Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization or (SEO) “is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines.” See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization.
The process of optimizing your website can vary from very complicated to very simple depending on how much work your site needs. When I was asked to write an article about SEO for Lil’ Kicker franchisees I was a little concerned because of the technical nature of the work that goes into this process. But when I began to think about how difficult it can be to find a Sports-IT customer’s website, even searching by their company name and state, I realized that a few simple improvements would help their website move up the search result rankings. In short, while there are many people that make a career out of providing SEO services, you can optimize your own site without spending thousands of dollars if you follow a few simple rules.
Today’s Search Engine
Today’s search engines have adopted systems similar to the PageRank system created by Google. The order in which your page is listed is no longer based soley on what words are on your website but instead is based on complex algorithms that rank your website against others. Here’s Google’s description of their PageRank algorithm:
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”.
The image below gives a good representation of how PageRank works and what you can do to move up in the search ranks. Lets pretend that company B = ESPN and company E = You. ESPN has a large PageRank because there are millions of sites linking to it – some of them with large PageRanks and some with small. Your company’s website has quite a few websites linking to it but most of the websites have a very small PageRank and thus your PageRank remains relatively small. The key here is to get quality PageRank sites to link back to your site. For example, company C only has one site linking to it but it’s ESPN and this makes its PageRank larger than yours. If your company was able to get ESPN to link to your site your PageRank would balloon above company C. Also note that every page on the web will contain a PageRank. For example, a local news website’s sports page will have a higher PageRank than their obituaries. Getting ESPN to link to your website might be a difficult challenge but it makes the point that you want quality sites linking to yours.
Enough of the theory, lets look at how your website can climb up in the search results.
Step #1, Build Your PageRank
Building your PageRank of your website is the continual process of getting other websites to link to your website. This is the most effective way of putting your website at the top of search engines.
Step #2, The Front Page!
Don’t fill the front page (aka home page) of your website with team schedules, flash and pictures. The front page of your website will likely have the highest PageRank on your site. Because of this you want words describing your facility, services and location on your front page. Use the words people use in search engines to find the products and services you provide. If you run indoor soccer and Lil’ Kickers try to use the words “indoor” “soccer” “child development” and so on. And don’t just stick a bunch a words up there, try to use readable, interesting content. The search engine will figure it out.
Step #3, Build A Search Friendly Website
Sometimes the best websites are the simple ones. Don’t put your important words into flash and keyword descriptions in flash or images. I’ve seen many sites built entirely with flash and most of them are really hard to find using Google search. Here’s a list of Google recommendations on building your site.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769#design
Information above was taken from the following resources:
Google PageRank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank
Search Engine Optimization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
If you follow the basic rules of Search Engine Optimization – important keywords in content on your homepage, get linked by bigger sites, and limit flash or image containers for keyword critical content – you should find your site moving up the ranks of Google search.
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