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UPC Newsletters>
7 Sure Fire Ways To Optimize Your Web site!
April 30, 2005
7 Sure Fire Ways To Optimize Your Web site! Why is optimizing so important? Let’s first define what it means to optimize. Definition terms per Webster’s Dictionary defines optimize as: "make optimal; get the most out of; use best; optimize your resources. UPC is dedicated to giving you the knowledge and tools for your website in order for you to have a successful online presence. Here are some recommended tips for optimizing your website. It is highly recommended using as much keyword-heavy text as possible, in sentence form, on your page to provide the relevant information required for effective search engine placement. The more information your page provides to the search engines, the better it will do. Submitting a page to search engines is part of the ranking process, but it is at the search engines' discretion on how they choose to rank sites. It is a good idea to use the optimization tools in order to ensure your page is optimized for high ranking. Content, title tags and metatags all play a role in search engine submission. There are several meta tags, but the most important for search engine indexing are the title, description and keywords tags. The description tag provides the engine a synopsis of your site. The keywords tag provides terms for the search engine to associate with your page. Not all search engines solely use META tags for indexing sites. The text and content of your Web page will play a major role in how or if you will be ranked on a search engine. Search engines often assign more weight to the text located at the top of a page than to the text located in the middle or at the bottom of a page. If your page has a main graphic at the top, you should place some descriptive text either underneath or beside the image. Adding a few keywords to the title tag of your site, and adding your URL as a keyword will help. Some tips that are highly valuable: 1. Put the most relevant text "above the fold," or in the top half of the page. This doesn't mean the top half as a person viewing the page sees it. This means, put relevant text in the top half. Search engines assume text that is large and in the top half of the page is more relevant that something at the bottom. And usually it is. 2. Don't use "hidden" text! This means, do not use text that is the same color as the background. This is often an automatic listing violation and will definitely not get your site listed. 3. Use keywords as image names. Search engine spiders don't see what images look like. All they see is the filename, such as "header_topleft.gif" or the like. Use a relevant keyword string as the filename instead, such as "1998 Chevrolet Camaro.gif" (if you were selling a 1998 Chevy Camaro). This is another great place to "hide" relevant text. 4. When selecting keywords, put yourself in the place of a web user sitting at a search engine. What are they going to type into the search box when they are looking for your industry (remember, they aren't looking for you. They are looking for a type of service or product)? These terms should be your keywords, and should appear in the text of your site. 5. Play up your uniquenesses. Your location can be a uniqueness. So can a specific brand name. Give users a reason to click on your URL over the hundreds of others in the search. 6. Big text is ranked higher that small text. Use large text (H1 or H2) for headers and titles. Make sure this text includes keywords that are important to your site. Small text on a site (smaller than the default size) is ranked very low by search engine spiders. Don't think this means you should put all of your text in huge flashing green letters, however. Just make effective use of titles and header tags. 7. The main thing to remember: If your site has relevant and useful information, with meta tags to match, you will have a much much easier time getting listed and being found by searchers. Give your potential customers a way to find you! The "Catch 22" of search engine placement is sites with a lot of traffic get better placement and you want better placement to get a lot of traffic. Using paid search in conjunction with traditional marketing techniques will help generate traffic you deserve. The techniques listed above will help with search engine placement. 
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