Search Engine or Website Optimization

by Michael Murdock

What is search engine optimization? Actually what people refer to as SEO should really be termed WSO or Website Optimization. This is a set of actions taken by an individual or company to make their website more visible to people who use the Internet through resources such as www.google.com or other search engines.

The Internet itself is similar in nature to a card catalog at your local library. Those of who remember the drawers full of cards can relate to this analogy. Others may get lost in it. With the drawers, there were cards that had the "exact" location of a book or magazine in alphabetical order that we might be looking for. We opened the drawer, thumbed through the cards, found our book title and then wandered aimlessly down the aisles hoping that:

the card was in the right drawer
the book was not checked out
the book was returned to its proper place on the shelf which matched the contents of the card.
How does all of this relate to your website? Your website is the card in the drawer. There are people out there searching for your card, and since your website is available all the time and many people can check it out, you want to ensure that your card is correct, and that it sticks out from the rest of the cards in the drawer so that you are noticed.

That is Website Optimization.

How do I do this and is it difficult? Well there are a number of ways and yes it's difficult. I will not lie to you. I make my living doing this for customers. This is all I do, and it takes a lot of time to get it just right, but more on that later.

There are software packages that can do this for you. Some are very nice, others are very cheap. Expensive is better, cheap is just cheap and frustrating. There are services out there that are expensive (I am one of them), and there are others that are cheap. You get what you pay for and for the cheap ones there are no guarantees. I offer a 90 day 100% money-back guarantee in writing and backed with 27 years experience in the computer industry.

How do I get started with WSO? First off, look at your website, what does it say? What market is it trying to address? Is there a product you are selling? A service you are promoting? What makes you stand out from your competition? Are there words or terms that you could use to describe your service in two or three words? Like maybe website optimization...or economical website optimization...or car waxer...beautician extraordinaire...things like that?

Search Engines, those things that send out little robots and spiders (these are good spiders and friendly robots) at night to scour the entire internet and catalog billions of websites look for certain things to stand out on a web page:

Title - Probably the single most important part of a web page. Make this something descriptive like:

Bob Johnson's New, Terrific Auto Repair Service

not

Bob's Web page

Short, to the point, and using some of the keywords that describe your service or product. Here it's Auto Repair Service, it's New, and it's Terrific.

Description - The second most important item on the page. Make this relevant to the content (typing) that you have on your web page.

Bob's New Terrific Auto Repair Service is the most experienced auto repair shop on the coast. Servicing All types of autos from 9am - 5pm 7 days a week. We offer early bird service on Fridays and Free Car Washes to all customers who pay by cash.

Keywords - Select about 22 words/phrases that describe your product or service, and separate them with a comma. This line would look like: auto, automobile, service, terrific, new, free car wash, pay with cash.

Keywords are important, but not 100% necessary in WSO. Why 22? Because anything over that number will be ignored by 99% of the search engines when the spiders and robots come looking for your site. And the other 1% of the search engines you don't want to be listed on.

How do I find these keywords? Use the following tool:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

This tool known as the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool is one of the most widely used methods of finding out what subjects people are searching for. What products they are searching for, what services they search for. Enter your words like this: star wars or use something like business plan sample and when you click the button, you will be presented with a listing of how many times that word or words was searched for in the past month. Picking the higher ranked ones will be good for your site.

Snap Monkey provides a way for you to enter these keywords into your website code easily. Once this is done, your site will be more available to searchers on the web following the next and last step: SUBMISSIONS.

SUBMISSIONS -

What is a submission and how do I do it? Submission is the process of presenting your "card" website to the librarian for entry into the Internet. The librarian let's call her GOOGLE (for this example) has a place called a submission page or a place to add your URL to. In the case of GOOGLE you can find this page at:

http://www.google.com/addurl.html

This page allows you to type in the URL or (Uniform Resource Locator (address)) of your web page and a description (Comments area). Once you have done that, you click the button named: Add URL

Clicking this button asks the librarian to send out the very special spiders and robots to catalog your card/website at their next possible time. They will do this and if you are a webwatcher you will see your page climb the listings. Keeping it there is where services like mine come in.

FREQUENCY -

Frequency is key in Website Optimization. This is where my services come into play. Most working individuals do not have the time or the desire to spend their days and nights making sure that websites not only get submitted, but stay ranked on the search engines. I do. I make the time for each of my clients and help them get more business as a result of visibility of multiple pages. See, everything that was mentioned above has to be done for each and every page on your website, and it has to be done more than once a month. I have the time for that. You don't. You need to promote your business, talk with people, create products, perform services, etc...Oh! and you need to have a life afterwards. My work and business is to make sure that your website is very popular, very quickly, and it's what I do best.

I hope this information was helpful for you. For more information about me and my services, please see my websites at:

http://www.docmurdock.com/ and http://www.mmacs.com/

and feel free to contact me by email to murdock@docmurdock.com or murdock@mmacs.com and ask for my free ranking report on your website.

To get one, send me the following information and I will get a report to you based on your site:

Website name/URL (http://www.yourwebsitenamegoeshere.com)
Your name
contact information
phone
fax
email
And most of all tell me how I can best serve you.

Best regards,

Michael E. Murdock, CEO

docmurdock.com

murdock@docmurdock.com