I can give you some very basic advice on improving your ranking in the search engines:
1 - Add a "doctype" tag to the very top of your page source code. It comes before anything else and defines the type of document that the page is. Chances are your web authoring program has a checkbox or menu option to insert that.
2 - Remove 3/4 of the keywords in your keywords meta tags. Of the 3 top search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) only Yahoo uses keyword meta tags at all. The others stopped using them. And Yahoo will penalize you if you use too many words. Keep it down to around 20 or so words. Just pick the ones that are most important, and you don't need single words that are also in phrases. For example, if you have "laser engraving" it would not only match that phrase but also match searches on each of those individual words. If you are going to use keywords it is best to use different ones on each page and keep them relevant to the page. You don't need to duplicate keywords that already exist on the page. Use the keywords for alternative words that are related but not already on the page. Even on Yahoo, keywords do not carry any extra weight over words that are readable on your page. They are just additional words. On Google and MSN keywords are completely ignored. They were abused for too many years, so they gave up on them. Google does use keywords to target AdSense ads, if you place Google ads on your site. But not for normal search engine indexing.
3 - This is the most important one. You need text, more text, and lots of text. On every page. Search engines are text based. They can't read graphics. If you make an image with a word in it, the search engine can't read that word. It sees real text in the page. All of those keywords that you dumped in step 2 can all go right back into your page in paragraphs of readable text. Don't just list words or services. Search engines don't like lists as much as readable paragraphs. Spend some time composing paragraphs that read like a human being said them, but mention whatever words a person might search on to find you.
"We provide laser engraving and etching of many products including, but not limited to, awards, plaques, trophies and gifts. We can create designs to your requirements or use your graphics to print images and text on acrylic, wood, metal, and many other materials."
etc...
When you list objects in the sentences (awards, plaques, etc...) keep each grouping down to 3 or 4 items. Then mention a few more a sentence or two later.
Search engines index words, and you need them on all of your pages. You don't need all words to show up on all pages. You can spread them out across the site. But each page needs at least several paragraphs and should contain words important to that page.
The search engines starts at your home page and slowly explores deeper and deeper into your site over time. So you don't have to change the entire site all at once. Work on the home page and get some text there. Then when you have a chance start adding more text to each page that is linked to the home page. Eventually you'll get around to adding text to your whole site.
4 - Add links within the text paragraphs to various pages on your site. Avoid links that say "click here". They should contain descriptive words of what they link to. For example in the text I wrote above you could highlight the word "awards" and link it to your awards page. Don't get carried away. One link per paragraph at most. But those links can be more important to the search engine than your basic navigation links because they are considered "in context".
5 - All images should have ALT attributes describing what the image is. Graphic elements in the page (borders, etc...) should still have alt tags, but with just a pair of double quotes and no text.
6 - All links should have TITLE attributes describing where the link is going. The title and alt attributes are indexed by the search engines and can be used sort of like extra keywords, but keep the text in these attributes short and relevant to the image and links in question.
7 - Here's a bonus one. Add a link to your site in your forum signature. If the search engine indexes the forum, it finds that link and schedules it to be searched. Links leading to your site from other sites can increase your rank (as long as they are not from "link farms", pages full of hundreds of links).
That's enough to get you started. ;-) |
