Voices: Judy Haar | Feed the ‘spider’ for effective online advertising

What are searchers going to search for and will you be found? Out of approximately 400 million searches a day, America’s obsession, most never go past your first page. In inbound marketing, it is important to maximize SEO, search engine optimization, to be found. It is the practice of optimizing your web page so search engines can find you by using keywords effectively.

How the spider feeds

The top ranking search engine is Google. Using an algorithm to decide ranking, a spider is sent to read your web site HTML. This spider looks for things such as text, headers, titles, links and keywords, all-important for your website ranking. For viewing, great images are necessary, but they are not crawled. Although getting to the front page of the Google search results can be difficult, there are some clear rules to follow. Keep your we site fresh and relevant. Content is king and update often and regularly. Be consistent with your marketing and use taglines, keywords and descriptors to drive people to your site. Don’t know what people are looking for? Then ask them.

Find out what your customer wants

Ask them often, and ask the right people. Define what you need to know and develop a list of questions that you can ask that can focus your web site, content, keywords and phrases that will drive business to you. Then go to your client base and ask them. Answers should include how your perspective customer would find you, how they would search for a company/service/product such as yours and what is important to find on the website when they get there. This is not about you but about your prospective clients. What do they think so you can design it into your web site?

Your search engine optimization

Put keywords in your URL and your page names. What words would your clients use to describe you and what phrases would they use to find you? Put these in headlines and titles. Make sure these are descriptive and focused. Sweeping titles like the word advertising may have high volume but also have high competition. Make sure, you use photos on your web site, tag your photos with key words. Pepper your specific keywords in the text of your articles. Do not go overboard, spiders look for this as well. Keep your content timely and relevant. Now, develop good links with partners. Remember, a spider gauges how important the link by how respected it is, so there are good and bad links.

What we are talking about is advertising your web site effectively. The focus is content, make it interesting and readable. To help with what relevant content and words to use, not only ask your clients but use some Google tools such as keyword search.

Judy Haar is a SCORE mentor with expertise in marketing, digital marketing and social media. For details, go to: http://www.NorthernNevedaScore.org.