Introduction
In addition to this story on search engine marketing, I'm also working on one about dog-friendly workplaces. I was hoping to find a small business I could use as an example, but I didn't know any off the top of my head. So what did I do? I googled "dog friendly small business," and sure enough on the first page of results were small business after small business that allow dogs to come to work with their owners.
Now think about that scenario for your business. What if customers who knew exactly what they were looking for could find you in a matter of seconds using Google? Hey, it really does happen, and it can happen for your business.
Tips for maximizing search engine marketing for your business
Craft meaningful copy. You wouldn't print a brochure about your business that includes the words "awesome deal" 20 times on each page, would you? So why would you include those words 20 times on your Web site? Using the words "awesome deal" in the right place one time works well. In the wrong place 20 times, not so much.
First and foremost, before even thinking about the other SEO methods, carefully draft the copy that appears on each page of your Web site. Then, take a look at each page and ask yourself what keywords would bring someone to that page and where best to place the keyword.
Think of a title. The title--the bar at the top of the browser--on every page of your Web site should include a concise list of keywords for your business, but not necessarily your business' name. The title is generally what appears as the title in the search results, which is what searchers are likely to glance at first.
Also, don't forget to fill in the ALT tags on your images. Google only knows what an image is by reading its ALT tag.
Don't fake it. You don't want to mislead customers about what you offer. Sure, the words people use to search don't necessarily reflect exactly what they're searching for, but adding a brand name to your tags just because it's comparable to a brand name that you offer doesn't make it right. But you're not just penalizing yourself with customers, you could be upsetting the Google Gods, too, if they catch the discrepancy crawl on your Web site.
Don't overdo it. Adding extraneous words to your tags won't get you anywhere. In fact, cluttered tags can actually hurt your search engine rankings. We roll our eyes and immediately trash spam e-mails that have long, disorderly subject lines, and search engines will do the same if your titles, tags, URLs and Web pages have overtly extraneous information.
Don't get too flashy. Sure, Flash sites are slick looking, but search engines are old fashioned and don't take notice (they can't, it's not text they can read), which makes it harder for your pages to get indexed. Instead of creating an entire page in Flash, make the Flash presentation just one component of the page. That way, both your Flash talents and your search rankings win.
See also
