Making Search Engine Optimization Work for You

The Nielsen/Net Rating report released in December 2006 reports that Google alone received more than 3 billion searches over the last year. Understanding that consumers and buyers are taking control of their purchasing power by stating exactly what they want through initial searches provides businesses the opportunity to learn how to reach out to their specific audience. Search engine optimization is the process of properly preparing a website to be indexed by the search engines.

In the last issue of Industrial WebTalk we touched on the importance of both search engine optimization and having a well-designed website. It is worth repeating that your website needs to be prepared to communicate clearly to both the search engines and your potential customers. The search engines drive traffic and your website drives sales. With that being said, the way to make search engine optimization work for you is to streamline the content on each page of your site so that it is highly targeted and focused.

Because every search engine's goal is to provide searchers with the most relevant results, they are continually adjusting the way they read and rank websites. And since they are always changing their rules, the goal of Search Engine Optimization can never be to "figure them out". The goal is to make your website communicate what you are and what you do clearly. The place to begin is to conduct keyword research and analysis to uncover the language used by your potential customers.

The Power of Language

All too often industrial businesses, especially those who have been around for a long time, assume that their customers refer to their products and services using the same language as they do. More often than not customers refer to products and services in other ways: trademarked names, by application, or by one of any number of phrases or terms associated with it. The goal is to uncover as many keywords and phrases as is practical and through comparative analysis determine the best ones to include in the optimization of each web page.

The strongest approach is to designate at least one web page to each product or service. If this is not practical then choose a keyword or phrase that would attract potential customers interested in that group of offerings such as "industrial boilers". Separating the boilers either by brand name or type is preferable; however, whatever you decide, keep the content focused. If you also offer fuel oil tanks then put that information on its own page. So how does this help the search engines?

By presenting web pages with highly focused content, like a good sales person, you are in fact helping search engines to do their job better. You say the page is about cam locks. The search engine files it under cam locks and is ready to deliver it when an interested party makes a request. The keywords and phrases are intended to identify web page content in order to match it to potential customers actively searching for what you offer. They are strategically used within the body copy, headings, in meta data, links and most importantly the title tag. It is the title tag that becomes the clickable hyperlink listing that appears in most search engine results. In short, it is language that clarifies what a web page is all about - from the title tag right through to what is seen and unseen by the reading public.

Using Links to Improve Search Engine Rankings

There are two principle types of links that can potentially support your efforts to achieve top rankings within the search engines: inbound links and links that connect content within your site (internal links). You can affect your web page ranking by increasing the quantity and quality of both of these types of links.

Inbound Links

A link building campaign is an advanced level of search engine optimization (bordering on SEM or Search Engine Marketing, which will be discussed in an upcoming issue) designed to increase the number of high quality inbound links to your site. The desired result is to achieve high enough link popularity so that your web pages will rank among the top listings. Link popularity has to do with a web page that is recognized by the search engine as having a high number of relevant and high ranking links pointing to it.

Determining the best candidates to approach to make a formal request requires a lot of research. The inbound link has to be relevant to your web page content. If a distributor can get a link from his manufacturer's web page this can be a good choice if the manufacturer's site has a lot of inbound links. If you are a manufacturer then a link to your site from the Association of Manufacturing Excellence is a good choice. It may be a challenge to get but it is relevant, reputable, high quality, and has a Google PageRankT of 6/10.

PageRankT is Google's metric for determining the popularity of a web page by the number of links pointing to it (inbound links). The theory is if a lot of links are pointing to the web page it must be of significant value. Google uses this metric as part of its formula for ranking pages. Achieving a PageRankT of 4/10 or higher is desirable. Many web pages with a Google PageRankT of 4/10 achieve top rankings.

There are many sources outside your website from which you can obtain inbound links. These can include links from paid inclusion directories, industrial directories, free directories, blogs, other related websites, news articles, syndicated press releases, newsletters, and industrial white papers not associated with your url. You may have to pay a fee. You can also exchange links with like businesses that have quality sites. This means you have to link to their web page from the web page of your site that corresponds to the content matched in the link.

Whether you write articles, publish press releases, have an article written about your company or have a popular blog write about you: make sure it links back to your web page. Do not purchase links from unverified sites and avoid link farms, which are websites set up solely to provide reciprocal links but do not have relevant content or quality to offer. There are many ways to obtain links just make sure you get the value you are after.

Internal Links

Part of a good search engine optimization strategy is to ensure the search engine spiders penetrate your site and visit each one of your web pages. Your internal linking structure is the way to achieve this. In addition to a well-designed main navigation, internal links that connect content within your site properly can help search engine spiders find and scan all your pages.

In order to help the spiders follow the links you want to make sure they clearly announce the content to which they point based on relevancy. Each link should contain the principle keywords that refer to the content. This link would then point to the page. The link announces the page content in the same way a title tag does.

Keeping in mind that the reason you want to rank well in the search engines is because you want to drive potential customers to the site to do business with you, it is important the links you create are able to be followed by both your site visitors and the search engine spiders. They need to make sense within the context of the information on the page. You can place keywords in strategically placed calls-to-action, hyperlinks to content further down a web page, hyperlinks to other pages from within the body copy, and breadcrumb links at the top of the page, which are a form of navigation to let people know the pages they have visited and very easy for spiders to follow.

Conclusion

Search engines and people respond to language. Using the language of your customers is the best way to make sure that both they and the search engines understand exactly what each page of your website is about, and why it matters to them. The more precise and targeted the content of your web page is the easier it is for a search engine to index and deliver your links in the top listings of the results pages.

By obtaining relevant, high quality inbound links with a preferable PageRankT of 4/10 or higher combined with internal links on your web pages that are clearly titled with keywords relating to the page content they are pointing to, you can improve your search engine rankings. If thoughtful consideration is given to the placement of internal links on your site you can persuasively guide your potential customers through to conversion. Really, isn't that why we want the search engines to drive them here in the first place?

Add a Comment or Ask a Question - We'll try to address it in an upcoming issue.
Your Email Address:
Comment/Question:
I do not want to be added to the Industrial Web Solutions Mailing List.

 

In the next issue...

Next month we will address issues of information architecture - organizing your site content so your potential customers can find things quickly and easily.

Contact us to learn how to prepare your website to attract, convert and track leads.

Industrial Web Talk - Your Resource for Industrial Web Solutions