A pretty website doesn't guarantee good rankings

Question 2:
I have an attractive website which I designed, but I am nowhere on the search engines. Why?

Answer 2:
The expression “If you build it, they will come” is definitely not true on the world wide web anymore. There are several factors that go into play when you create a website, that are extremely important to establishing a search engine ranking on places like Google and Yahoo.

Content is very important – for the search engines and for your customers, of course. Think about your business. Think about the keywords or phrases a customer might use to find your business or your type of business. Once you come up with this list, you should make sure that these keywords and phrases are used on the pages throughout your web site. A program like WordTracker is very helpful in determining what keywords and phrases you might wish to include on your website. Another great resource is your existing customers. Ask them what they would type in to find your type of business. Sometimes the answers you get may surprise you.

I’ve seen some very attractive web sites that never show up in the search engines simply because graphics were used to design the entire site. Search engines read text, not graphics. If you must use a lot of graphics on your web site, be sure to include the ALT-TAG command with each graphic. That’s A-L-T T-A-G. If you are not sure how to do this, search the internet for this command and you’ll probably find some useful sites that explain how to use this HTML command.

Another important feature is the Title Bar. That is the line of text that appears at the very top of your browser window when you are on a web page. I know from experience that Yahoo places a lot of emphasis on this line of code and Google considers it important as well.

Search engines like Google also want to see relevant inbound or incoming links to your site. These are links to your web site from other web sites that are in a similar or associated line of business to your business (without being a competitor). Google’s technology shows that the more important Google thinks the associated site is, the more important they will think yours is, and establish your search engine ranking accordingly.

If you are looking for your website to have a good search engine ranking, speak to an individual qualified in search engine marketing that can help you establish your goals. Designing a website is only the first step in establishing your business on the internet. Incorporating search engine strategies into your web site is the next step and should be an ongoing endeavor.