Boston WordPress Developers, Custom WordPress Designers in Boston, Boston Website Designers Boston… all keyword phrases that may have brought you here today.
Lets say you have a company called Joe’s Lunch. You use one of the search engines, use Joe’s Lunch as your search term, and you come up on the front page. You may think your search engine optimization is done. But it isn’t. If a client already knows the name of your restaurant, you will get them to come back with this . But you also need to know that for people who don’t know your restaurant’s name, they will likely never find you.
Things like location, the type of restaurant you have, the different types of food you sell will all come into play.
Using single words will not help you. As an example, go to Google.com and type the word sub. Look at all the responses you get in return. How many are about food, and how many are about the military? So lets set up some qualifiers.
If you are located in Boston, then Boston becomes your first qualifier. You are a sub shop, so there is your 2nd qualifier. You sell cheesesteaks, tuna, chicken, italian and meatball subs. Those turn into more qualifiers. What that can turn into for a search meta tag would be:
boston sub shop, cheesesteaks tuna chicken italian meatball subs, sub shop boston
This covers you on a few levels:
boston sub shop
boston sub shop cheesesteak subs (insert each kind of sub in place of cheesesteak for more versions)
sub shop boston
cheesesteak subs boston (again, insert each kind of sub in place of cheesesteak for more versions)
Now you are covered frontwards and backwards. Some may use the qualifier boston first, while others may use it last.
Who is best at deciding what the keywords should be? YOU! Why is that? Becuase you know your business or subject matter better than a web designer would. You come up with the words, and we will help you formulate search terms to be added into your site.
Depending on your budget, you can take this further. Page names can be made using your search terms. Title tags (the browser tab text) is another great way to get your page indexed.
While a site will look plain if you use text links as your main ones, you do need to have text links to every single page you have. You usually find this at the bottom of a website.
There are two type of sitemaps to use. A standard one where it has all the links to your site listed. This is important as you want the search engines to index all of your pages. You only get to submit one page to the search engines. Make sure that page has a sitemap text link on it.
The other type is a Google sitemap. This is written in xml. Google uses this to index your site quicker because you need to verify the website site, then the sitemap is accepted.
Your webmaster will set up a Google account for you, build out the sitemap, and verify your site.
Depending on your budget you can also add in Sponsored links. These are paid for by setting a monthly limit for spending. Then you set an amount for for each time a potential customer clicks on the link.
Your budget will determine just how much you can do with your search engine optimization.
Don’t be taken by any webmaster or SEO house that try to talk you into paying high MONTHLY fees, as it simply isn’t needed. Don’t accept that setting up splash pages with a bunch of keywords will work for you. Google and the others frown upon it. They will knock your domain out of their engines when they catch on.
Beware of any web designer that says they can get you to number one with your keyword terms. As Google has stated:
No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
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We hope you have gained some insight into the world of SEO. This was a simplified version of what goes on, but one you need to know before you get onto the SEO bandwagon. When you’re ready to go forward, we will be able to help you find the right plan of action, based on your budget and needs.
Here at Beyond Web Design, we will walk you through each step of the way to make sure the end result is something you will be happy with from A-Z.
