Today I’d like to explore whether SEO (search engine optimization) is something small business owners need to focus their efforts toward, or if it’s something of the past.

Search engine optimization has always been a key ingredient to online success - it’s the practice of manipulating how the search engines see your site in order to position yourself higher in the search results. The better your SEO, the higher your listing.

Or, is it?

Google has been in the business of crawling sites for a long time now; it’s safe to say they know what they’re doing. The search engines use what’s called an algorithm to index and update the web - these algorithms calculate hundreds of parameters for each site.  As the Google algorithm (also known as “Algo”) grows smarter and smarter with its ability to make decisions based on the parameters set forth by Google’s anti-spam team, the smaller the splash of web publishers’ SEO efforts.

Google recently (as of October 2009) announced that they will no longer be factoring the meta keywords on a site.

That’s one more thing web publishers can scratch off the list of SEO to-do. This section is the most spam-popular meta tag to web publishers because it gives you the opportunity to tell the search engines what your site is about. With this latest development though, Google is forcing the publisher to tell them using their content - that is, you have to prove what you’re blog or site is all about.

This brings us to one of the most well known phrases online:

Content is King!

You’ve probably read about content being king all around the web - that’s because it’s true.

Search engines no longer factor the meta keywords because they don’t them; they can tell what your site or blog is all about by analyzing the content itself, which includes outbound links, inbound anchor text, titles, description, and keywords.

Why?

It disables the web publisher from spamming the algorithm with unrelated keywords the publisher would like the site to rank under.

For example, while the Raymond’s Pizzeria website focuses a great deal on pizza and Italian dishes, the web publisher might include Chinese cuisine, Thai food, Mexican food, and other phrases relevant to food in order to show up in the results when someone searches for them - this tactic is used to distract their attention from what the searcher was originally thinking and convince them that they might want pizza.

However, now that Google no longer depends on user-provided meta keywords, and focuses on the content alone, Raymond’s Pizzeria would only rank for pizza related keywords (unless there were legit pages with Chinese, Thai, and Mexican content as well).

This change makes it easier for the Google user to find what they’re looking for.

So, where does small business SEO stand?

Though Google moves away from enabling web publishers from manipulating the system, there are still plenty of white hat search optimization tactics available. Take a look below:

1. URL

The first element the web publisher can optimize is their actual URL. This is something that needs to happen before you purchase your domain, because one you have it, you’re stuck with it.

Include key words and phrases in your URL if possible - this is said to be one of the most powerful places to optimize. Take a look at the different examples below - see if you can tell which would do better with the search engines:

www.RPPizza.com or www.RaymondsPizzeriaPizza.com

Chances are the second example would rank better due to the included keywords and brand. However, that said, if you do have a site similar to the first, with little no no keywords or phrases, you can still rank well. To do this, you’ll simply need to focus your SEO efforts on a different aspect of SEO, such as link building, anchor text building, and title.

2. Title

Engines look at website titles with great interest due to the importance the title holds to the given site or blog - chances are web publishers aren’t going to spam their title to gain rank. Optimize your title by including keywords, phrases, and other terms you want to rank well for with the engines. For example, Raymond’s Pizzeria might create something like this for their title:

Raymond’s Pizzeria - Authentic New York Style Pizza.

The title effectively brands the company and makes use of commonly searched key words and phrases, including authentic, New York style, and pizza.

3. Inbound Anchor Text

Another place small business owners can optimize their site effectively is the anchor text portion of their site. Anchor text is the hyperlinked text from anywhere online - search engines look at the text people use to link to another site in order to tell what the web publisher thinks the site is all about. Optimized anchor text can effectively target keywords, phrases, brands, names, and more. Search engines pay a great deal of attention here partly because inbound links are usually created by third party web publishers.

This is you often see sites instructing people to link to them using specific text and web address.

4. Content Keywords

Just because Google isn’t taking into account the meta keywords doesn’t mean you should abandon keyword research - quite the contrary.

Because the search engines are super sensitive to content, you should spend some time figuring out what keywords your customers are using to find services or product in your niche. Once you have an idea of what terms of phrases tend to attract more search queries, you should make a note of it and move on to create your content naturally. Use your keyword research for blog post or page titles. Avoid spamming your own site with a ton of the same keywords - Google can spot this from a gigabyte away.

5. Images

Images are probably the least optimized portion of the web. Consider taking advantage of alt tags and image titles by including target keywords, phrases, and titles.

6. Categories and Tags

If you have a blog, be sure to make use of both categories and tags - these help the search engines figure out what your site is all about and furthermore what the majority of your content is about. It would be my guess that improper or careless category assigning and tagging can harm the way the search engine sees you.

All in all, there is still room for SEO. Small business owners should take advantage of optimization where possible, yet avoid delving into the dark side with black hat spamniques.

You might also like these posts:

• 7 Lucky Ways to Hand out Flyers Using Social Media Websites