I have a website, now what? Optimization!

by | December 14, 2005

I was a naive small business owner who thought that once I built and published my website, it would then be searchable and accessible by potential customers using search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. After website development and publication comes “Search Engine Optimization” that draws the search engine companies to your site to be indexed. Only then will it show up in a search on one of their sites. There are a handful of elements that help the web crawlers run by the search engines to find and index your site. First, your site must have metatags for its title, keywords, and content where the source code of the site spells out the keywords you would expect a potential customer to use to search for your site. In addition, the text on your site should reference those keywords frequently. Thirdly, you should update the content on your site frequently. You may consider a Blog as well. Blogs are updated regularly and provide additional links and content for the web crawlers. Finally, obtain as many links to your site from other indexed sites as possible. Links to your site from other sites are a key factor in grabbing the attention of the search engine web crawlers. After you’ve got your site set up with all these factors included, you then submit your site to the search engines and to the search directories. It may take a week, a month, or longer for them to pick up on your site but eventually they should if all these elements are incorporated. After much frustration and reference to the very helpful book “Search Engine Optimization for Dummies,” my site is shows up on Yahoo and MSN searches. I’m still working on Google!

Alternatively, you can pay the search engine companies and get great results quickly. They have all kinds of payment models and sometimes this is the best way to get indexed. Happy optimizing!

Author: Michelle Bomberger, Seattle Business Attorney