What is site optimization and how can it effect my search engine rankings?

Site Optimization is a method which describes techniques utilized to make your site more visible to search engine crawlers and to spotlight keywords for which you would want to be found. (Click here to read more about search engine crawlers). Site optimization starts with defining your key audience or customers, your keywords and phrases, and your purpose and goals. It is closely coupled with the design of the site itself. There are many conflicting views but optimization is surprisingly not a mystery. Google applied for a patent on it’s search engine algorithms and methods. In doing so, they had to file publically available paperwork which describes how some parts of their search engine works. There are literally books analyzing the subject and there are concrete methods which can be employed. We will mention some of the basics here. To start with, does your site incorporate your keywords. Designers and users alike used to believe that meta-tags were the key. Meta-tags are codes at the top of a page which is used to describe to search engines what the page is about. Whereas meta-tags are still important, Google surprisingly places little emphasis on them. What is more important to Google is that the actual text copy of the site – the part that people read – actually has keywords in it. So if you are a dentist and you have a lot of referential text about how a new kind of mouthguard works – Google may not see you as a dentist – instead it may think you are a company that sells or makes mouthguards. Next, is the code written behind your site correct? Many times a web page will display despite the fact there are errors in the code. However, if there are errors, the crawlers may not be able to parse – read through – your code. Therefore they cannot pick up what keywords you use in your text. In this case, your site may never be indexed and appear in any results.
SEO – Web Site OptimizationWhat is site optimization and how can it effect my search engine rankings?
There are also hundreds of other items Google and other search engines pay attention to. Here are some:
  • Page Titles
  • Image Names
  • Folder Directory Structures
  • Anchors and links
  • File names
  • Etc.
It is important that your site optimization is done by a professional that understands all of these important techniques and knows how to employ them in a manner so that your site is easily indexed by Google and that your rankings are high for your targeted keywords.

I am looking at creating a new site and want it to be published fully optmized – how do I do that?

In many cases there are companies that offer site optimization. It is important that this is not confused with on-going monthly optimization or optimization that doesn’t actually change any code on your site. Most of the time companies have sites built and then have to pay another company which specializes in SEO to basically rebuild the site utilizing SEO techniques. This is like getting work done twice and is not cost effective. At eKrum, our designers work at design time with SEO specialists to output a clean and optimized site without having to go to two separate companies or having to rebuild anything.

I already have a site and it does not perform well – do I need optimization?

Chances are you probably need optimization on your site and some monthly SEO to get your site into the rankings. Contact our sales department for a free evaluation of your site. We can provide a quote with an estimate for optimization of your site. If your site is old and could use a facelift, chances are it may be cheaper to have a new site built with SEO from the beginning. That way you achieve optimization and a new look that you may have been desiring.