Optimizing Website Tips

Optimizing Website Tips Lindsay Smith: A lot of businesses are using search engines in order to drive traffic to their website both to create more work marketing awareness and to generate lead. Well, I'm just checking out my inbox here and I've got Andrea from Ottawa and she’s saying “I want to optimized my website but I'm not sure where to start”. So let's check in with Andy Latter at the e-Business Connection. He’s a consultant there and he’s going to answer Andrea’s question. Let's go have a look. So Andy the people want to know how to optimized their website but before we get into that can you just explain to everyone what search engine optimization is? Andy Latter: Sure, search engine optimization is the process of changing the structure of your website, changing the content of your website so that you're website is easily accessible by the search engines so they can come in. They can read the text into your site and understand what your site is all about. Lindsay Smith: Okay, so if I were to optimize my website basically it would help me to get picked up on the like the page number one, two or three of the search engines hopefully. I mean that would be the goal of it. Is that right? Andy Latter: Absolutely, yeah. Lindsay Smith: Okay, so our viewers want to know how do they get on page one of Google or Yahoo and the big search engine and all. Andy Latter: That’s a big question. People really, really want to know that part of it and the process actually is really, really simple but it's not very easy. So it really is about changing the text so that the words that appear on your site are the words that people will search for. So you have to understand your users, the people that are going to come to your site and understand what's in their vocabulary. So if they're searching for particular words those words have to appear in the text of your website in the title bar, in the URL, in the domain name those types of strategies to be able get found on the website. Lindsay Smith: So I imagine that if you had a larger client based or maybe some market research would be a good way to go out there and kind of find out what keywords are being and now what language is being spoken by your clients before you go in and set up those campaigns. Andy Latter: Yeah, absolutely. Lindsay Smith: So if I was interested in doing search engine optimization you can either do it yourself sometimes or you can outsource it. Can you tell me a little bit about both of those options? Andy Latter: Well, when it comes down with nobody knows you have business like you, so when you want to write, when you're going to have change the content of your site really you’re the only one that really knows the message in what you want to talk to people about. Having another company do it, well they can tell you the technical stuff and they can do it the technical part of it but the content of the message that you want to put out should be what you do yourself. There are a number of things that Google for example, will allow you to do that does not cost any money. It takes a little bit of time to do and really it's a very effective strategy to do. If you look generally at a website, you probably heard of lean back and lean forward technology. So a TV is a lean back technology, so you lean back and you get entertained. The web is lean forward. It's a very active environment. So if you're in there doing stuff. So website should be all about tasks. It all should be about somebody coming to your site with a clear goal in mind. They’ve got a question you need answer or they're going to book of reservation or do something at a time. So tracking the completion of task is probably the most effective way to understand if the website is actually working or not. So if people are coming to your site and they're completing those tasks and then that is a good measure of success. So if the company that you're working with can help you through the whole process and it's not, it's not just getting hits because tons and tons of hits are pointless if they're not actually doing what you want the website to do for them. Lindsay Smith: Right. Andy Latter: Generally between about five and 12% of the word should be their main points and so Google go well, that’s what the site is all about. Lindsay Smith: If you're looking for ways to drive traffic to your website and you're just dated in search marketing it was definitely, you can check out the organic or the paid marketing. Thank you Andy and people are interested in finding out more about search engine marketing, where can they go? Andy Latter: We have a website it's www.e-BC.CA and it's free business connection and there are lots of information on search engine marketing, e-commerce, domain names, anything that they deal with e-Business. Lindsay Smith: Perfect, thank you.