Many companies have not yet taken advantage of even the most basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques. In most industries, SEO can be critical to achieving improved search results for websites — thereby increasing website traffic, and quite possibly sales and market share. Website programming, design and development as a foundation to increase or optimize search engine results that include your industry’s keywords.

As more and more business is conducted through the internet, how can business-to-business marketers leverage this important medium? An SEO foundation should include such optimization techniques as: meta-tag, alt-tag and title-tags coding, URL structure, site indexing and mapping, link building, keyword content or “landing” pages, blogs and social Media.

We have talked about meta, alt and title tags as well as link structure in our previous blog – Search For Dummys.

Another SEO best practice are Site Maps. Typically a secondary navigation text link placed in the footer of the web page, and linking to a sub-page with a simple outline of website content and sub-links. In the same location, redundant text navigation links for all primary navigation should be placed. Site Maps and Text Links allow search engines to index all of your website contents and sub-links to determine search rankings. XML Site Maps should be submitted to key search engines including Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Because many search engines rank websites based on how many hits a link receives, link directories and related industry links increase search rankings. Dedicating a sub-page or pages to industry links and establishing reciprocating links to websites for industry publications, associations, trade shows and related information websites will improve search rankings, and drive traffic to your website. Bookmarks are similar to links, and new sites should offer Bookmark links like Delicious and StumbleUpon.

Before posting your company’s enhanced website on the worldwide web, be sure your website content includes keywords that correspond to the meta-tags for those pages, or even dedicated landing pages or sub-pages for your site’s top keywords. As referenced previously, these pages should use keywords in URLs, title-tags and meta- tags to ensure the best search results.

Now more than ever, Blogs and Social Media are a major determinant of Search Engine Results. Best practice search optimization requires that your website link to an active blog, as well as, key Social media profiles including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and more.

With a Search Engine Optimized website, your company can undertake Pay-Per-Click (PPC) media buys or Directory Submissions (another media buy). Without an optimized site, both of these media programs would be futile toward increasing search results and traffic. Implementing these functions with an optimized site will achieve substantial increases in both rankings and site traffic.

Make sure catch the first part of this article to learn about meta tags, alt-tags, title tags and proper URL structure – look for Part I of the article: Search For Dummys

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