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Step 1 - Preparing Your Web Pages

The first step on the route to web success is to prepare your pages as recommended in this site and in our free report "How to Promote Your Internet Business." Pay attention to titles, descriptions and META tags (to force descriptions on some of the search engines.) Drive on for details.

  1. Page URL Name
    Choose a name that supports the purpose of the page. For example, search engines would give more weight to something like [http://www.isp.com/urname/birdhouses.html] than they would [http://www.isp.com/urname/bhs01.html] for a search using birdhouses as a keyword. To register a domain name effortlessly, CLICK HERE.

  2. Page Title
    The title becomes the top line (and sometimes the only line) in search engine results, so it must attract prospects like ants to a picnic. Let the title describe what you want to sell or say. For example, if your business is birdhouse building, your prospective customers are more likely to click on "Secret Birdhouse Building Techniques Revealed" than they are "John Doe Enterprises."

  3. META Description
    For some search engines, this is what follows the title in the search results. Again, select wording that supports what you want to say or sell. For example, if your business is birdhouse building, you will pique someone's interest more with something like "Secret Birdhouse Building Techniques reveals little-known ways of building birdhouses to attract the birds you want." than you will with "John Doe Enterprises builds birdhouses." Limit this description to 20 words.

  4. META Keywords
    Some search engines use this information to index a site. This gives you great control over how the site is indexed. Experience shows that it's better to be specific rather than general. For example, a META keyword listing of "birdhouses, birdhouses, birdhouses, birdhouses, birdhouses, birdhouses" will give better results on a keyword search of "birdhouses" than would one that mixes in birdhouses with 100 other things you make in your woodworking shop. Do NOT show the same keyword more than seven times because search engines such as InfoSeek will ignore it if you do and your entire effort will have been wasted.

  5. Initial Page Wording
    Some search engines use the first few words on a page for the description that is reported under the title in search results. For example, if the first item on your page is a graphic, the search engine will use the ALT wording of the graphic. It better be good.

 

CAUTION!!!
If web pages are not prepared according to the suggestions in this site, they will not show up high, or even at all, on the list of search results. All your subsequent efforts may therefore be mostly wasted.

 

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Donald A. Coggan, PE
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