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Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Strategies

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a widely overlooked website strategy for many companies, groups and individuals. Attracting potential customers, recruits, and news media to your website and ensuring that, once there, they will find the content engaging and relevant, is a crucial strategy for ongoing success.

Most business strategies are based on ROI (Return on Investment) and measurable results. Therefore, we must have the ability to record our client’s target market activities, preferences, and purchasing habits. Here is a sampling of The Top 10 SEO Strategies for 2009:

1) KEYWORDS – Finding the Balance between Relevance and Popularity

Keywords are search terms used to find websites, and keyword research is inordinately time-consuming.

Brainstorm with your team(s) to develop an active list of possibilities
Research online services to confirm or upgrade your selections

Websites include: Wordtracker, Google Keyword Tool, Google Webmaster, etc.

Peruse your competitors’ websites to find their keywords

2) Hot Titles - Enticing More Readers

Attract readers, prospective visitors, and search engines with “unique” or “enticing” titles on all your website pages.

3) Visual Appeal - Creating Image-based Communications

Search engines like visually attractive and appealing websites. Visitors are also drawn more to modern and visually engaging websites, which would also lead them to spread the word about the website.

4) Content and Meta Descriptions - Selecting Quality vs Quantity

Quality of the website content surpasses the quantity of information.
As Meta Descriptions are limited in the size of their descriptions, ensure they are well written and customized for each page.

5) RSS Newsfeeds - Providing Highlights of Updating

Create a “user-friendly” website that facilitates access to the latest updates with an RSS newsfeed.

6) Quality links and site map - Reciprocating Link Strategies

Link to high-ranking websites related to your content of your website. To find high-ranking websites, use Google Web Master.
Site maps are very useful for websites large in size (i.e., contains many pages or languages), as they enable search engines to find changes or updates in your pages.

7) Web Directory Submission - Registering for Increased Readership

Adding your website to specific web directories related to your website will make a positive impact on your search engine ranking. However, applying due diligence is imperative when choosing directories as credibility is critical, as is a policy against spam.

8) Search Engine Submission - Aligning with Key Search Engines

Manually adding your company to Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, Bing search and other popular search engine directories ensures accuracy of relevant sources.

9) Search Engine Ranking - Measuring Your Results

Closely monitor your ranking in search engine results. Make changes to your website SEO when needed (i.e., move higher up in results).

10) Search Engine Optimization - Subcontracting a Specialist

Optimizing your website for search engines takes time and effort. The phrase, “We all do what we do best” suggests that unless you have SEO-intelligence in-house, subcontracting key recommendations from an industry-professional (which should include training) and collaborating with them interdependently for a minimum of one year, is an essential key to ongoing business success and leveraging technology in the WWW.

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