Search Engine Optimization pt. 4 - SEO Content

This is part 4 of a 6 part series.

Visit Part: 1, 2, 3

Let’s do a quick recap. We discussed the general principals of search engine optimization, why it’s important, and how to code your site properly (or make sure that it is), now it’s time to talk about content. This is perhaps the most important part of search engine optimization. Many local businesses, be they in Bonita Springs, Fort Myers, Estero or Naples routinely hear this part and start to get upset. No matter what your business, whether you are a small local business marketing nationally OR locally, the content on your website will play a key role in marketing yourself.

For example let’s say you are a custom stair builder in Fort Myers Florida. Wouldn’t you like to rank well for the search: “custom stair builder fort myers” in Google? It makes sense right? That might be something your prospective customer might search for. Well, how do you get to #1 using content?

4 Keys To Successful SEO Content

• Start from the Beginning
• Keep it Fresh
• Keep it Relevant
• The more you have, the more likely search engines will find you and respect your site

Where to Start? Start from the beginning.

Start with the current content on your site, has it been laid out properly and organized efficiently? Most often I see websites with very little organization. Once a good organization has been determined effectively filling in your general content should be easy. This is an example of a small website that has organized effectively:

• Home
• About
• Staff
• Pledge
• Services
  • Service 1
  • Service 2
  • Service 3
• News/Blog
• Contact

If you already have a website, try reorgnazing it. There is nothing more confusing to search engines and users then when a website has no depth or categorization. Make sure to keep future content or goals in mind when doing so. Then, swoop back around and begin filling in the details. If a product or service is separate, and you think there is enough demand or text for it to have its own page, create one. Make sure to keep in mind the previous rule regarding search engine optimization (code) in mind when creating your pages.
Okay, so your site is laid out properly and you have a good amount of text about your core business and services, now what. Remember, when thinking about content from a search engine optimization perspective is to keep it up-to-date and keep it relevant. Your website has a purpose, an audience, and the more often you update the text, the more weight your website will have with search engines and the more you keep it centered around your core business and services, the more search engines will respect your site for the category of business you are in.

This may seem like a daunting task, but there is a VERY easy way to accomplish this.

So how do you incorporate all 4 elements of a successful search engine optimization content strategy? One very easy way to do it is implement a blog. A blog is simply an online journal that allows you to quickly post an article to your website and typically allows users to respond through comments.
Easily, and Quickly, Build Your Website’s Foot Print

A typical small business website will be informational in nature, what may be referred to as a “brochure website.” You might have a home page, about pare, services page, and a fancy contact page, but, not much else. This is a mistake, but often a necessary one as the creation of new pages and content usually takes some savvy computer know-how and coding knowledge. But, once installed or setup, a blog allows you to freely created pages and pages of information for free. Become the expert you already are by writing about the things you already love. A blog allows you to quickly and cost effectively grow the size of your website. By creating many blog posts and organizing them effectively you will immediately increase the amount of text on your site (your site’s footprint). Although users will read your content, more importantly your posts will feature text combinations that people will search for, bringing in additional traffic. Finally, the blogosphere is ripe with people looking to read good content and send links back your way. Which takes us to the final step in search engine optimization…
So start writing and blogging!

Small Business Server 2008

Small Business Server (SBS) has been around since the late 90’s, a lifetime in computer years. It’s gone through 5 complete overhauls, including the newest version 2008.  IT Pro’s have had a love hate relationship with the operating system (OS) since its inception. The newest version SBS 2008 (Standard or Premium) has made a lot of great enhancements that were needed for small businesses. Microsoft has also released a new product made for the medium business market called Essential Business Server (EBS). This separation between SBS for the small business and EBS for the medium business is at the least a sign that Microsoft is listening to the small to medium business (SMB) market. Microsoft caught a lot of gruff from the online community saying that a company with 75 users was a “medium” business, and that old SBS products would suffice.

SBS is a wonderful product for companies that are small (1-75 computer users) and growing steadily. This is not a product for companies that are expecting or experiencing explosive growth.  SBS takes an integrated approach and bundles the following products:

• Server 2008 - file sharing, printing, security
• Exchange 2007 - Email and collaboration
• SharePoint 3.0 - Collaboration and productivity
• SUS - Internal Windows Update for your network
• 120 - day trial version of OneCare and Forefront Security - Microsoft’s server, workstation, and email antivirus
• SQL 2008 - database services

There are two editions of SBS called Premium and Standard. The standard edition comes with everything above except for the database server (SQL 2008). Premium edition also comes with an additional server license so you can move SQL to a second server. Past versions did not allow this and would require you to migrate to a different product. This is always costly and time consuming, neither of which any business wants to hear.

The biggest improvement for the 2008 version is the requirement of a 64-bit architecture. The technical reasons for a 64-bit architecture are too much for this article, but you can think about it like this: Your computer is like a car, and the difference between a 32-bit and 64-bit architecture is like the difference between a V6 and a V12 engine. If you’re really interested in all the technical details this site will have more than enough information to get you started. The bigger engine is long overdue for a product that wants to run applications that larger organizations put on several different servers.

Exchange and SharePoint are two awesome products that allow an organization to collaborate in a more familiar way… through the web. These two products allow you to share office documents, contacts, calendars, and just about any other type of information you can think of with people inside and outside your organization.