Client Feedback...

Oh my gosh!! It is absolutely what I wanted. I can't express how happy I am. You and Dennis are the best. I'm so delighted I'm sharing your name with everybody I know. Thank you, thank you.

Pat Jacobson
OhBabyBoutique.com

Search Engine Optimization(SEO)

What we do and don’t do

Some SEO (search engine optimization) companies guarantee that you will get a special search engine position if you let them do the work for you. Actually, this is not possible. No one can guarantee search engine ranking. The only way to get a high search engine ranking and stay there is with good website content and playing by the rules. It takes some extra work to optimize your web pages for search engines but it is well worth the effort.

We can help you optimize your website for higher rankings and help you submit your site to Google, Yahoo and the other major search engines.

We recommend that you do not use intro pages (splash screens) and don't use too many Flash elements on your web site as these are difficult, if not impossible, for search engines to “read” and index. 

We consider the following SEO techniques as SPAM. For that reason, we DO NOT use or promote them:

• automatically generated doorway pages
• cloaking and false redirects
• keyword stuffing
• hidden text or hidden links
• pages loaded with irrelevant words
• duplicated content on multiple pages
• misspelling of well-known web sites
• unrelated and centralized link farms
• other methods that try to trick search engines

1. Choose the right page titles

The title of a web page is one of the most important elements. Good web page titles can remarkably increase the effectiveness of your web site. (The page title is the text that displays at the very top of the browser window.)

2. Use optimized graphics

Web surfers hate to wait for slow loading web pages. If your web pages don't load fast enough, many web surfers will go away without taking a look at them. The single most important factor affecting the speed at which a page loads is graphics.

So that web browsers can rapidly load the images, we specify the dimensions of your graphics and a textual description of each (also known as an “alt” tag). We also optimize the file size of images when we build sites so that they are as small as possible while still looking good.

3. Include keywords in headings, body text and text links. Search engines need text to index your web site. They cannot know what's written on your GIF or JPEG images or in Flash movies. If you use a lot of images on your web site, you should also create some web pages that contain text that includes keyword phrases. It is important for your web pages to contain text links so that search engine spiders can navigate from one page to another through text links.

3. Validate the HTML code

We make sure that the HTML code is properly coded so that pages load correctly and are easily indexed by search engines.

4.  Target the right keywords

For a successful online marketing campaign, you need to target the right keywords. The keywords you use should be relevant for your web site and search terms that web surfers are most likely searching for. Most people search on a two to four word phrase, making phrases are very effective in optimization.

Tips for keyword selection:

• Use keyword phrases that consist of two to four words
• Be specific
•  “Localize” keywords, if appropriate
• Compare and find new keywords by analyzing your competitor’s keywords 

Our SEO process uses only ethical search engine optimization methods. We use only techniques that will produce lasting results and that don't offend search engines.

1. We determine the most appropriate keyword phrase(s) (search term) to target for optimization.

2. We compare your site ranking and search terms to your top ten competitors. This will help us optimize your web pages for placement and higher ranking on search engines for the search terms selected.

3. We generate a report which gives us suggestions on areas of improvement, such as density of keywords, position, quantity, number of words, and number of characters on areas of your site for the use of Title Tags, Meta Tags, Page Headings, Page Content Keywords, Bold Texting of Keywords and Link Popularity.

4. We research, suggest, and help implement inbound links to your site.

Inbound links are one of the most important factors search engines use to rank websites. Building good links requires some work but the effort will pay off. These might include links from organizations related to your line of business, related blogs, and other high-ranking websites, related to your field. The sooner you start a link campaign, the better the results for your website can be.

5. To find out how search engines see your web site, we use a search engine spider simulator tool. A search engine spider simulator tool emulates the software programs search engines use to index your web site. This simulator shows us to determine what elements of your web site are visible to search engines. It allows us to quickly find out whether your web site lacks information that search engines need to properly index your web site.

6. We use an HTML validator to check the code of your web pages.

Valid HTML code makes it easier for search engine spiders to index your site so making sure that any mistakes in your HTML code are corrected is important.

7. We create a sitemap which facilitates indexing your site’s pages by the search engines.
A sitemap page is a navigation help for your visitors as well as search engines. It contains links to all important pages of your web site and it gives web site visitors an overview of your web site structure.

Sitemaps allow you to use your most important key phrases in the description text of the links that point to your important pages. Many search engines rank those web pages higher that have links pointing to them containing the search term in the link text.

8. We create a robots.txt file
Although the robots.txt file is a very important file if you want to have a good ranking on search engines, many web sites don't include this file. We create a robots.txt file to instruct search engines which files in the site to index and which to ignore.

It is unrealistic to expect to see higher search ranking immediately. If your website changes, crawler-based search engines (spiders) eventually find these changes, and that can affect how you are listed.
Everything the spider finds goes into the part of the search engine called the index. The index is like a giant book containing a copy of every web page that the spider finds. If a web page changes, the index is updated with new information.
Sometimes it can take a while for new pages or changes that the spider finds to be added to the index. Thus, a web page may have been "spidered" but not yet "indexed." Until it is indexed—added to the index —it is not available to searchers.
Search engine software is the part of the search engine that sifts through the millions of pages recorded in the index to find matches to a search and rank them in order of what it believes is most relevant. The algorithims in search engine software are constantly being changed to better determine relevancy and create more valid search results.
We review a site’s ranking at 3 month intervals to evaluate improvement in the optimized site’s ranking and make adjustments to the site as indicated by our analysis software.

If your site needs a boost in the search engine rankings, contact West Design today for a free consultation at 541-830-0531.