First of all, I now realize why websites include the title of the article in the URL. On sites that I have worked for, a lot of times the posts were numbered (i.e. /23540). I know now that those articles are much less searchable. I'm also notorious for being in too big of a hurry to add any alt text to images. Not only is it good for web browsing, but it's better optimization for search.
I also found it interesting that you can use the "nofollow" meta-tag so that robots don't include certain items in your ranking calculation. That could be very useful if you have an odd post that isn't necessary relevant to your site.
The advice to blog about new features, etc. was good advice as well. And I am going to start doing that with the sites that I work on now.
For promotion, you are foolish to not use social networks. On Kikolani.com, a post gave some advice on what promotions can be run on Facebook and Twitter. The Twitter advice is clever. The post advises to promote something on your site with Twitter, but to add a hash tag that is popular at the time (i.e. #haiku or #oscars). That way it will show up in the trending topics and could get more exposure. It has become almost standard now to create a Facebook fan page for your business as well, so you can update all of your fans at once.
For social bookmarking sites, I think it's important to get a lot of links posted. Sites like Digg, Reddit and delicio.us are great springboards to getting content read. An article on ezinearticles.com offers 4 benefits to using these sites. Obviously the main goal is to gain exposure, but the most interesting points were that social bookmarking provides branding and gives quality backlinks. If you post a lot of links on the social bookmarking sites, then you demonstrate your expertise. Also, to match up with the search engine optimization, you get quality backlinks, which help improve your rating.
SEO is essential to increase exposure and traffic to your website. The tips given will be very beneficial as I continue to develop my website. The process will continue to evolve and it is wise to keep up with the changes.
I was also surprised about how having a blog that you update on your own site is a useful way to improving your website's results in search engines. I never thought about having one before, but when I create my own site this winter, I will definitely include a blog section so I can continually update. Its an easy way to add new content.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The blogging idea was new to me. But it makes sense now that I think about it and is pretty easy to do.
ReplyDeleteKeeping a blog on your site, I believe is also a wonderful idea and adding an area where people can comment or add suggestions will also increase user activity. Having worked at a news site, it's also important to monitor what comments people are making though. If people are making rude or inappropriate comments and you fail to remove them, customers may see it and decide there's another place to look for the services/information you are offering.
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