all pointing back to your web site!

Quantity AND Quality
In addition to the sheer number of inbound links that are created through social marketing, the value of the links that are created is another important criterion that search engines consider. To be valued by the search engines, inbound links must be from relevant, “quality” web sites, and search engines today give social sites like Facebook and Twitter great value. These sites are highly visible to the search engines, and are constantly taking updates from users. Links tend to be shared according to subject matter, which means the search engines will see them as being relevant and on-target. All of these factors combine to create high-quality inbound links in the eyes of the search engines.

Online Visibility and Branding
Creating visibility for your business and your “brand” is really key when using social media for building links. The power of social media is realized when other users see your links or content, then share that information with their own network of contacts. Simply adding a bunch of links to your social profiles is not enough; you need to have a strong reputation and a brand that users trust so they will feel comfortable sharing your content with others. Brand recognition typically leads to natural link building anyway, which means your inbound links will end up coming from bloggers, colleagues, customers, and other people who are exposed to your links and find them useful enough to share with their own contacts.

The Proof is in the Rankings
A recent example from Website Magazine explained somewhat surprising results when they searched for their publication’s name in Google. As expected, their web site came up as the number one listing on the results page. But what was not expected was the number three listing on the results page was the magazine’s Twitter page. They then performed a number of Google searches for the terms “Chicago Tribune,” “Chicago Public Golf,” and “Daily Career Tips,” all with similar results in Google – the Twitter page for each of these terms came up near the top of the search engine results every time.

The conclusion was that given these results, Google must be giving serious weight to Twitter content, and I happen to agree. The search engines of course keep their ranking algorithms top-secret, so there’s no way to know how much weight (if any) is really given to Twitter or other social media sites. But results like those in the example above are hard to ignore!

A Great Opportunity
Social media is here to stay, and small businesses are beginning to use it to effectively promote their businesses, reach their customers, find new leads, keep customer mindshare, and instantly communicate with customers. But maybe one of the biggest benefits of adding social media to your marketing mix is the creation of high-value, on-target inbound links that can help improve visibility in the search engines and boost your business to the top of the search engine rankings.

You probably know that part of the secret to ranking well in search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo isn’t really such a secret – it’s a matter of finding the right keywords for your site, right? Well, that’s partially true; you have to select keywords that people are truly using when they search (and not just the keywords YOU think they use when they search), and then use those keywords appropriately through out your web pages. So what’s the best way to do that? Here are some tips to help you focus on finding the best keywords for your web site, and then using them effectively on the pages of your web site:

• Research your keywords – don’t just guess. There is often a big difference between what you think your customers would use to search for your products and services, and what users actually use to perform searches. Try using the Google Adwords Keyword tool (www.google.adwords.com) or other free keyword tools like SEO Book (www.tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook) to do a little research before deciding on your keyword list.
• Select the best keywords. The three most important considerations in selecting keywords are: 1) choosing the most descriptive keyword or phrases, with 2) the most searches performed, and 3) the least number of competing web pages. When you find keywords that fit all of these criteria, use them.
• Select the keyword terms that are likely to bring qualified traffic. Once you know how competitive each keyword is, select the keywords or phrases that are relevant and specific to your content. For instance, highly competitive keywords and keywords that are too general are not good choices, and “long tail” or uncompetitive terms typically don’t need to be optimized for (since no other sites are using these terms anyway). It’s best to stick with the keywords that are specific to your content, yet still general enough to bring in good traffic.
• Start with a strong foundation. Before you begin adding keywords to your web site, you must make sure you have clean, search engine friendly code that can be read and indexed by the search engine spiders (or robots) that visit your site. Without this, you really have no hope of competing in the search engines, regardless of how great your keywords might be.
• Use only a few keywords per page. Don’t put all of your keywords on every single page on your web site. Instead, select 3 to 5 keywords (or keyword phrases) that match the content of each page, then optimize for those.
• Optimize for behind-the-scenes code and on-page content. Be sure that your keywords are used correctly in the Meta data tags in your HTML code (Title, Description, and Keywords), and also in the first paragraph of text on the page. Also sprinkle the keywords appropriately through out the rest of the text on the page as well.
• Use keywords as anchor text. Anchor text is the text that appears as a link on the page, typically displayed as blue, underlined text. Using your keywords as anchor text signifies to the search engines that the term is important, and is relevant to the content on the rest of your web site.
• Use keywords to describe images. Use your keywords in the image alt tags in your html code. Image alt tags are required for all images in order for the code to be WC3 compliant. Image alt tags are intended to provide information to visually impaired visitors, or users who have images turned off in their browser settings. This is a great place to use your keywords.
• Use keywords in headlines and titles. Another great place to use your keywords is in the titles, headings, and sub heads that appear on the page. Always use appropriate header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) or bold formatting, since these elements typically signify importance to the search engine spiders.
• Have a presence elsewhere on the web. Google has adopted a Universal Search model, where it now returns search results from a variety of web sources and not just from web sites, and other search engines are following suit. To take advantage of this, you should always use your keywords in press releases, video tags, blog postings, social networking profiles, etc., since these are all used as sources from which the search engine pull results.

Finding the right keywords for your web site is the first step in getting good search engine rankings, but it is just as important that you use them correctly on your web site. Keywords and keyword phrases must be used accurately in the behind-the-scenes web code that visitors don’t see, and also used appropriately in the on-page text and elements that visitors do see. By incorporating some or all of these 10 tips, your web site stands a much better chance of meeting the search engine criteria that determines the order of search results, and getting your site listed at the top!

We are very pleased to announce that we have just completed a new whitepaper explaining the SEO building blocks that small businesses must use to be successful with their search engine optimization efforts. The whitepaper is titled “The Building Blocks of SEO for Small Business: What it Takes to Be Found Online” and is available for download now.

The whitepaper discusses the role of keyword research, the internal tasks and objectives necessary for optimization, and the external factors that make a difference in getting the search engines to find and index your web site. The whitepaper also offers concrete examples of these building blocks and offers suggestions for strategies you can use to make your optimization efforts more successful.

You can request the whitepaper here, or you can send us an email to request a copy be emailed to you.

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