Hi John,
The domain name you choose can be a factor. For example, if a firm is called
Dynamic Solutions and sells accounting software, a domain name accountingsoftware.com would rank better for the phrase "accounting software"
than dynamicsoftware.com. Some people also think a hyphen helps, so
accounting-software.com would rank even better.
Here is a very condensed list of some of the factors that affect ranking
along with things you can do to help.
1. Have a text rich site - search engines ignore the graphics on your
site.
2. Have text links to each page of your site - search engines can't
"push" your navigation buttons..
3. Avoid Flash and frames when designing your site.
4. Avoid content management systems that don't let you have a different
title tag on each page.
5. Research to find out what key words are getting the most traffic
with less competition
using tools like
NicheFinder.
6. Set up a single page of your site for each high traffic key word,
using the key word in the title and content of the site.
7. Manually submit your site to search engines and directories. I
have a list of
free search engines and directories where you can submit your site to.
8. Try to get high ranking sites to link to yours. A good way to
do this is to write lots of articles and publish them in article directories on
the web. I also maintain a
list of free article directories you can submit your articles to.
You can use a tool like
Web
Position Gold to analyze your site and help you adapting your site to
improve your ranking.
Gaining higher ranking is a lot of work with no guarantee of success because
the search engines keep changing the way they rank sites. You should not
rely on search engine optimization as your primary source of traffic, but it can
be effective as part of an overall traffic building program. Garland
Coulson, "The E-Business Tutor"
Download my FREE e-book, "Promote
Your Web Site for Free"
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