How to make your Web site a target for searches.

A search usually begins with someone trying to find something of interest or value. A general one-word search will usually bring up more information than a person can view in a lifetime, so a savvy searcher usually limits the search, or uses one or two other words to narrow the field. For instance, a search for truck would give too many results. But if you narrowed the search to ford camper truck there would only be a million choices. And the top choice would usually be http://www.ancilnance.com/html/188.htm .

How did that page get to the top of the list? By paying attention to what a search engine looks for, a page can be made to rise to the top of a field, as long as a bunch of other pages are not built with exactly the same words. First, the words on the page,  the visible text, should be relevant to what you want to say and what someone might try to find. You must have content. If you have photos or illustrations then you will have to provide text in the <alt> tag that is a word or more relating to the image.

After content text is written you will next make a title for the page <title> tag. This is the text that appears at the top of the browser window. Many times you will notice this simply says Welcome, or Untitled Document. What you choose for the <title> tag is important and be sure that the words that you choose for the title also appear in the page content text. In our example Ford Camper Truck, photo is the title and part of the visible text.

You have heard a lot about Keywords. This is the fourth area of concern. The keywords for a page should reflect the content on the page and should be included in the <title> tag as well as the <alt> tag. If these 4 areas are similar there is good chance of getting listed in the top of a search result. The <meta name="description"..> is usually a sentence made up of the keywords. I have experimented with this tag and found that if you leave it out then the search description will grab the first visible text on the page and use that for a description summary. Usually that is good enough. Ford Camper Truck does not have a description tag, but the summary is accurate.

Location words can be important. Of course the world is your market, but you would not mind getting all the business from your neighborhood to begin with. Jim's Barber Styling in Milwaukie used this idea when choosing title and keywords. He added city names that would narrow someone's search to his shop.  So if a searcher uses the words barbershop sellwood or milwaukie, his shop is usually in the top ten.

As you get local traffic your business will grow by word of mouth. That in turn will lead to more people in a broader area viewing your Web site as long as you have content of interest to the viewer. Notice, I did not say "interesting content."  What interests one person could be of little interest to another, so don't make your goal that of presenting interesting content. You are not in the entertainment business so don't load your site with content that becomes old as soon as it is seen.

What you don't want to do is leave the title tag empty, as seen here: http://www.prescottlevinson.com/, unless search results are not important. http://www.prescottlevinson.com/webdesign.htm . This page talks about Website Design and Internet Strategies, yet its <title> tag is not filled. What I have presented is not secret, but many folks don't know about the areas that are critical. There are many other ways that are touted as being good for "rankings" and they may be of value. I have experimented with these 4 areas and found them to be critical.

 

Ancil Nance 503.803.4258 • 503.232.0157 826 SE Bidwell, Portland OR 97202 email