But Were Afraid To Ask

You don’t need to be an SEO Specialist to know what metadata is. In fact, if you’ve got a Web site, you should make it your business to know the basics of metadata. Even if you hire someone to handle SEO for you, nobody knows your business like you and educating yourself about basic SEO principles will help you to make informed decisions.

The importance of this was driven home to me recently when I was consulting with a client who had launched a new Web site and needed some online marketing help. I started by looking at her metadata (you can do this by going into your menu, clicking on View and then selecting Page Source. The metadata will be at the top of the page). The title of her home page was “Home.” Seemed logical, however it didn’t tell the viewer or Google that her site was about her services as a Keynote coach or that her book on Keynote speaking was available on her site.

Metadata provides some important information about your site to search engine robots, people who use search engines and to browsers. Spend some time getting to know your metadata and carefully select your words.

These are three categories of metadata, the function they serve and the number of characters they should be:

1. Title
So very, very important, and did I mention how important this piece is? This tells what your site or a particular Web page is about. The title is what you see at the very top of every Web page (above the field that contains the URL). This page is called Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Metadata. Think of it as a giant sign on the internet highway that tells Google and other search engines what your site is about. If it just says “Home,” Google has no idea what your site is about. Start to notice titles of well-trafficked sites and you will most likely see that they clearly say what the site is about.

Your title should be no more than 60 characters long.

2. Description
Your page description is another key piece that you should put some time and thought into. This is often what appears in the text area when a search engine brings up the search results page. Google may or may not use your description, however other search engines will. This is important because it gives the viewer a short description of what they will find on your site and could be the determining factor on whether they click through to your site. Be sure to work one or two of your keywords into this description and write a unique description for each page.

Your description should be no more than 150 characters long.

3. Keywords
It is true, Google no longer looks at your keywords in your metadata. So why don’t we just skip this piece altogether? Because identifying the most important keywords for each page is a building block to writing solid SEO-friendly copy on the front of your site. And that is something that Google does indeed look at. Try to limit the number of keywords that you go after on each page, the fewer the better. One to 3 words per page is a good number to target, with 10 being the maximum. The fewer words you go after, the easier it will be to attain good keyword density.

Your keywords should be no more than 250 characters long.

About three years ago a friend asked why I wasn’t on Facebook. Why in the world would I want to be on Facebook? As far as I was concerned, this was my teenage son’s domain and I needed to stay far, far away.

That was then, this is now. Today I use Facebook for networking, reconnecting and staying in touch with friends and family. Okay, so that is the personal side, why does a business need it?

One of the most compelling reasons is that people like myself are jumping into the Facebook pool every day. In fact 250,000 new users sign on every day. There are currently 53 million active users and the fastest growing demographic is people 25 and older.

Not convinced. Okay here is a great real life example. I was working with a client in the specialty and technical paper industry to create an internet marketing strategy. He really could not see how a Facebook page would benefit his company on the web. One day I was checking out his competitors for his top keywords. I typed “Absorbent Paper” into the Google search bar. Up pops a pet supply company on page 1, 3rd listing down – with their company Facebook page.

Best of all, creating a Facebook page for your company is free, other than a small investment of your time. Think of it as adding another piece to the internet marketing puzzle, another means to spread your brand across the web.

It’s pretty apparent, the Internet is here to stay. And if you want to succeed in nearly any kind of business today, you need to have a presence on the Web.

Developing a strong online strategy to market your Web site has been evolving into two distinct areas over the last couple of years. These two internet marketing arms are increasingly referred to as On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO.

On-Page SEO involves getting everything that lives within your site optimized to improve our searchability. This includes things like changing page titles, headings, content, and URLs to improve search engine rankings. Off-Page SEO involves, you guessed it, all the things you do to promote your Web site that are external or not on your site. This includes getting more inbound links to your site, registering with directories relevant to your industry, utilizing Social Media and getting more pages into the search engine indexes.

The days when keywords were the driving force behind a site’s success in the online race for top rankings are no more. In fact, Google states on their site that they don’t even look at keywords in the metadata anymore. That is not to say that you should simply dispense with them.

Think of your keywords as the building blocks to your site. Once you have identified them by doing keyword research, you then need to use them strategically throughout your site. Organization is very important and creating a hierarchy of how to present your information is critical. The fewer number of keywords you target per page the more relevant those words will be.

The following are a few key pointers to keep in mind while integrating keywords into your site:

1. Your title (what appears over the browser window) should contain your most important key word for that page. This will tell Google what the page is about.

2. Choosing an SEO friendly domain name. Although not a guarantee of instant online success, using your most important keyword in your domain does help to make you more searchable. Read my post for more detailed information.

3. When filling in metadata keep these character numbers in mind: Page Title – no more than 60; Keywords – no more than 250; Description – no more than 150.

4. Be selective in using H1 and H2 designations. These tell Google what the main subjects are on the page and if you overdo, then they lose their importance. (A good rule of thumb is to use no more than one H1 per page).

5. Make sure your content is well written for human consumption using your keywords throughout. If you cannot do this yourself, you should consider hiring a professional. Because keyword density is important, the fewer keywords you target per page the easier it will be to write consumer-friendly as well as SEO-friendly copy.

My next post will answer the question: Why Does My Company Need a Facebook Page?

Anyone who wants to be or is in business today, needs to have a Web site. And if you’ve got a Web site, you would do well to learn a bit about SEO.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and at its most basic level it means creating a Web site that makes it easy for the search engines to index (list) your site correctly, so your target audience can find you. SEO is pretty encompassing and the rules do change, so you’ve got to stay on top of what is current.

However, there is a tremendous amount of free and quality information about SEO in books and on the internet. Spend a little time and educate yourself. Then if you do decide to hire a professional SEO firm, you will at least be a bit more savvy about what you are getting for your money.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at one of the first and most important aspects of creating your Web site – choosing an SEO friendly domain.

The process of choosing the right domain name needs careful consideration when you are the process of creating a new Web site. This is especially important if search engine optimization is going to be the main tool for directing traffic to your Web site. An SEO friendly domain name can be a key factor in contributing to the success of your Web site.

The following are some pointers to keep in mind when choosing an SEO friendly domain name:

Shorter Is Better

It is best to have a domain name that is short and catchy; it will be easier for visitors to recall and remember. You definitely don’t want a Web site that loses out on traffic because the domain name is too long, tricky or complicated to remember. Make sure that your domain name is easy to remember and easy to type.

Keywords in the Domain Name

Pick the one keyword that best describes what your site is about and then use it in your domain. DottysDeals.com is personal and nice, however AntiqueDealsByDottie.com incorporates two searchable keywords into the domain. You could even shorten this to AntiqueDeals.com to make it easier to remember.

Stick with the Dot Com

It can be disappointing when you go searching for your perfect domain name, only to find that it has been taken. “Oh, I’ll just take a .net” you may think.” Wrong, think again. Dot Com is the most accepted extension and worth trying to get. It gives your site credibility and it will be easier for people to remember.

No Hyphens or Numbers

Why should you avoid using hyphens or numbers? They are simply not as easy to remember. I can actually vouch for this as friend told me about a great site and I thought it would be easy to remember, so I didn’t write it down. It had a hyphen in it, but do you think I could remember where that darn hyphen went. A hyphen also says, “Alright I couldn’t get the domain of my choice, so I’m cheating a bit.” Try to avoid numbers as well, if you can.

Type-In Traffic

Have you ever been typing in a URL and suddenly you arrive at a different site that is similar to the one you were shooting for? Well that is what is known as type-in traffic and another reason to have a strong keyword as part of your domain. Enough said.

So get that domain right. Don’t rush it! An SEO friendly domain can make a world of difference in helping to further your quest for good search results, decent traffic and ultimately a successful business.