Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites

Table of Contents

Many less critical elements can help search engine rankings as well and should be considered and implemented during the development stage. One beneficial technique is to make important on page content appear as close to the top of the page in the website code as possible. (See Appendix 2-10) This can be accomplished by using CSS to position elements rather than table-based layouts. A common mistake of many websites is to place large javascripts or CSS code in the <head> of their page. This can be damaging to rankings, and slow down webpage load times. All scripts and CSS code should be called from an external file. Linking to these pieces of code will improve the overall performance of the site as well as SERPs.

Keeping the filesize small can be a deciding factor in which pages will rank higher. Small filesize is also of benefit to users. Every image should be examined for necessity, and pages should be divided into sub-pages if possible to accomplish smallest possible filesize.

Hyperlinks are a crucial element of SERPs. Specific external linking tactics will be discussed in the promotion section of this paper, but it is necessary to mention that the words chosen for linking can be of great benefit to a website. Linking from page to page on a site using primary keywords can help the rankings of those pages. For instance, if page A links to page B using the words “click here” it is much less likely to be found for the words “fuzzy green widgets” than if Page A links to Page B using the term “fuzzy green widgets”. The words chosen for linking should be those that the developer hopes to be found for in the search engines.

There are other tags in HTML that are often deemed “unnecessary” by many developers and even design programs. Titling elements such as heading tags and links according to what they represent are some of the tags that are often left out by developers. The same thing often happens for “alt” tags, which are used to describe an image for text-only browsers or web-page readers used by the visually impaired. These tags should be included for accessibility sake, and because they are likely to give small boosts in SERPs.

The final technique that should be employed at development time for higher SERPs is naming pages according to their content. For example, a page named “furry-blue-widgets.htm” with dashes between the primary keywords will be a much better name both for users and for SE’s than “arbitrarynameonlyauthorwillremember.htm”. Dashed page names are known to give minimal boosts with current search engine algorithms, but every little boost helps.

Learning the variables in a search engine’s algorithm during the development stage can save time and money during the promotion phase. This will also start drawing targeted traffic quickly and effectively. The proper development of a website from strategic planning will determine the effectiveness of any promotional campaigns held for a website in the future.

Appendices
(All in a single document) Appendix 1-1: Overture Search Term
Research Tool

Appendix 1-2: Wordtracker Search Query Research Tool

Appendix 1-3: Google Sets Website Theme Research Tool

Appendix 1-4: Reach/ Acquire/ Convert/ Retain

Chart Appendix 2-5: Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth Information Architecture Flowchart

Appendix 2-6: Search Engine Themes Pyramid Information Architecture Example

Appendix 2-7: Webpage Download Time by File Size Chart

Appendix 2-8: Expected Locations for Common E-commerce Elements

Appendix 2-9: Website Usability Checklist

Appendix 2-10: Text Vs.Code Ratio/ Content Near the Top of Souce Code Examples

Appendix 3-11: Overture Bid Price Tool

Appendix 3-12: Webalizer Website Visitor Tracking Tool

Appendix 3-13: AW STATS Website Visitor Tracking Tool Appendix

3-14: Clicktracks Website Statistics
Analysis Tool

References
Author Notes

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Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites Table of Contents

Planning, Developing, and Promoting a Successful Small Business Website

Search Engine Optimization for Small Business Page 33

Search Engine Variables

Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites

Table of Contents

Search Engine Optimization for Small Business
Page 33