Now that you have completed your new template, your template can now be classified as a website. A well designed website contains substantial possibilities to expand your business visibility. Gaining visibility, i.e., new clients, is an essential marketing task for any business; in fact, visibility is vital.

However, with billions of websites battling for viewer clicks, it’s easy to get walloped in the website visibility race.

MatterMax Media discussed the value of search engine URL tactics in our recent blog series, “Who’s Seeing Who,” and in retrospect, search engines are your most valuable weapon and - the key to solving the visibility conundrum.

When your site name is the recipient of search engine results found in Google, Yahoo! Bing, MSN, Ask, or in any of the multitudes of others like these, the benefits can be far reaching.

The ability to gain viewers can be found in search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the most important vehicle you will need to gain online website visibility by creating targeted keywords, meta tags and descriptions. The keywords you create will aid in the organizational aspects of your website’s ability to seize search engine attention. It is also vital to use reputable online sources set up viable links to your site.

Nine Website Eyeball-Catching Tips:

1. Showcase and feature your most important content in a premium position on your landing page. The content should be clear and clutter free.
2. Make sure each page utilizes informative and descriptive text. Choose words that outline your product, service or industry in a specific manner.
3. Create distinctive titles for all pages of your website, and be sure to include your SEO keywords within these titles.
4. We are moving towards a visual information society.  Use imagery to support your showcased content.
5. Support your most important content with researched data and create a data module, text area, etc., in order to gain instant credibility.
6. Solicit other relevant sites to provide inbound links to your site. Search engines measure a site’s value by the quality, and moreover, the volume of outside sites that link to your own.
7. Your descriptions should be fact based, and without overindulgent superlatives (best, cheapest, biggest). People are more partial to fact- based sites that avoid “sales talk.”
8. If your site’s business requires geo-targeting, ensure your keywords reflect this initiative.
9. Make sure that you register your site with search directories, as they will not automatically find you. Some directories, such as the Yahoo! directory and the Open Directory project, offer paid submission options – we recommend you invest in these options.

Uncovering Marketing Tactics - SEO

Keyword-Rich Page Titles:

1. Draft a descriptive title for every page - use 5 to 8 keywords that represent the way you want to be found.
2. Delete as many "filler" words from titles (i.e., "the," "and," etc.) as possible, while maintaining reader relevancy.
3. Your page titles will be presented as hyperlinked entries on search engine results when your page is found.
4. Convince searchers/users to click on the titles by making them alluring. Place the following code at the top of the webpage between

Design your descriptive keywords to be used in conjunction with your business name on your home page. Example: If you specialize in SEO Optimization, then people who are searching for SEO, will not find you if you only have your company name "Acme SEO, LLC." The better approach would be to use "SEO specialists - Acme SEO, LLC."  The words people would most likely use to search, should pop-up first in the title (often referred to as "keyword prominence").  It is essential that you understand that your title is your identity on the search engines. The blue hyperlinked text found in the search engine results pages are what users see first, and consequently, what viewers will click on, if the titles are built in a manner that is interesting to them.

Edit Web Pages with Targeted Keywords:

MatterMax Media does not recommend the use of external doorway or gateway pages. You may recall that in the Who’s Seeing Who series discussion, we discussed the avoidance of duplicate webpages as this practice may get you penalized by the search engines.

Instead, develop assorted webpages on your site, with each page containing a target keyword or keyphrase aimed at increasing that particular page’s ranking.

As an example; you sell coffee mugs. Use Google Insights for Search (www.google.com/insights/search/) or the free keyword suggestion tool on Wordtracker (www.wilsonweb.com/afd/wordtracker.htm) to uncover related keywords people are using to search. In this instance: create a separate webpage featuring the keyword "coffee mug," "coffee mugs," "california coffee mugs," "california mugs," "the coffee mugs," coffee mugs breakfast," "coffee mugs pictures," etc.

You will also need to create a completely different article on each (“keyword”) topic. It is unlikely that you will be able to completely optimize all the webpages contained within your site. The good news, however, is that by using an SEO tool to fine-tune your keywords and key phrases on each of these focused-content webpages, you will be able to make equally good use of your time by tweaking each page to improve individual page rankings.

There are a number of SEO tools in the marketplace, and MatterMax Media recommends that you incorporate a tool that can automatically “ping” Google for daily ranking results.

“Marketing the Template” provides a basic approach to securing new visitors to your website. SEO, SEO, SEO.

Next week, we will begin the “2012 Website Redesign” series with the first installment, “Who Visits Your Website.”

MatterMax Media is a full service integrated marketing agency located in Stone Mountain, Georgia.  MatterMax Media provides strategy, technology, marketing and training for individuals, businesses and government.  Today’s Marketing Blog focuses on Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Web Matters.  When you require assistance with your website creation, branding/marketing strategy, feel free to contact us.