From Our Brains to Yours

July 27th, 2009

Where are you on Google?

The question asked most frequently when launching a new web site is, “How do I get our new site to the top of Google’s search results?”
The short and simplest answer is to make sure the content of your site includes the terms that people will search for to find you.  So if your name is Barack Obama, you’ll want to make sure your name is prominent on your web site and preferably in multiple places.  Obama is in luck that there aren’t a lot of Barack Obama’s in the world.  I’m out of luck on the name front as the NFL player certainly gets a lot more attention than I do.
You most certainly want people to find you if they know the name of your organization, but how else should people be able to find you?  Are there words, phrases, terms, keywords that when people search they would ideally find your organization?  If you know what those words are, then you can begin the process of trying to attract people looking for them to your web site.  That process is called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.
SEO can very complex, very fast. But just to give you the slightly longer, but still relatively simple answer, check out this primer that Birsch Studio put together.  Part 1  helps you think about how search works and part 2 begins to discuss what to do on your web site to optimize it for search engines.
There are tons of resources around the web on SEO.  It’s very easy to get lost in reading through them.  My best advice on the topic is to not dig to deep into it from the start.  Start with the simplest, most obvious ways to want people to find your content.  Your name and brand, specific issues that you are talking about this year are the best places to start.  If you can answer that question – how should people find us – then you’re half way there.

The question asked most frequently when launching a new web site is, “How do I get our new site to the top of Google’s search results?”

The short and simplest answer is to make sure the content of your site includes the terms that people will search for to find you.  So if your name is Barack Obama, you’ll want to make sure your name is prominent on your web site and preferably in multiple places.  Obama is in luck that there aren’t a lot of Barack Obama’s in the world (and that a lot of people are looking for him).  I’m out of luck on the name front as the NFL player certainly gets a lot more attention than I do.

You most certainly want people to find you if they know the name of your organization, but how else should people be able to find you?  Are there words, phrases, terms, keywords that when people search they would ideally find your organization? If you know what those words are, then you can begin the process of trying to attract people looking for them to your web site.  That process is called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

SEO can very complex, very fast. But just to give you the slightly longer, but still relatively simple answer, check out this primer that Birsch Studio put together.  Part 1 helps you think about how search works and part 2 begins to discuss what to do on your web site to optimize it for search engines.

There are tons of resources around the web on SEO.  It’s very easy to get lost in reading through them.  My best advice on the topic is to not dig to deep into it from the start.  Start with the simplest, most obvious ways to want people to find your content. Your name and brand, specific issues that you are talking about this year are the best places to start.  If you can answer that question – how should people find us – then you’ve already done the hard part.   Start there before seeking help.

-Stephen

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