Search engine optimization of your Web site key to Web marketing

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July 20, 2007

By DAN HEATH The Press Republican Fri Jul 20, 2007, 12:00 AM EDT

PLATTSBURGH "" Optimizing your Web site for recognition by search engines increases your chances for successful Internet marketing.

That was the main message during a free Internet marketing seminar hosted by Responsible Marketing Consulting Services President David Pearce.

He said there are four ways people use the Internet "" for communication, research, commerce and entertainment.

E-mail is still the top online activity, but searches are catching up rapidly, Pearce said. Nearly 60 million Internet users make use of a search engine each day, he said.

E-commerce continues to grow, about 20 percent a year, Pearce said.

"That represents an opportunity for you that's rapidly growing," he said.

Nearly half of all Internet users purchased something online, Pearce said, and people who searched for something on the Internet accounted for 96 percent of those purchases.

Pearce said search engines employ "spiders" that scour the Internet to record and index page content by keywords and META Tags. They give more importance to content/keywords near the top of the page and keyword density, he said.

Getting best results

For an example of what a search engine can read, go to a Web site and press Control+A, Control+C, open your computer's notepad, then press Control+V. It will show you what the search engine was able to read on that Web site, Pearce said.

Among other things, Pearce said it shows that if there's text in an image, the search engine can't read it.

A search yields a search engine results page. At the top are paid listings, usually followed by local results, especially if a geographic term was included in the search.

Pearce said less than four in 10 search-engine users look beyond the first results page, and 55 percent only checked out one result. Eighty percent stop after checking three results, usually the top three, he said.

The abstract, the description under the title on the results page, dissuades 80 percent of searchers from clicking on a site. The order of search results are seen as related to product prominence and quality by 36 percent of searchers, Pearce said.

Those statistics show why it's important to make sure your Web site ends up in those top spots. Making sure your Web site is optimized for search-engine recognition will help, he said.

Developing content

The first step is to come up with keyword-rich, relevant content, Pearce said. Coming up with 20-30 keywords or phrases that describe your business is probably the most important part of developing a Web site, he said.

Text should be between 250 to 500 words per page. The key factors for keyword placement are prominence "" how close the keyword is to the start of the analyzed area "" and the ratio of keywords to other words. Keywords should make up about 5 percent of that content, he said.

META Tags are also important. They are pieces of HTML code that surround text.

"The META Title Tag is the single most important thing you can do for search-engine optimization," Pearce said.

He said it should be in title case and contain keywords, although it is usually limited to 50-60 characters, including spaces. He prefers using keywords rather than a company name, because searchers are often looking for a product or service.

The next is the abstract, or META description tag. It is the one- to two-sentence description of a Web page's content that shows up on a search-engine results page. Pearce said 80 percent of searchers are dissuaded from clicking on a result by the description tag.

That can be countered by placing a call to action, such as "click here to read more" or "click here for a free coupon."

Three-click rule

Pearce said many people operate under a three-click rule. If they can't find what they want within three clicks, they'll leave your Web site, he said.

"Make it easy to find things on any page on your Web site," Pearce said.

One way is to put an internal site search on your page. That also gives you the opportunity to track what visitors look for, he said.

Advantage Wireless Marketing Manager Rebecca Cook said the free seminar was worthwhile. It contained some things she overlooked when she built the company's generic Web site, www.advantagewirelessvt.com.

Cook said she will use some of those tips as the site is further refined.

"We have an ever-increasing focus on our Web site, especially for e-commerce. It will track better than it does currently," she said.

Cook said Pearce appears to have the capability to expand the focus of the seminar, to maybe key on more specific topics or issues.

"I got some good information. Overall, I'd give it an A."

dheath@pressrepublican.com