About 80% of web users find websites using search engines.

Key ways search engines find sites:

• Meta tags are embedded descriptions in your website’s HTML (Hyper-text markup language) code. Think of them as tiny electronic bar codes which contain critical information about your website. Search engines scan these codes, to determine what information is on your website, and where your website may be found.
• ‘Keywords’ interspersed throughout your web page copy are crucial to attributing to a higher ranking in the Search Engines. Text embedded in graphics, flash sites and sites that have been produced using framesets lose out on a lot of potential traffic, as Search engines aren’t able to read the text embedded in these files.
• ‘Title’ descriptions (These appear at the top of your browser in the Title Bar) and file names (Both the names of your page files and associated image files) are also crawled by the Search Engines to determine ranking.

Ways to increase your chances of getting a top ten placement:

• Having a focused website is essential. To help distinguish the focus of your site you should choose keyword phrases that describe your theme and include your keyword phrases throughout your site.
• Register your website on search engines. The vast majority of web users use only 20 or 30 engines at the very most – the key is to register your website on these top, high-traffic websites (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Altavista).
• Get other websites to link to yours. The more links that link to your site, the better. You’ll receive more visitors, get higher rankings on the search engines and also increase your credibility. The simplest way to develop links is to find complementary websites to your own, link to them, and then request that they link to you. Complementary sites trade publications, or industry e-zines. (NOTE: Any external links from your site should ALWAYS open up in a new browser window. The user should never leave your site altogether.)
• Register your website in an e-marketplace. e-Marketplaces are online exchanges where many buyers and sellers from all over the world meet to share information, compare prices, and do business in a specific industry or sector. Many e-marketplaces provide free online business directories in which companies offering a product or service may register. Geographic directories spotlight companies in a specific geographical area, say a city or province/state. Locally focused, these directories are an excellent way to spread the word on your organization, especially among customers in your area.
• Site maintenance is essential if you want to keep your much-desired high ranking placement. Not only do search platforms change their search methods periodically, the number of websites (many could be similar to yours) is also growing exponentially every day. To combat this, your Webmaster must keep abreast of the changing search engine criteria and tailor the site to match these criteria.

Contact us if you would like to have your website evaluated for Search Engine Optimization.