Promote your website

If you want your site to be seen, you have to put it out there.
These are some simple techniques to help promote your site and boost your ranking in the search engines.

What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
Search engine optimization is the term given to techniques (both on your site and off your site) to increase the amount of traffic (and the quality of traffic) to your website. There are other ways to promote your site, such as advertising in newspapers, magazines, TV and radio - but it is SEO that is discussed below.

How can I optimize my site for the search engines?
The number one rule is to create your website for people, not search engines. If you create a site that is useful, or interesting, you will win the approval of people who visit your site. They may come back, and they might even tell others about your site.
Use a keyword tool to find out what the most popular search terms are for the subject of your website, and for the subject of each page of your site. Sprinkle these keywords through your content - don't overdo it - your content should flow naturally. Search engines will penalise your site if you have too many keywords and not enough good content.


This is a list of some of some of the most important things your website should have:

grannyswobblybits.com/page2	Naming the second page, 'page2' tells a search engine nothing about what is on the page.
grannyswobblybits.com/gourmet-jellies	Naming the second page 'gourmet-jellies' tells a search engine there are gourmet jellies on this page. what: jellies what kind: gourmet

HOME PAGE Business name: Granny's Wobbly Bits Product: Gourmet jelly cups, children's jelly cups, party jelly cups. Other information: Home delivery service, home made jelly using all natural ingredients, situated in Palm Springs, delivers to Palm Springs only.

Possible Keywords: Jelly, Jelly cups, jelly cups for parties, party jelly cups, desserts, sweets, parties, party, children's parties, kids parties, gourmet jelly, gourmet, home delivery, desserts home delivery, home made, natural, natural ingredients, Palm Springs

Looking at 'naming your website pages'
Each page of a website needs to have a name. If you look in the address bar at the top of this page, you'll see: make-website.com/promote-website
Okay, back to Granny's Wobbly Bits...
On Page 2 of the site, granny wants to feature her range of delicious gourmet jellies.

But how should granny name her pages to maximize chances of her pages being listed by the search engines? Let's have a look:

Other things a webmaster can do

Use long-tail keyword phrases. Long-tail phrases are, well, long. They aim to compete for very specific things. An example: grannyswobblybits.com/homemade-melon-jelly-in-palm-springs
If Granny knows that there is a market for homemade melon jelly in Texas, she could well be capturing the market with that page URL.

Type "Homemade melon jelly in Palm Springs" into Google to see what we mean about targeting very specific keyword phrases related to your business.

Offer to link to other sites in return for a reciprocal link ( a link to your site placed on their website.) The other sites should have something in common with your website. Reciprocal links don't do a lot for optimization purposes, but they may bring you in customers.

Post in discussion forums that allow you to have a link to your website in your signature. (some forums don't allow this)

Write articles and place the articles in some of the better article sites - or even better - sites focused on the same theme as your website.

Advertise in your local area - newspapers, school newsletters etc.

Use internet advertising such as Google Adwords (this can quickly bring you targeted visitors to your site.)


Free resources from Google

Google trends
Google trends is a great tool that allows you to type in any word or phrase and see how popular it has been in google searches - for any year, any month, and different countries.
google.com/trends

Keyword tool
This tool from google allows you to type in your keywords and find all related keywords, how much advertiser compeition there is for those keywords, the search volume for those keywords and other information.
adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

How to introduce a website
If possible, have the opening paragraph of your website explain everything about your site. People should not be left scratching their heads over what your website is all about. They may quickly leave your site if you don't grab their attention.

So -
- write an attention-grabber
- put in as much information as possible in the fewest amount of words
- free offers or special offers are always good
- remember to sprinkle in your main keywords and keyphrases

Granny's Wobbly Bits Home delivered, all natural ingredients	This description is useless. It tells an internet user or search engine nothing.
Granny's Wobbly Bits Home delivered jelly cups, 100 varieties, all natural ingredients. Children's jelly cups. Gourmet jelly cups. Here in Palm Springs.	This is okay. It mentions a few keywords - okay for search engines but boring for the people coming to the site.
Granny's Wobbly Bits Add pizzaz to your next party or function with delicious home made jelly cups. 100 exciting flavours - from Luscious Lime to Sizzling Strawberry, both children's and gourmet varieties. 100% natural ingredients. Delivered straight to your door. Home deliveries to locations all over Palm Springs.. Special offer - free delicious sample pack with your first order!	Much better!  It's people who will be coming to your website, so be sure to catch their interest on the very first page. You want those people to return and tell their friends about your site. The more times people return to your site, and the more people they tell about your site, the higher your site will rise in the search engine rankings as well. Keywords are used as main points in the text.

·	Keywords: Ensure that the important words that describe your content, goods or services of each page, are sprinkled liberally throughout the page. More information below.
·	Key phrases: Important phrases that describe the content, goods or services contained within each page of your website - and phrases that a web user is most likely to type in - should be on each page of your site. (Concentrate on 2 or 3 different key phrases for each page)
·	Good quality content Search engines do not know badly written content from quality content, but good content keeps people at your site longer - which the search engines DO monitor. Quality content will contain a natural flow of your keywords and key phrases, without being repetitive. Good quality content can help you to gain quality backinks.
·	Good quality backlinks A link to your site coming from an established, respected website, tells a search engine that your website contains useful or important information. If all your links, or a large percentage of the links coming to your website are from 'bad neighborhoods' (spam sites etc) search engines may penalise your site. Being listed in quality directories such as DMOZ, Yahoo Directory, or even Wikipedia! (not easy!) - all helps your page ranking.
·	Age of website This is somewhat disputed - but many domain experts believe that long-standing sites do better in the search engine rankings than do newer sites. Some people buy old domain names (before they expire) to gain a headstart.
·	Onsite links Links within your site that point to a particular page help to tell a search engine how important that page is.
·	Having 'About us' and 'Contact us' pages Being contactable, and displaying information about who you are, helps your website gain respect. Having these pages clearly marked tells a search engine where to find these pages.
·	Good domain name Choosing a domain name can help your website stand out from the crowd, or help your site to be found. Take a look at our domain names guide.
·	Naming your pages well Name your page according to what is on the page. This tells a search engine what the page is about. More information below.
·	Sitemap Your website should have a sitemap - these tell a search engine information about your pages, such as the importance of each page, how often your website or pages are updated, and helps the search engine to find and index each page.

Looking at keywords
Imagine that there is a business in Palm Springs that produces and sells jelly cups, called "Granny's Wobbly Bits". Granny has decided that it's time to take her business online.
Before starting to write the content for her website, granny should sit down and draw up a storyboard for her site. She needs to work out what she wants on each page, and then brainstorm the keywords for each page.

Granny needs to make her website keyword-rich for all terms to do with jelly cups. Let's take a look: