Search engines work in mysterious ways . . . Pay attention to optimizing your Web site for the search engines, but also make sure you have customers coming to you from many sources. 

Copyright by Cathy Stucker, The Idea Lady(tm)

Search engines work in mysterious ways . . .If you have a Web site, you probably pay attention to your rankings for the keywords important to your business. My site was doing well, and I was in the top 10 to 20 results for several highly-competitive keywords. Then–BOOM!–I dropped out of sight.

After some research, I determined that Google was in the midst of an update (appropriately nicknamed “Bourbon,” as it was enough to drive me to drink). I crossed my fingers and hoped that once the update was complete, my rankings would return to what had become normal.

What was especially worrisome was that my rankings in other search engines were affected, too. (You may know that many search engines share data; however, my problem extended to even those that don’t share data with Google.)

Last week, I was suddenly right back where I belonged. Not only in Google, but in most of the major search engines.

Although I pay attention to my search engine rankings, I also spend time developing other sources of traffic to my Web site. During my recent “exile,” I was especially glad I have done so.

Pay attention to optimizing your Web site for the search engines, but also make sure you have customers coming to you from many sources. Even if one channel dries up, you will still have a steady stream of customers coming your way.

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*Learn About the Search Engines*

There are several helpful resources in search engine marketing and optimization. One of my favorite resources is at http://www.SEOSMarts.com/

One of the easiest ways I have found to stay on top of what is happening with the top search engines is The Unfair Advantage Book on Winning the Search Engine Wars. You can get more information and download it at: http://www.SEOSmarts.com/

Design your site with the search engines in mind, make it easy for them to index your site, and you will be rewarded with more visitors.

Once you have a web site, you want people to find it. Design your site with the search engines in mind, make it easy for them to index your site, and you will be rewarded with more visitors.

Don’t assume that your web designer is qualified to optimize your site. Many designers use Flash intros, Java Script navigation and text imbedded in graphics. These may look cool, but they will make it difficult or impossible for search engines to read what is on your site.

Don’t pay $49 to get your site submitted to 4,000 search engines. Most search results are delivered by just a few search engines and directories such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN search.

To find out if your site is in the search engines, go to a search site and search for your domain name, such as “www.mywebsite.com”. If it doesn’t show up, you can submit your site (look for a link to add a URL). However, the fastest way to get indexed is to get a link from a site already known to the search engines. Ask a friend or colleague to link to you from their site.

In ‘Search Engine Optimization for Dummies,’ (Wiley Publishing, Inc.) Peter Kent offers several quick tips to immediately make your site more search-engine-friendly.

Get rid of frames. Search engines will typically only see the frame and not the main content of the pages.

Maximize Meta tags. Meta tags are not displayed when a user views the site, but are read by the search engines. If you want to see the Meta tags on your site or any other, in your browser click on “View,” then “Source” or “Page Source.”

The important tags are title and description. These tags will be used by the search engine to determine what the page is about, and some will display them in search results. Make sure both title and description reflect the content of each page and that they include important keywords. The title tag should be just below the tag, with the description tag just below it.

Use keywords throughout the page, making sure the most important keywords are near the top of the page. Many search engines give extra weight to keywords in headings, so use h tags. Search engines may also look at keywords in bold and italics, or in bulleted lists, as being especially important on the page.

Links to other pages within your site should be text (not images), and should include keywords, not simply, “Click here.” For example, “Our catalog of discount office supplies.”

Keywords should be used multiple times on a page, but a particular word shouldn’t make up more than five to ten percent of all the words on a page.

Have a good navigation system with text links. A site map is useful to visitors and the search engines.

Search engine optimization is an ongoing process, but with just a few simple steps you can make your web site more visible.