by David Ritchie
SEO or search engine optimization is one of the most powerful internet marketing tools. If one wants to start an online business or create a website for their offline business, then the first thing that they would want is for many people to visit their site. This can only be possible if the website for the company finds itself as one of the top search results in popular search engines like Google and Yahoo. To achieve this ranking, the website owner needs to take care of several things.
First of all, the website needs to have great content. This is the most important part — the website must contain material that will be of great help and use to the users. They will then use tools like sharing the site through social networking sites. This will increase the reputation of the website.
One can also look to list the website in the directories of similar websites. There are several such directory listings available on the internet. Some are free, while others charge some fee as well. It is always important to list the website on some of the top directories.
One should also maintain other parallel websites and in particular, blogs. These should be totally neutral in terms of the company’s product and should preferably be about things related to the product but should never advertise the company’s product. Of course, links to the company’s website need to be given in those other blogs/sites. Once again, the content of these sites needs to be good as well.
One can also look to use the link exchange principle. It is simple really — one has to share the link of another website in his/her own blog and then request or ask the other person to return the favor. This helps to increase the reach of the website.
One must try to make the website as attractive as possible. Graphical effects, graphs, pictures, videos etc. should be used whenever possible. However, the purpose of the website or the company and its products should also be kept in mind while designing the website. It is generally advisable to get the designing part done by web designers. They can use latest software like php, css and xml to make the website attractive.
It is also equally important to try out internet discussion forums, communities and groups to post the links of the website. The posting of the link, however, should be done in a way that does not make it look like spam. Spamming or flooding different websites with links to the site may cause the site to be blacklisted by search engines — so beware of this pitfall.
One can also try writing in other people’s blogs. It is best to write about things that you know best. This will naturally attract people to your own blog, from which they can visit your company’s website!
Many people write in articles in article websites like Ezine, about things related to the company’s product. In these sites, there is an option of adding links to the website in the author’s section.
Lastly, it must be said that since all these tasks can take a lot of time, hiring an SEO company can be best for someone looking to run a commercial website.
This article has been contributed by David Ritchie. David is a software developer and technical writer with over 10 years of professional experience. He is currently interested in Mac file recovery software.