With a billion web sites on the World Wide
Web, which spells: facing a huge competition, thorough preparation
is necessary to make your web site a success.
When surfing the web we can visit the pages of the well known
corporates everybody knows by name through simply typing their
name into Google's search. Google then will present their
web sites mostly on the first search result page. When we
enter search terms that only relate to their products or services the
appearance of these brands is very often drastically reduced
to not showing up at all.
So, if you do not belong to the category of great brand names
but depend on being found by the search terms your target
group probably uses when conducting their searches, your position
is much more difficult but also a challenge.
Browsing the web to check out your competition
is always a good point to start. Awareness how your competitors
are presenting their brand online and which functionality
and strategy they use is most important. But also realize
that they could build on a new web site right now, at this
moment and that this web site will be definitely more advanced
and in many ways improved than the one you see on your screen.
So it is always important to think ahead for the purpose to
stay ahead.
Search first for the firms you know by name by typing their
firm name into the search fields of the Search Engines. Try
different Search Engines, because when the firm doesn't rank
in Google it can very well come up in the Yahoo or MSN results.
Proceed to find them with the keywords you would use when
you would not know them by name but would search for products in their product range.
In case they do not show up on the search result pages, you
are challenged to do a better job but if they show up and
rank high, check their keywords strategy.
Each Browser provides the possibility to take a view into
the source of the web page. In case you use MS Internet Explorer,
just click the "View" Button in the menu bar and
then click "Source". An additional window will open
showing the source code of the page. You do not need to be
a programmer to find these tags we need to analyze. We are
looking for the Meta tags and title. You can find them easily
because they are located in the head of the code. Head stands
for: in the top of the page.
Locate the title:
Note the title and all the keywords and then check the content
of the page inclusive the links for how many times these words
can be traced back in the content. The answer is for sure not
"the more the better" but in the harmonious relationship
of the words in the tags and the content. "The more the
better" can be identified by Search Engines as an attempt to "spam
the bots" which would result in the banning of the page. Thus
the density is of great importance. It also does not make
any sense to put keywords in these section, which are not
coming back in the text or navigation of the page. Each page
should have a different title corresponding to its content
and navigation.
The keywords and the analysis of the content of your competition
will give you a sound input which direction to choose and
which keywords you can or should not use, especially when
they are found in sites which are very successful or if they
rank very low. Keep in mind to differentiate yourself from
your competition and use this online analysis
also to do so. Mimicry is only successful in the animal kingdom!
I guess, it will now also make sense to you that SEO Consultants
and Online Marketing Managers not only have to choose the
best keywords, but also have to tweak the content and add
or take away a word from the content here and there. It is definitely proven
that Search Engines love content and especially when a theme is connecting the pages.
The quality of the content should be professional and fit throughout the web site into the chosen theme.
Link building is especially most important to show up in Google's
search results. On this web site you can find
link building information that tell you all about it.
In the next edition we will follow with an article about "coming
up with a theme and concept" for a site.
About the Author: Doris Pelger, is one of the directors
and founders of Visual Orange Co., Ltd., a European
managed web site design and web based application development
firm in Thailand.
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