Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of attracting hi-quality traffic to your website via organic or free results. You can have a beautifully designed web site, but if it’s not properly optimized potential customers are never going to see it. Major search engines, like Google and Yahoo! have complex algorithms used to determine search engine ranking. Since so many variables are involved in quality SEO, Web Works has developed a comprehensive SEO program specifically suited to Small and Medium sized businesses targeting a specific geographic area.

Web Works also offers Google Ad Words management.

Keyword Selection

Before any copywriting or design is done for your web site, your coordinator will develop a list of targeted key words and geographic targets. For example, if your company is a painting contractor in Austin Texas, your list may look something like this:

The reason we incorporate the names of nearby towns, is because most potential customers don’t Google “Painting Contractor,” they Google “Painting Contractor Austin.” By incorporating the town they are able to find more localized results and you are able to attract customers in your target area. Each page of your website is optimized for different keywords along with your geographic targets. This allows each page of your site to target unique search phrases.

On-Site Copy

The actual verbiage on the web pages is critical to maximizing your exposure on the web. We optimize each page by writing keyword rich content and matching the page up with title and description tags as well as in-bound links, optimized file extensions and other variables used to determine search engine ranking.

Hi-quality In-bound Links

A very important variable that goes into the ranking of your website involves the quality and quantity of high-quality in bound links. Google and the other major search engines use ‘spiders’ to crawl the web and can see other websites that link to yours. If you have high quality, optimized links, search engines view your site as being higher quality and your site will rank well. Web Works sets-up and optimizes for Google Maps, Yahoo Local and creates a Web Works Profile page with keyword rich copy linking back to your site. The Google Maps and Yahoo Local optimization is especially beneficial to Google and Yahoo searches which account for the majority of on-line search.

Additional Factors

An additional factor that will affect your site ranking is the Age of your site. If you’ve had a website for a while and you’re having Web Works redesign and launch the site at the same domain name you can expect an immediate impact. For customers starting out with brand new sites and domains the process takes a bit longer. As time goes on your website will surpass poor quality sites as well as directory listings.

The amount of traffic to your website will also affect the ranking. This is why we encourage our customers to let everyone they come in contact with know about the web site. This includes potential and existing customers. Not only will the additional traffic positively impact ranking, it will also benefit word of mouth and provide a reference point for referred customers. Learn additional ways to improve your site by downloading this PDF.

For tips and information on how to improve your search engine presence, see our guide to Getting the Most out of your Website.