So, your new Web site is finally complete. Now it's time to submit to search engines and sit back and watch the traffic start pouring in, right? But what if traffic doesn't start pouring in? What if your site doesn't show up when you type a keyword into your favorite search engine?

All too often, organizations build the site first and worry about search engines later. After all, a Web site that is designed with the target visitor in mind should yield good results. Just don't forget about the inconspicuous search engine spider who is also a visitor to your site. Don't fret though, often times what's good for the target visitor is also good for the spider visitor.

Of course, you can always buy your way to the top through paid placement or pay-per-click programs. But what if you can't afford this approach? Read on. This article will focus on the free stuff. Not only that, the search engine optimization tactics presented here are generally pretty simple.

Developing an online presence, however, doesn't occur overnight. It requires much persistence, fine-tuning and monitoring over time. Let's examine what it takes to create a site that not only has a lasting impact on the user but keeps the search engine spider coming back too.

Defining search engine optimization (SEO)
Estimates show that roughly 80% of a site's traffic comes through search engines. Despite the increasing amount of money spent on online advertising, traditional search engine optimization can be a way to enjoy higher exposure for your site without the cost.

So what is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization, simply defined, is the ongoing process of refining a site in order to increase its chances of ranking higher than other similarly focused sites. To take that a step further, targeted search engine optimization is focused on keywords or phrases that are actually important to the visitor you are trying to attract as opposed to a site focused on keywords for which no one is interested; more on that a little later. For the purposes of this discussion, let's focus on optimization for the traditional spider based search engine such as Google.

How does a site get placed in a search engine? Search engines, like Google, send out robots that regularly crawl and index your site in order to assign it a ranking. A variety of factors go into determining the rank of a site and the search engines aren't exactly willing to reveal the secret formula. Some tactics have proven more effective than others though in attaining a higher rank.

So how is search engine optimization (SEO) different from search engine marketing (SEM)? While they're related, SEM refers more to fee based advertising on the Internet such as paid placement or pay-per-click online advertising. A comprehensive site marketing campaign should include both search engine optimization and targeted online and offline promotion to help customers and prospective customers more easily locate the site. In the case of a very competitive industry, it may make sense to invest your resources in more traditional search engine marketing (SEM) tactics. Some keywords are simply too competitive to rank well on using traditional SEO techniques.

What about rankings?
Don't get hung up on the rankings. Whether you're #1 or #10 probably doesn't make much of a difference. However, make sure you're in the top 30. Most visitors don't click beyond three screens of search engine listings (there's roughly ten listings per page).

How do you monitor your rankings? There are tools available to make this task easier. Some are free and some are fee based. Cyberspace's AddWeb and FirstPlace Software's Web Position Gold are available for purchase and help automate rank monitoring. These tools are loaded up with other features such as automated search engine submission. Avoid this feature or any tool that claims to submit to "hundreds of search engines for free." Automated submission tactics are considered spamming by search engines and are frowned upon. As for the free stuff, Marketleap offers an online tool, Keyword Verification, for monitoring keyword rankings for free.

If you find that your rankings change over time, don't panic. Search engine rankings will naturally fluctuate given the dynamic nature of the Internet.

It's all about the words you use
More importantly, it's all about the targeted keywords you use. More is not better in this case. Here's where many search engine optimization campaigns fail. Either the focus is on single keywords that are way too generic and have millions of other sites competing for them OR keywords are chosen that literally no one is searching for. So, how do you avoid these pitfalls?

Pick two to three targeted keyword phrases for each page. Phrases are better than single words, which tend to be too generic. Most visitors use multiple words when conducting a search. Do your homework. Conduct keyword research to identify a set of targeted keywords that clearly define what you do. Remember, a visitor won't be typing in marketing lingo. Cut the fluff and stick with real words that define your business. Still can't seem to find the right words? Tools like Wordtracker will be invaluable when doing keyword research. Wordtracker uses a Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) to determine whether or not a keyword will be effective based on both popularity and competitiveness. It also suggests alternative keyword phrases.

Choose keywords that visitors actually care about. You may be surprised to find that the words you've chosen to describe your business are not terms visitors are even searching for. Again, tools such as Wordtracker or Overture's Term Suggestion Tool (free) can tell you exactly how many times a word has be searched for on the Internet.

Use keywords strategically throughout the page. Page content should contain keywords/phrases that are repeated often enough (frequency) and have sufficient weight on the page (density) relative to other keywords. For example, repeating "keyword 1" 5 times on a page of 200 words will yield better density (and potentially better search engine ranking) than 5 times on a page of 1000 words. As a general rule of thumb, you should have 2 to 3 targeted keyword phrases repeated 2 to 3 times per page. On the other hand, some critics argue that keyword counting is a waste time and lends itself to copy that sounds "keyword stuffed." Use common sense. If it reads well to the visitor because you've used relevant keywords, chances are it will read well for the spider as well. Avoid using keywords in graphics. Text in images is not spider friendly.

What about those meta tags?
Use HTML Titles. Although not officially a Meta tag, titles reside in the same place that Meta tags do within the source code of a page and can be a factor in determining search engine ranking. Most search engines use HTML titles for content, cross checking, and display at the top of printed pages. Since titles appear at the top of each printed web page, use them as a marketing opportunity to promote your services. Titles such as "ABC Company Home Page" are too generic. Develop a unique title for every page that is descriptive of the content on the page. Use your targeted keywords. Even though your company may offer its services beyond its regional boundaries, consider including regional keywords in the title and throughout the page such as "Minnesota based." Regionalizing keywords can be very effective when dealing with extremely competitive keywords. Titles should be approximately 65 characters in length.

Meta keywords and Meta description. Very few search engines use Meta keywords anymore. However, it's not a bad practice to include the keywords tag anyhow. You never know when they might become relevant again, and it does help you organize your keywords in one area. As for the Meta description, you should include one for every page. Some search engines use this content when displaying the results of a search. Worded effectively, it might persuade the user to click into your site. Commonly, search engines accept about 1,000 characters for the keywords tag, and 200 characters for the description tag. Going over the limit does not mean that your tag will be thrown out, however most search engines display only 10 to 15 words of the description tag.

Make sure your company's most important attributes are listed first. When developing a tag, reflect on the words that are used on the page already, especially those that are your keywords. The first paragraph of page text often serves nicely as a description tag if you're short on time. Overall, keep the tag tightly focused.

Becoming a popular site
Now that you've chosen keywords relevant to your business and determined they are words visitors care about, what else can you do to improve your site's chances of increasing rank? Well, the search engines want to know that your site is not only relevant to its users but also to other sites on the Internet. This is called link popularity, the number and quality of links into your site. The more other sites are willing to link to you, the more relevant your site becomes to the search engine.

How do you get your site linked? Start with the big ones such as Open Directory Project (dmoz), Yahoo or Looksmart. Dmoz is particularly appealing since it's free and dmoz results are regularly used by thousands of smaller search engines and directories. Be persistent. It can take awhile to get listed. After all, it is "the largest human edited directory of the Web."

Avoid "get linked quick" schemes. Offers to get your site linked to hundreds of other sites are a waste of time and can end up causing more harm than good. Free-for-alls (FFLs) or link farms as they are called should be avoided. Links to your site need to be from sites with content related to your site. This is called link relevancy. Fewer, more relevant links to your site carry a lot more weight than hundreds of unrelated links. Relevant links will drive more visitor traffic to your site as well. Be persistent and patient. It takes time to build a high quality link network into your site.

Do your research. Conduct reverse links research on your competitors and find out who's linking to them. This might prove to be a qualified list of links for you to pursue for your site. Wondering how you find out how many and who's linking to you? Marketleap's link popularity checker is a valuable tool for conducting links research and it's free.

Use links wisely within your site. Make sure every page on your site is linked to every other page on your site. When a spider crawls your site it will follow the links you've provided to the other pages. This should already exist through global navigation that is persistent throughout the site. Also, when you're linking to other site content within body content on a page, use your keywords rather than terms like "click here" or "more." Keywords used in links carry more weight than generic text.

Search engine optimization is more of a process than anything. It takes time to implement, it must be fine tuned, results won't occur over night and it never really ends. You may be wondering if it's really worth all of the effort. Definitely. After all, why bother building a Web site if no one can find it.

If you have any comments or questions about any Aware InSites, feel free to contact us at info@awarewebsolutions.com or call 800-783-8919.