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Murray Etheridge

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a key Internet marketing strategy, and one that any business with a website should be employing. There is a lot of hype about the latest social media tools, but SEO, one of the veteran techniques, can provide tangible ROI in the qualified visitor traffic and improving the quality and consumption of your website content.

A good SEO strategy involves a number of components, including keyword research, optimizing web page content, and creating relevant internal and external links.

First, you need to understand the vocabulary of your users: consider how potential customers describe your product or service in the 'real world.'

You'll likely find that your customers refer to your product or service differently than you do among your colleagues. For example, a hotel owner may think customers are looking to book 'hotel accommodations' when really they are searching for 'hotel rooms' four times as often.

To find this out, you can look at your website stats program to see what keywords are already driving traffic, look at competitors' websites and see what phrases they rank well for, or use one of many free online tools, such as Google Trends (www.google.com/trends) and Google AdWords keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal ).

After you have analyzed and chosen a long list of keyword phrases, you must pair up a few keyword phrases with each page on your website. Remember, this is not always the homepage.

Every page on your site has the potential to be optimized and attract traffic. Deeper pages are often easier to optimize as the content is more niche and focused in nature.

You want to edit and tweak the content on each page to include your keyword phrase(s). Keywords should not only be incorporated into your main body copy but also your headings and subheadings to divide up content and improve readability, and hyperlinks. Longer, descriptive links that tell users what they will get when they click are more useful than "learn more" or "click here." When determining the amount of keyword phrases on a page, think about the user experience first and search engines second. Littering your text with keywords will reduce readability and user satisfaction without improving your search rankings.

Each page of your website should contain a set of meta tags that helps search engines identify and understand what the content of the webpage is about. Each page has its own meta tags, relevant to the content of the page.

Title tags are displayed at the top of the web browser, outside of the webpage itself. It is important in search engine rankings and luring people into your site, as it also appears on the search engine results page. Ensure it's stocked with your keywords and don't lead with your company name.

Meta descriptions are often displayed by search engines on the search results pages, so it is often the first description people read about you to determine whether or not to click. Use this text to sell; be compelling and include your target keywords.

Meta keywords is a comma-separated list of keywords related to your page content.

Content optimization is only half of the SEO equation. Rankings are also based on hyperlinks into your site from other websites. It is a bit of a popularity contest: links from popular, well-linked-to sites are worth more than others. Look for directories, industry associations and partner sites as places to request links into your site. Be sure to link via a keyword phrase, for example 'hotel rooms', instead of 'click here' or a logo.

Search engine optimization is a strategy that will benefit you two-fold. You will attract more qualified traffic from the search engines, and those people will navigate your website more efficiently -- since you're speaking their language -- and have a greater chance of becoming customers.

* Murray Etheridge is with ISL, the largest Atlantic Canadian web marketing and development firm. Entry Point can be read every Friday's in the Moncton Times and Transcript. You can reach him at metheridge@isl.ca or by phone at 506-855-0754.