February 24th, 2008

Search engines can be a tricky group to cater to, but figuring out the likes and dislikes of Google and the gang can transform your web site from a virtual placeholder on the web to a top ranked destination recommended by everybody from Yahoo to AOL, even if that does end up being the same people.

So how do you get to the top of searches for your relevant keywords? It’s easy and I’ll show you exactly how, but by “easy” I mean very difficult, and by “I’ll show you exactly how” I mean I’ll give you the best information currently available.

SEO Friendly URLs

In other words, search engine friendly file names for your pages. If you have a page for your dental office with an article called “Advantages of Porcelain Crowns,” there are a few ways the address can look.

Bad: http://www.yourdentalcompany/cm/details.search/results?985743945bdj1.php

Good:

http://www.yourdentalcompany/advantages-of-porcelain-crowns.php

Better:

http://www.yourdentalcompany/10-05-2008-advantages-of-porcelain-crowns.php

The more accurate and relevant the file name for the page is, the better search engines will like it and the higher you will rank for that search term. Google does its best to figure out what your page is about, and putting it in the URL helps it figure that out.

Site Map

If you don’t already have a site map, now is the time to get one. A site map is pretty much what it sounds like; it’s a road map to every page of your site. A good example can be found on the Tek Jansen site. It lists all your relevant pages with accurate links.

Put a link to this on every page of your site to ensure search engines and people are always within two-clicks of any page you want them to find.

Then take it a step further and create a http://www.google.com/webmasters/>located in the Webmaster Tools section. This isn’t quite as easy, but it makes Google happy, and that’s always a good thing. Hopefully your web designer can automate the process, but if not, there are tools that will help you make one out of nothing. You will need to create an account with Google in order to upload and notify them of the sitemap (same link as above), but it’s a fairly straightforward process.

Implementing These Improvements

You may need to rebuild existing pages on your site, but this is something your in-house or contract designer can help you with, if you’re not managing it yourself. If this is beyond the scope of your designer, you may want to hire a different one. That would be like asking your printer to switch from black and white to color. You may need a new printer, but the value of getting your customers to actually find you is worth it.

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