Many thanks to Entreprenuer.com for quoting us in their article, Rev up the Search Engines. It’s no surprise that search engines have emerged as the goto media point online. Search and find seems to be the major focal point on every business owners plate. So in a nutshell, why are search engines so popular and vital to your business? To most web users, the Internet starts with a search engine. With more than 1 trillion webpages online, how can you help your site to be found? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the techniques used to present your site to Google, Yahoo, MSN and other top engines. Now with tons of informational resources, so called experts and training seminars, what is a small business owner to do? Without going into a deep technical discussion, there are three very vital steps to keep in mind when developing, publishing and syndicating content online:

1. Keywords: More than just phrases, keyword research is a the foundational discovery step. Knowing what you want to say is often easy; determining who and how people are searching for it is the challenge. Sites like Keyword Discovery andSpyFu are great free resources to utilize. Remember when implementing your keyword and key phrase strategy, it’s not the quantity it’s the quality.
2. On Page Elements-The factors that you use to build your web pages. Items like site wide navigation (how easy is it for a web visitor to discover and find things on your site). Far too many times I see very deep page staructures meaning too many clicks to discovery. A good startegy to stick by is what I  call “3 Clicks to Gold”. Pull up Google, type in a search term, {Click}, from the results page find the item you’re looking for {click}; land on that specific website’s page matching your item {click} and take action (buy, subscribe, call, etc}.
3. Off Page Elements-Extremely important in getting found and improving placement in search engine results pages. Off page factors in short are all the other sites referencing or linking to yours. Now remeber, just as in keywords, it’s not quantity its the  quality. Too many irrelevant links and Google will even penalize you as a link farm (someone who buys tons of links).  A strong off page startegy includes creating social profiles with links back to your site, blog commenting, article submission and even product reviews.

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