Web Site Search Engine Optimization l SEO l amelia island l myweb optimize l improve search engine rankings

myweb optimize

myweb optimize is a results driven service which develops creative web site design strategies to allow you to compete in a new world of online marketing. We will review and evolve your online marketing strategy based on Return on Investment and will ensure you reach specific measurable goals with your web site design.

So how do you make heads or tails out of all the technical gibberish that web designers talk about?

What you need to know before understanding SEO:

Let's get some definitions down first.

1. "The search engines", this is a general term referring to the Websites we use to search for anything on the web. Examples are Google (the undisputed heavyweight champ), Yahoo (second most widely used), MSN, Bing, and many other small ones.

4. "Web browser", this is the vehicle to get on the World Wide Web. Some examples are Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari (for Mac Users), and the list goes on but the rest are not commonly used.

5. "Domain name", on the web your website address is really a series of numbers split up by dots. These would really be hard to remember so in the infinite wisdom of the internet gods, we replace them with words. The www stands for world wide web and then your name and then a dot something, these days there are many. It is a common myth that .orgs are only used for non-profits and .edu is only used for educational institutes and .gov is only for the government but the reality is you can use whatever you like as long as it available.

6. The definition of a "website", if you are dying to know, we did some research for you and this is the scoop:

n. A set of interconnected webpages, usually including a homepage, generally located on the same server, and prepared and maintained as a collection of information by a person, group, or organization.
www.answers.com
n. A set of interconnected webpages, usually including a homepage, generally located on the same server, and prepared and maintained as a collection of information by a person, group, or organization.

Usage Note: The transition from World Wide Web site to Web site to website as a single uncapitalized word mirrors the development of other technological expressions which have tended to take unhyphenated forms as they become more familiar. Thus email is gaining ground over the forms E-mail and e-mail, especially in texts that are more technologically oriented. Similarly, there is an increasing preference for closed forms like homepage, online, and printout.
www.thefreedictionary.com
A website, or Web site, is not the same thing as a Web page. Though the two terms are often used interchangeably, they should not be. So what's the difference? To put it simply, a Web site is a collection of Web pages. For example, Amazon.com is a Web site, but there are millions of Web pages that make up the site. Knowing the difference between these two terms can save you a lot of embarrassment.
www.techterms.com

8. "Key words", these are terms the "end user" types into "search engines", using their "web browser" of choice, to find "websites" that offer whatever they are looking for. for example, web design Amelia island, Fernandina beach web design, website designers Nassau county, and the list goes on.

9. "Source Code", the definition is not as important as knowing how to view it. 2 ways,

#1: pull up the website in question, then RIGHT click on any "empty space" (an area with nothing on it) & then LEFT click on "View Source".

#2: If your "web Browser" has a "View" button up top, LEFT click it and then LEFT click "Source",

...now don't freak out, it's crazy alien code to most people, you are not alone!

10. "meta tags", these can be compared to the index pages of a book. They tell the search engines who you are, what you offer and how well your website is built. They are located in the structure (the back end) or DNA of your website. Each page should have unique meta tags.

The search engines also use meta tags to determine how relevant your site is to what they read. Just to mention a few, at least all of the following MUST be included in you Source code in the meta tags: page title, description, keywords, and a some that you can have us put in (it's proprietary…)

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So how imagine you were tasked with "rating" all the hundreds of billions of websites out there?

Using your freshly soaked in expertise on the web; the following is a very basic explanation of how "SEO" works. Imagine you have a product or service for sale and there are people out there looking to pay money for it.

Sound familiar?

The search engines are nothing more than a referral service, on one side, there are hundreds of billions of “web users” searching for products and/or services, on the other, are hundreds of billions of websites offering those products and/or services.

Let's pick Google for simplicity's sake. Google's reputation as a “good” search engine depends on a solid referral. There is more money than the United States deficit on the line from advertising (ok, maybe not but close).

If time and time again we never found what we were looking for, Google would fade away as “the most used search engine on the planet”. This is why they are really strict on who they let up on the first page, their reputation (and a ton of ad revenue) depends on it. You cannot cheat the system.

It's humanly impossible to rate the hundreds of billions of websites on the world wide web, so the search engines use a mathematical algorithm that changes frequently along with a few other well kept, heavily guarded secrets the search engines will not share with anyone. Since it's automated, if you don't have your act together when they read your site (which is rumored to happen once a quarter, nobody exactly knows when), how do you expect them to refer you? Nobody really knows exactly what needs to be done, but there are best practices and proven guidelines, none which are being used on your site.

The maturity of your domain name and how long it's been pointed to a website also makes a difference. This is another element engines use to gage websites. Just like a new business, you have to earn "the peoples" trust before you become the provider of choice. CAUTION: It's not how long you have owned it; the clock doesn't start until you have a website occupying the domain. Think of it this way, if I bought some office space and left it vacant, would people start trusting me?

Furthermore, if I had a rundown looking office would as many people come? A sharp website is your business' first impression on the web. It is dangerous to assume people won't judge you by your site!

These are just a few examples from the roster of "secret herbs & spices" they request you have in order to serve you up next time an "end user" comes looking for your service or product. Oh, and as if that didn't make it hard enough, the roster of "secret herbs & spices" changes periodically.

Here are a few additional terms relating to search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM)…

SEO: Search Engine Optimization , the art of achieving 1 st page rankings for a keyword or set of keywords. “I want my website to pop up when I type “(insert keyword of your choice here)” into Google”
PPC: Pay-Per-Click , paid online advertising (this is how Google makes its mi…bi…tri…Gadillions of dollars. It's a simple concept, but hard to implement and very complex on the inside. The reader's digest? You bid for a keyword (or set of), provide a budget (control it hourly, daily, weekly and monthly). Then every web surfer that clicks on the ad you created to go with that keyword costs you a click (however much you bid). When your budget runs out, your ad comes down. Fork over more money? Get your ad up again…and so on.
SEM: Search Engine Marketing , a combination of SEO, PPC, 2 way linking, viral video sharing, email marketing and others.
Meta tags : in the genetic make-up or “backend” of your website is some gibberish code that only web designers know how to read. This is called your source code, and is what the search engines see when they scan a website. In your source code there should be (but often left out by web designers) “meta tags”, among them: title tag, keyword tag, description tag, and some others. Consider this the index of your book (website), if the search engine “spiders” don't see an index, you don't get found…

Douglas (Doug) Applewhite, Jacksonville
Head of Search Engine Marketing
October 2009