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Basic Search Engine Optimization
Can I promise that your site will come up first on a search engine? It depends on how the search words are used. For instance, if you search for childrens clothing, you will find a huge assortment of stores from everywhere... but if you search for childrens clothing Forest Lake you might find just the website you were looking for! Give it a try on Google...
Notice that Yellow Bus Children's Shoppe is listed at the top. Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it. Make sure that your TITLE tags and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate. With search engine friendly body copy, your page will be found if folks search for it in an intelligent manner. Your site will be submitted to these search engines (free submission)...Google, Microsoft (MSN), Yahoo and Open Directory Project (Ask Jeeves, All the Web, AOL, Dog Pile, Lycos, Google, Infospace, Netscape and Excite).
Links are becoming more important and reciprocal links are cost effective. A link page is easy to do. In general, you can improve the rank of your site by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to your pages. Be careful though... make sure you are comfortable with the content of the sites... and also with the links on their pages. These links are a reflection of your business. You can also pay for advertising banners on many local, state and national websites.
What is the most popular search engine?
Here are the results from statistics for the Gammelgarden Museum.
(Google Analytics Report... Nov. 2, 2008 to Dec. 2, 2008)
Google... 339
Yahoo... 44
MSN... 12
AOL... 16
Here are the results from statistics for the Forest Lake Community Page.
(Google Analytics Report... Nov. 2, 2008 to Dec. 2, 2008)
Google... 478
Yahoo... 107
MSN... 95
AOL... 24
If your site needs additional optimization, you will need a company that specializes in this field. I have worked with Eric Nester at Blackwood Productions. On December 3, 2008, in a Google search for "Buffalo Burgers" Cowboy Free Range Meat is listed 15th out of 404,000 listings, "Buffalo Meat" 12th out of 586,000 listings and "Elk Meat" 7th out of 221,000 listings. This is an ongoing process and prices range from $300 to $1000 a month. The rankings vary from week to week.