SEO

SEO | what it is & how to get started
No one's better at running your business or organization - than you.
No one's better at maintaining your web presence - than us.

WHAT IS SEO:

'Search Engine Optimization' (SEO) is the process of improving the ability of a website to rank well in Internet search engines like Google, Yahoo etc.

WHY IT IS NEEDED:

Search Engine Optimization is important to your business in several ways:

Higher company ranking in Internet search results
Increased consumer traffic to website
Increased company popularity and notice
Greater potential for new customers
Improved overall website design and structure
Easier web page navigation with less clicks

CREATING YOUR SEO

Who knows more about your business and your targeted customers than you - the business owner. By investing some of your time and following our SEO Steps, you will undoubtedly reach more customers on the internet.

Remember, the purpose of good SEO is not just to get someone to click on your website, but to actually become a customer and buy something from you. The "Quality" of someone whose visited your site is much more important than the "Quantity" of visitors.

Once your SEO Steps are completed, its easy to incorporate your prepared SEO information into websites hosted by eProImage.

STEP 1: DETERMINE YOUR CUSTOMER (a little brainstorming)

Who’s looking for what you offer?

What terminology would they use to search for it?

Hint: Since not everyone thinks alike, this would be various words and combinations of words - which is called “keywords.”

STEP 2: KEYWORDS (words & phrases)

This is a Master Set of all products, services, & related descriptive words, as well as phrases. Your keyword list should be arranged in order of importance. Once you have completed your keyword list, you will use this list to create your description, page titles and content.

Hint: You can use a free keyword service such as http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ to help determine variations on searched words & phrases. Enter your main keywords & phrases in their search bar to see daily search volume and relevant words.

Example: Keywords & Key Phrases
Main Street Photography, Albemarle, NC, color portraits, black and white, senior pictures, wedding photography, fine portraiture, photo albums, professional photography, portrait studios, portrait photographers, family portraits, family photographers, children photographers, baby photography, event photography, etc...

STEP 3: DESCRIPTION

Write a relevant, descriptive paragraph about your products and services. The website description should incorporate as many of the primary keywords & phrases in the order of importance. The description can be up to 250 characters/spaces (according to SEO for Dummies). This description is for search engines and will be embedded in your website, so it is not necessary to be eloquent or use unnecessary words.

Example: Description
Main Street Photography, a portrait studio in Albemarle, NC provides professional outdoor and studio portrait photography like senior pictures, wedding photography, photo albums, family portraits, and children's portraits to Albemarle and the Stanly County area.

STEP 4: ESTABLISH PAGE(S)

Determine the pages for your website according to the products and services as described in your keywords/phrases. Create a page name and a page title for each page using the most important/relevant keywords & phrases specific to that page and the products and services described in the content of the page. Its important to remember that the page “name” and page “title” are 2 different elements.

The page name will appear in your navigation and should be simple (1-3 words - depending on the length of each word).

The page title will be crawled by search engines and appears in the web browser. The page title should be descriptive but no longer than 60 characters including spaces.

STEP 5: CONTENT

Create the content for each of your web pages utilizing the keywords & phrases that are specific to that page. The search engines crawl websites from left to right and top to bottom, so it is important to use your primary keywords and phrases at the beginning of your page and work your way down. Content in headers as well as bold, italic, anchor text, and other formatting options increase the view of importance a particular text has when crawled by a search engine.

Example: Page Content
Main Street Photography has specialized in color and black & white portraits, children, and weddings for over 15 years. In creating fine portraiture, Main Street Photography brings together a love for photography with artistic ability, to create an image for you that will touch your life for years to come. The art of fine photography is a lasting expression... one that reflects you, your family, and your way of life. We feel that photography should convey mood, excitement, character, and a depth of feeling and expression. These images will be remembered as the best investments you have ever made.

IMPORTANT NOTES: RELEVANCY & SIMPLICITY

It is important that you ensure that your keywords & phrases are relevant to you and your customers. Trying to go overboard with your keywords may not be received well by search engines. The practice of keyword ‘stuffing’ or ‘spamming’ results in a negative search ranking.
Within your content, only bold or italicize a few words with the most relevancy to you or your customer which will draw a search engine’s eye, as well as your customer’s, to the important content on your pages.
The relevancy of your site as a whole is going to affect the rankings of an individual page.
Since you are a small business owner, your website will reflect only the products and services you offer. Therefore you have an advantage - determining your customer, focusing on the keywords that apply to you, writing content specific to your products and services & building a website that is easy for your customer to navigate …will get you noticed by search engines.

ADDING SEO ELEMENTS TO YOUR EPROIMAGE 'DO IT YOURSELF' WEBSITE:

There are 2 ways to add SEO information into your eProImage 'Do It Yourself' website. One is for your overall website & the other is for individual pages in your website.

Overall website SEO: open your Online Manager. Choose 'Website Manager' & select the SEO tab. Then in the spaces provided enter your Title, Keywords, & Description for your website as a whole. Be sure to click SAVE at the bottom before leaving the page.

Individual page SEO: open your Online Manager. Choose 'Website Manager' & select the "Site Pages' tab. Then, click the Update icon next to the page you'd like to add SEO to. With the individual page open, enter your Page Title, Description & Keywords in the spaces provided. Be sure to click SAVE at the bottom before leaving the page.

GOING TO GOOGLE (once all SEO is added to your website)

The first step is making sure your site is in Google's index. Visit www.google.com/addurl to complete a series of steps.
The Google index includes each site's content and links. The content is distilled into keywords, which are used to find relevant sites during searches. The index information is gathered by Googlebot. This program intelligently scans Web pages and analyzes content.

Hint: Googlebot only scans text; it doesn't process images. If all your important information is in images, it won't see much.

Google also offers a free program called Google Analytics ( http://www.google.com/analytics/ ). Among other things, it generates reports that will help you see what areas on your website are the most popular and where traffic originates. Use this information to tweak your content and SEO strategies. Your Google Analytics ID can be added directly into the SEO tab of your eProImage Website Manager.