A Few Words About Our Host

An industry design veteran who has successfully conquered both coasts, Drew Stauffer combines innovation with web standards to bring a blend of usability and creative vision to every project. As Director of Development for Wildfire Productions and CEO of Alibi Productions, Drew leaves no development stone unturned. He has published many articles on web standards and has been featured on WebProNews and Google News, and his companies count The Hyatt, BMW, and Michelin among their many satisfied clients.

What you need to know about Search Engine Optimization

Posted on Friday, March 24, 2006

The Internet is getting to the point to where it isn't as scary as it used to be. 10 years ago everybody knew about the Internet. People knew if they searched long and hard they would be able to find what they are looking for. It really served more as a specific resource center. It was easier to find out about the "rare African Ant Eater" than general animals in Africa.

Nowadays, the Internet is a place where if you have any kind of thought in your head, you can probably find some info about it on the Internet. Here comes the Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Do you have a website?
Are you happy with the design and development?
Can users find your website?

Business' today know that their company can be so much more profitable if it's on the web, but it's not good enough to "just" be on the web. Today's web requires you to focus your website on a specific market.

My 12 year old cousin just designed and coded his first website yesterday… this doesn't make him a web designer.

Its funny how a doctor or lawyer would never let his son, nephew, or any young person that knows a great deal about computers design his Yellow Pages Ad. They would say that the child wouldn't understand his target audience or what colors evoke what emotions. That same lawyer would gladly pay his nephew $200 to upload a website for him. Why would he do that?

A business website should be your sole advertising. You wouldn't have to buy radio spots, or take out an ad in the local section if your website was up-to-date and fully functional. Websites can grow and adapt as fast as your business.

Were you just in the news?
Did you just complete a new project you are happy about?
Has anything in the business changed?

Add it to your website. Instantly your website is just as up-to-date as your company. All to often a company has a website built, then they completely forget about it. A professional web development company can help you work through many of these issues and keep your website in pristine condition. Professional companies work to make your business look better, not your nephew.

Strategically placing key SEO elements and how your website is constructed is good marketing

Many clients think that SEO is using a bunch of keywords. In fact, a lot of the techniques that clients ask me to use are "black-hat" techniques. Black-hat techniques can ultimately harm your website more than help. These are also the first kinds of techniques that users come across when they try to learn about optimizing their website for search engines themselves.

Researching the proper SEO company is a very important step in the success of your website. One piece of advice that I hear many SEO companies use is check with more than one company about what they will do for your website. One of the companies that I work for is a multi-million dollar company and we all work very hard on our designs, development and Search Engine Optimization. All day long I am assigned new clients that have had their websites developed by other companies. There are many companies that claim to due SEO, but they don't even do half the things for your website that we do. Clients must contrast and compare to find the best company to represent their business.

Users come in two categories, Surfers and Searchers.

If your website is designed by a 12 year old (no offense to the youngsters), it could probably use some work. Any good design work requires skill and know-how. More importantly than the design when it comes to websites is the code that it used to write it. Clients do not understand that the code of your website is how your website is reflected on the search engines.

Surfers are just cruising around the Internet, just looking at everything. The things that they find are strictly coincidental. Searchers are looking for something specific…a plastic surgeon in Boise ID. If the development of your website was cut out of the budget than searchers are never going to find your website. A company that relies on the random chance that a surfer is going to stumble across their site is not a good marketing plan.

Websites aren't ads in the paper

It takes work to get websites in the proper positions on the search engines, especially for a specific market your trying to target. It takes money to build good, quality websites. You need to put your website in the hands of a company that you feel confident in. Contact many different firms to find out the fine details of their SEO. Many companies will gladly give you tips to lure you to their firm, use that to your advantage. At the end of the day you have to go with whom you feel most comfortable with.