Sunkist and SEO

I am sometimes amazed at the effect the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) craze is having on many companies these days, prompting odd strategies and unnecessary costs - all to get their names in the top ten at Google and Yahoo!. I am reminded of a commercial for Sunkist oranges a few years ago showing a series of people variably squeezing, smelling, rapping, and tossing fruit to determine its freshness; the message was, of course, that there are often simple ways to accomplish seemingly complex tasks such as looking for the sunkist "stamp" on the fruit.

The same can be said for Search engine positioning. Of course, before you even start to think about SEO, you need to analyse the objectives of your web strategy and ensure there is a compelling reason for people to visit (and re-visit) your website - something that provides value with every trip there.

My colleague, John Leahy (president of Halifax CMS developer, immediaC), says that SEO is really a much simpler proposition for most companies than they think. I asked John about a concern I had heard about modern Content Management Systems (CMS) - that they cannot be effective in SEO because the content is all in a database and therefore the search engines can't dig it out. He said that myth is far from the truth and in fact CMS can actually improve positioning since it can enforce the basics that all SEO strategies should include.

So, what are those basics?

Ralph Wilson (Dr. EBiz, Web Marketing Today) has written an informative set of e-books on web marketing. In his Web Marketing Checklist - 31 Ways to Promote Your Website, he lays out 9 essential (and simple) strategies to get your site well placed. They include fundamentals like ensuring your pages have descriptive page titles, the effective use of meta tags in the head section, header tags (H1, H2, etc) in the body section, keywords, links, and easy navigation. He also provides tips about submitting your site to search engines and testing your pages for positioning. Wilson's website contains a wealth of web marketing information and is always worth a visit. You'll likely find him positioned close to #1 for "web marketing"at Google.

SEO's not rocket science, you know - unless of course "rocket science" is the search keyword or phrase for your site!

Web Marketing Today - http://www.wilsonweb.com