Be Seen

Be Seen.

The internet is big. Really, really big. And there's a lot of stuff on it.

So you've just finished spending some time and money on a web site, and it's all shiny and exciting and ready to go. You launch it, then send a memo to everyone in the company telling them about the shiny exciting new web site, and everyone goes there and clicks around for a few minutes and tells you it's great. And then they get back to their spreadsheets or sales calls or solitaire or whatever. And the web site sits there. Waiting for someone to visit.

Because the internet is so gosh darn big, it's naturally difficult for people to find your web site amongst the gazillion other web sites out there. People spend a lot of time online these days, but very very few of them are willing to spend time typing in various URLs to find what they want. They go to the search engines, and the search engines tell them what they want. So clearly, the way to get the people away from their spreadsheets and sales calls-- and poking around your site instead-- is to get yourself in those search engine listings.

Luckily the search engines do a lot of work to find you and read all of the witty things you've written and add it to their vast databases. All you have to do is build your web site in a way that's "friendly" to them, so they can read it more easily and present more relevant links to people searching for you. There are many things that make your site friendly: page content, titles, meta tags, validation, image tags, cross-linking, referrals, and so forth. And all of those things are pieces of the larger puzzle. If you're missing a few pieces, the puzzle doesn't look quite right and the search engines see your site, chuckle a little, and move on. And you're left down on page 47 of the results, wondering why no one visits.

In a way, search engine optimization is an art rather than a science. The companies running those vast engines keep their cards pretty close to their chests-- they don't tell anyone how, exactly, they calculate your placement in their rankings. And perhaps more to the point, they're always tweaking those algorithms and figuring out new ways to weed out the Bad Sites and give more credit to the Good Sites. So even if you've spent a ton of time (and money) optimizing your site, and you're really happy because you're sitting at the top of the list, next month you may be surprised to find yourself back down on page 47 because the algorithms changed and your site didn't match whatever mysterious criteria they're using.

The answer is to just be yourself. Don't worry about all the trickery and hacks and crazy little things those SEO marketing agencies tell you. Make your web site clear, concise, and simple. If you want people to find your site when they search for "transcendental beef", then be sure the content on your site uses those words. Make sure the page titles are descriptive. Make sure the images showing transcendental beef are labeled as such. And-- not surprisingly-- you'll be rewarded by the search engines because deep down they appreciate an honest site that just tells it like it is.

A really nice side effect of doing this is your customers will appreciate it too. They'll come to your site and they won't feel cheated or tricked because they were looking for "xenophobic jalopies" and what the heck is this beef stuff? Your site will be relevant to what they wanted so they'll be happy to click through a couple of pages and read more about your beef.

Here at Zing we build web sites, and although we don't know all of the tricks the SEO agencies use, we can help you build your site in a way that will not only get you in those listings, but will make your customers happy when they get to you. Our content management system includes easy-to-use controls for every aspect of your site, so you can turn the dials and be seen. So you can forget about page 47, and think about how to be on page 1.