Is Your Website Optimized for Search Engines?

Written by Scott Buresh


Most businesses don't take advantage of search engine optimization, but few things onrepparttar Internet can be as beneficial. A recent Forrester Research report showed that 80% of web surfers discoverrepparttar 131847 new sites that they visit through search engines (such as Yahoo, Google, or MSN). According to iProspect, 85% of web users use search engines to find solutions and vendors. Properly optimizing a site for search engines helps it to attract numerous, highly targeted visitors- visitors that may become buyers.

Forrepparttar 131848 technically inclined, there are numerous places onrepparttar 131849 web to get detailed, in-depth information on search engine optimization. However, many people don't care aboutrepparttar 131850 technical aspects of search engine optimization- they just want to know what is wrong with their site (and how to fix it). What follows is a practical guide that covers some ofrepparttar 131851 most basic search engine issues. It is in no way intended to be comprehensive, but it should helprepparttar 131852 average site owner determine whether their site is optimized, and if not, how to make some simple changes to improve their search engine rankings.

Issue #1- The Title Bar. On your homepage, what doesrepparttar 131853 title bar say? If you use Internet Explorer, this isrepparttar 131854 blue bar atrepparttar 131855 extreme top ofrepparttar 131856 window that displays your page (it may includerepparttar 131857 words "Microsoft Internet Explorer" atrepparttar 131858 end). Does your company name appear here by itself, when you have more important keywords to emphasize? Worse yet, does it say "untitled"? This area should containrepparttar 131859 most important keywords you see on your homepage (Don't have any text on your homepage? See issue #2). To checkrepparttar 131860 rest of your site, click on any link from your homepage and see ifrepparttar 131861 words in this title bar change for each page in your site. They should- and each title bar should containrepparttar 131862 most important keywords from their corresponding page. Note: Very long keyword strings inrepparttar 131863 title bar should be avoided- six words or less is optimal. Also, words inrepparttar 131864 title bar should not repeat more than once, and identical words should not appear next to one another.

Issue #2- Content. Search engines all try to list sites that contain good content. Translation- you need words on your pages, not flashy graphics. This text should containrepparttar 131865 most important keywords that your potential customers would use to find you on a search engine. If you have very few or no words on your pages, it is a good idea to add some, ideally around 250 per page. For aesthetic reasons, this is not always practical, but even 100 well-written words can have an impact on rank. It is also important that you make certain thatrepparttar 131866 words are written in a languagerepparttar 131867 search engines can read. Using your mouse, bring your cursor down torepparttar 131868 text on one of your web pages. Clicking and holding downrepparttar 131869 left mouse button (make sure you aren't near a link) see if you can highlight just one or two words ofrepparttar 131870 text. If you can, everything is most likely fine. If nothing happens, or you can only highlight a large block, it is most likely in graphic form. Graphic text needs to be replaced by standard html text to allowrepparttar 131871 search engines to read it. Your web expert should have no problem understanding what you require, andrepparttar 131872 transition should be fairly simple and affordable.

Speed up Your Web Site and Increase Sales

Written by Leva Duell


Speed up Your Web Site and Increase Sales Your web sites loading speed has a significant impact on your visitors' loyalty. A slow web site will cost you sales. Most visitors won't wait more than10 seconds for your web pages to load. Apply these techniques to speed up your pages, keep potential buyers at your site, and increase sales.

Six tips to speed up your web pages.

1.Give viewers something to read as quickly as possible. 2.Provide a lot of graphics or images only if you know your audience has fast Internet connections. (Your load time will vary depending on your visitors' access speed.) 3.If you're targetingrepparttar general public, avoid large and unnecessary graphics, animated graphics, sound, movies, Flash animation, and large banners -- especially on your home page. (Graphics slow your web pages down considerably.) 4.Use graphics and images that support your sales message and illustrate repparttar 131845 benefits of your products or services. 5.Keep your pages short. Split up long pages into several pages. Breaking up pages into several pages also allows you to track which pages potential buyers go to. 6.Avoid links to slow-loading pages.

Visitors like pictures without sacrificing speed. Apply these tips to optimize your images.

- Keep images and graphics as small as possible, both in dimensions and file size. The largerrepparttar 131846 file size,repparttar 131847 longerrepparttar 131848 images take to download. - DonŐt make visitors wait for images theyŐre not interested in. If you want to illustrate your products with large images, provide thumbnails (small graphics), and let visitors decide if they want to click on them to view larger images that take time to download. Mentionrepparttar 131849 download time. - Crop images (cut off extra areas aroundrepparttar 131850 images). - Keeprepparttar 131851 resolution of your images to 72 dpi,repparttar 131852 maximum resolution a computer monitor can read. - Reduce your file size by saving images inrepparttar 131853 proper graphic format (GIF or JPEG). - Reducerepparttar 131854 number of colors. Use solid colors rather than gradients. The more color in an image,repparttar 131855 biggerrepparttar 131856 file size is, andrepparttar 131857 more time it takes to download.

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