These events are very exciting, especially because search engine optimization is so important. I find that there is lots of information about optimizing your website for search engines, but it's hard to know what information is correct. I am really glad that the Small Business Online Community is bringing in experts to help share their knowledge with us.

I have three questions:

1) What are the three most important things one should do to optimize his or her website for search engines. I'd like to know the Big Three which really rise to the top.

2) General approach to a website - What is the best way to go about creating a website from the start to help search engines find it. Are there better hosting facilities, better techniques in general or better ways to have one;s website positioned. I guess this question is similar to my first question but it's more of a bird's eye view of a website versus the actual implementation details.

3) Syndication of content - Does syndicating one's content help with one's rankings. If so, what are some ways to go about syndicating content on the web?

Thanks in advance. I have marked my calendar and am excited to participate in these events!

Andrew

Possible question: What specific types of businesses/products/services are most likely to get good results from a search marketing investment -- and which probably aren't?

It is my impression (from clients and members of the community) that some very small businesses have gotten excellent results, while others have gotten no results. The difference is often blamed on the website, the person who did the optimization, and/or on not having the correct "secret formula" -- but my perception is that search marketing simply isn't the right strategy for certain enterprises.

Small business owners get a lot of "one size fits all" solutions pitched to them relative to SEO and other web marketing techniques. I think it would be very beneficial if someone (who has unbiased experience and expertise) could offer some kind of criteria or categorization of the types of small businesses, products, or services that should definitely pursue search marketing -- and those that maybe shouldn't bother.

Thanks!

Here's an SEO question I'd like some information on, not sure which expert would be able to tackle this:

I recently helped a friend update her website for search engine optimization: www.Playonwords.com.

We updated the page titles, meta keywords and meta description for all of the pages. I had difficulty with the CSS coding, so I avoided the H1 tags for the title and just left the image title as-is. The site is for helping kids with language development, so I basically focused on two sets of keywords "Playonwords.com" and "Child Language Development." I wonder which is better?

Anyways, my question is this: Once you decide to do a bunch of SEO optimization, how do you know which keywords to target for your website? I mean, what is more important: putting the title of your business in the keywords so that people who already know your business can find it online... or do you come up with keywords that are not related to your title but align well with your target audience/customer?

In this case I'm trying to decide between "Playonwords" and "Child Language Development" as the top keyword. I'm pretty sure the site will never hit the top ranking for "Playonwords" so why even try. Right?

SBOC members can answer this one too! I am stumped!

Thanks,

Netmarketer

Looks like the SBOC team has been doing some market research!

 

Thank you for the opportunity you are presenting with Search Engine Marketing.

 

Many companies are not aware of what Search Engine Marketing can do for their online presence.

 

 

I am sure the presenters will have some extremely valueable resources for all that take interest.

 

 

Thanks again SBOC!

I would like the expert to look at the 'site' we have http://local.yahoo.com/details?id=1003232
1 and tell me a few things:

1. Is there anything we should do on the current site to improve traffic?
2. If we had our own site, would they expect our traffic to go up much (we get 500 visits a month)
3. Does putting coupons and specials on your site increase the hits you get?

Here' s my question

http://watsonandcochran.com/

we spent a decent amount on our website, but pretty much only get current customers to visit.

How do we get more traffic?

I've got a question regarding SEO:
I've seen many e-commerce owners that have created multiple sites. I understand that some secure their businesses online in case a technical problem arises on one of their e-commerces. I have also discovered that some e-commerce owners rank high for certian keywords, then secure their ranking with multiple domains, with the same descriptions, keywords, etc..., monopolizing the top positions. I think it is an unfair practice, and a kind of spamming too. What are the search engines planning to do to prevent that and keep a fair ranking competition for all e-commerce owners in the same field?

Hi SBOC,

Here's another question that I have for your expert:

What is a good number of words to have for the meta description and the *meta keywords*?

Thanks!

AKGold

What are the 3 things an average web designer can do to optimize their website to get it searched high in Google?

I've got a question for John Kaplan from Google:

Why does Google rank sites in the top 5 with keyword rich domain names and page titles, but with no contents or pages?

Thank you.

We launched our website today please visit us at www.flathealthystomach.com
Feedback is very welcome:
What can we add or change to better improve the site for SEO and meta tags h1 and h2

Thanks