Increase visitors to your web site - Write ...

I hardly knew what Search Engine Optimization was in January 2007. Of course I was one of those using Google and YAHOO! every single day, clicking on all those links that came up as a result of the keywords. I even understood that If our link would pop-up on the search result (preferably on the first page and in the #1 position) we would be . Guess (or hope) that a lot of you can relate to that situation.

After half a year of work with SEO we have constructed a website in 4 languages in 6 countries. From launch March 2007 the number of visitors to Optimalprint increases by 50-100% a month - estimating around 40.000 unique visitors in August. The total SEO cost for Optimalprint so far is roughly $ 1.500, (excluding all the coffee cost and night hours) mostly costs related to directory listing, keyword tools, books and some other stuff.

So what's a good beginning for your SEO work??
I believe that the best start when optimizing your web site for search engines is to write a relevant TITLE on all your web pages. A title is the text on the very very top of your computer screen.

An example: Optimalprint Birthday Invitations - Check the Title: Photo Birthday Invitations | Birthday Invitation | Birthday Party | Optimalprint

The title on a web page is super important, like a title on a book. A title should tell the potential reader what he/she can expect, same as with the title on your web page. In addition the search engine spiders (our librarians on the Internet), that index all sites on the web, appreciate the titles you give your pages since it helps them to navigate though the billion of web sites "out there". Facilitating for the spiders is good for SEO and great for your business.

It is quite amazing, but good for you and us, that so few web sites have figured this one out. Relevant titles for end users that strongly link to web page content is like Viagra for your site. However, since spiders place so great emphasis on the title it better be relevant. Pushing traffic to a site is not your greatest challenge it is getting that visitor to come back for more.

So if a title is so important what should you do in order to get things right? Well, I do not know exactly but I can tell you what we have done.

1. Understand your web page / content / services / products - this is where it starts. Great titles that include potent keywords, will come back to haunt you. It results in high bounce rate, bad reputation and in the long run visitor anorexia.
2. When you know the value that your services bring to the customer visit a keyword "engine" (Keyword Discovery, Digital Point (Free) or Wordtracker) that can provide a list of keyword that describes almost exactly what type of services that you provide on this particular page. Example: Business Card is a high traffic generating keyword phrase but "Cheap Full Colour Business Card Templates" tells both the visitor and the search engine spider almost exactly what to expect. So narrow down your services offered on the page and link the content to a descriptive, relevant and high traffic generating title. A good title puts the most relevant keywords in the front, contains no more than 7-10 words (80 characters) & leverages on keyword phrases not only single keywords.
3. A title on a web page should influence the URL and headings. So take the title on the page and let the most relevant description of the services / products that you offer on this page be included in the URL. Take control over the URL and let the links talk to the spiders and consumers.