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All About Search Engine Optimization (SEO) The term "search engine optimization" refers to the techniques used by web designers or SEO professionals to improve the ranking of your web site in natural (not paid) search engine results. You can learn alot more about Search Engine Optimization here.Being listed and ranked well by the major search engines is important to many of our customers. Which is why we strive to stay abreast of the newest information about Search Engine Optimization and utilize best practice techniques when designing a web site. We always make sure that the web sites we develop are accessible to users with disabilities, include appropriate and useful meta tags, are light on code (when possible) and easy for you to update with lots of fresh, relevent content. Which does not mean that we can guarantee you any results at all for our efforts. We have little control over whether you will be indexed and how well you will be placed. But we know how YOU can have some control over how well your new site is indexed by the big search engines! Ready? I have to shout! I hate to do it, but it's so important- one word, said thrice... CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT! It's all about your content! Well, mostly! The more unique content you provide your user, the better informed and entertained your visitors will be. And the more likely your web site will be listed by major search engines, and possibly well. But please note: the trick is to write the content for the user and not the search engine! You don't want to bore your visitors with repetitive or irrelevent content. And search engines don't really like repetitive content (like has so often been used in the past to trick them into indexing a site well for a particular search term). Keywords are out, fresh descriptive content is in! One way we like to encourage our customers to provide updated content to their visitors is the ever-popular blog. Blogging your product updates, events and business news keeps your customers informed and builds not only your content base, but consumer interest. It's been our experience that when a blog is installed as a part of any e-commerce web site it quickly becomes the most popular area of the site overall. Your customers want to get to know you. Tell them all about it. We know how busy entrepreneurs are, and blogging may not sound like the best idea to you if you don't like to write. And that's fine. Just please be aware, concentrating on providing high quality content to your visitors on your web site can boost your overall search engine performance! You must prioritize it. If you do not intend to blog, you still want to be certain to frequently update your web site and include lot's of unique, relevent content to your visitors. Good product descriptions, plenty of graphics, a privacy policy statement, return policy, and secure environment are all imperitive to any e-commerce web site. But of course, great content is not the end of the efforts you should make to increase the value of your web site to the search engines. There are other things you can do to increase your search engine worthiness. For instance, networking can make a big difference in getting indexed better by search engines. Links in from other web sites can be viewed as a vote of confidence in your site and product. The more valid, appropriate links in to your site, the more valuable your site becomes. Now, I'm not telling you to leap into some smarmy link-swapping campaign. I'm really talking about good, old fashioned networking. There is simply not enough that can be said about networking. Would you feel more comfortable purchasing a product from a random store you pulled up in a search engine, or a store referred to you by a friend or another company/organization? You will do better both in the eyes of your potential customers and in the view of the search engines if other web sites link to you. It is going to take work to get noticed, you are going to have to make your product and web site known to the public by executing a marketing campaign. It always drives me nuts when I see the informercials that say, "you too can own a custom internet business and make millions with little or no effort!" because that just isn't how it goes. There are mazillions of stores out there, and likely quite a few who offer a product or service very similar to yours. You need to stand out in a crowd, you need to get the attention of your target audience. You aren't going to get it just because you have a shiny new website that is super search engine optimized. You must pound the (virtual) pavement! Here are some links to SEO resources for you to check out: Submit Your Site to Yahoo Search Submit Your Site To Google Search Engine Watch - How To Use HTML Meta Tags Organic SEO |