Search engine optimization (SEO) or search engine marketing (SEM) is all the buzz these days. If you want to get traffic to your website, you need to be listed in the major search engines. Granted, there are other good ways to get traffic, such as advertising (offline and online), directory links, etc., but these days, it's all about the search engine. Regardless of your marketing plan, target customer, etc., there are some basic things every site should do to be search engine friendly.
While these won't guarantee top placement, they will give you a good start, and keep you from making some common gaffes that make it hard even for customers who "know you" already, from finding you.
When reading these keep in mind two things.
Search engines live or die by the quality of their search results. Therefore, they must constantly guard against sites that artificially try to bump up rankings, and do not have the content people are seeking.
Many of these ideas are not just good for search engines - they are good for your visitors as well. Implementing these points will also make your site more usable, which sounds like a real win-win to me!
Do:
Publish relevant content - I can't emphasize this enough. Even a small business website can post relevant articles, descriptions of their services, history, etc.
Give 'title' to all your pages - At the top of your browser, you see the title for the page you are on. It's tempting to just name every page on your site with your business name, but SEO experts agree that search engines place some interest on page titles. So, go through your site and name each page appropriately.
Use meta tags - Even though the 'keyword' and 'description' meta tags are not used heavily by search engines anymore (too many sites were trying to manipulate rankings with them), I still think it's important to use them on every page. Why not? It's a little extra work, and can't hurt. Again, use relevant keywords, and description to your content.
Name your pages / links appropriately - It's unclear how much this helps, but it's good practice to name pages and folders relevant to their content. For instance, naming a page "page1.html" doesn't tell you anything about its content. On the other hand "about_us.html" give a good indication of what's on that page.
Use the 'alt' tag in images and links - Search engine robots usually can't tell what is in an image. So use the 'alt' tag to describe the picture - Note: this also helps for people using text only browsers (yes, some people do!), or page readers. Also note, links have an alt tag as well, so you might as well use it. If you hold your mouse over a link or image on some sites, a little bubble pops up with some text in it - that's the alt tag.
Use key words and phrases sparingly - some experts believe that "overusing" or repeating words too often actually reduces your ranking. Say what you need to say, don't repeat it just to fill space on your site.
Keep key words prominent - Make sure your key words are not buried in small fonts, or at the bottom of the page. Search engines assume that your main business / content will be featured prominently, so make sure it is.
Get linked from relevant pages - There are many 'directories' out there - sites that contain lists of sites based on industry, location, etc. Search for some of these and get linked. Some search engines, notably Google, rank your site's worth based on the quality of the links going to it. So, get yourself listed in quality directories!
Build a site map - A site map is a page that simply organizes your entire site into links. Smaller sites probably don't need this, but it's here because it gives the robots one more path through your site.
Add footer links for navigation - Many sites have a simple text bar at the bottom of each page with links that basically mirror the top Navigation. These help search engine robots if your main navigation uses javascript or flash.
Avoid flash or javascript - It's debatable how good the search engine robots are at parsing javascript and flash. If you need to use them, it's a good idea to provide alternate "non-javascript / flash" navigation through your site. This also helps users whose browsers do not support those technologies (yes, there are some out there!).
Bide your time - Most engines state that new sites may take 6 weeks or longer to get added. In addition, Google is rumored to hold sites for several months, to avoid hit-and-run sites that abuse the system. This is sometimes referred to as the "sandbox". If you need traffic during this time, advertise, or get links, otherwise, use the time to add and refine the content on your site!
Measure your success - look at your site traffic using a statistics program, or statistics from your hosting provider. You can see where traffic is coming from (referring sites), and even what search terms were used. Use this data to see what's working and then do more of it.
Don't:
Use "hidden" key words - An old tactic used to be to put lots of text on a site the same color as the background, so that visitors wouldn't see it, but search engines would. The consensus is that the robots are smart enough to figure that out, and penalize your site for doing it.
Repeat key words too often - Similar to the above - you can get penalized if you have the same words too many times on a page. It looks too much like you are trying to manipulate rankings.
Set up affiliate sites - These are sites that are set up to do nothing but send traffic to your site or set up several sites just to point to your site. This tries to take advantage of the "linking popularity" rating I mentioned above. It's a short-term strategy that will probably cost you dearly in the long run.
Should you hire an SEO specialist?
There are plenty of companies out there specializing in SEO techniques, and guaranteeing you higher rankings. My advice would be to proceed carefully on this. If any "questionable" tricks are used to artificially boost your site's rankings, your site may suffer if the search engines clamp down. My advice would be to have someone (or do it yourself) help you "clean up" your site, using some or all of the items listed above. Also, many SEO's will help you with keywords, terms, which can help bring the right customers to your site. Again, proceed carefully!
Wrap up
In the end, I believe that if your content is relevant, and your site is clean, and follows the above guidelines, then you will get search engine traffic. In the end, you want visitors that actually have an interest in your content. There are many things you can and should do to make your site search engine friendly, without being manipulative. As with many things in life, honesty will reward you in the long run.
