The Asian girls (Mongolian I think) flipped the train seats
so they could face each other and share an iPod. Facing each other means
one of them is also facing me, from 2 1/2 feet away, which makes the 1
1/2 hour train ride uncomfortable.
The first 2-3 dozen pictures they took of each other looking
whistfully out the window or flashing MTV gansta-wannabe hand
signs while pouting were amusing. I didn't even mind moving the
ponytail, that had to be tossed repeatedly over the seat into my lap,
off my book. I think its the "Daddy" in me that's so forgiving
and understanding. Eventually the repeated flash in my eyes burned my
left retna so I closed my eyes, to avoid permanent damge, and began to
daydream.
No, I was not dayreaming about a pair of 20 year
old Mongolian girls and a camera. I was daydreaming about Search
Engine Optimization (SEO).
Most people don't understand SEO and its no suprise.
Most people want their business listed in the top ten sites returned
on a web search. Google "CN Consulting" and we'll come up 3rd,
Bing and we're 1st, same for Yahoo. Thank you. There are other "CN
Consulting"'s out there but not so many that we get lost. Still, they
are lower ranked and we win.
Most companies will come up on a search by name. Company
names will be fairly unique just because the law says so when you
incorporate. Its the services or products you provide that you want hits
on. You want everybody searching for your products and services to find
your business over everyone else's. But how? How do Google, Bing and Yahoo
know about you?
They have "Robots" and "Spiders". Robots
are automated procedures to perform internet tasks. A robotic procedure to
gather information on websites and return it for indexing is a
Spider. Spiders read your website, including names of pictures, its
description, and some things called Keywords and Metatags.
Go to your website using Internet Explorer. Use the
View menu and click Source. About ten lines down you'll see Description,
Keywords, and Metatags, or words something like that. If that information
doesn't have anything to do with what you do you may want to fix it.
Search Engines don't rely on Keywords and Metatags like
they did in the early 2000's but they still do to some extent. Search
Engines are more interested in your site's description and its
content. Spiders actually read your website. To what depth I don't know
so say what's important to you right up front. Say it loud and say it
proud, and often. Think what your prospective client would search for and
how they would type it.
Take some time to think up keywords and shuffle them around.
Visit your employee with the little magnet words stuck all over their
cubicle. You know, the one that doesn't do anything all day. Get some
of those and experiment. Maybe you're "Buckie's Florida
Salt-Water Fishing Reels, Inc". Maybe you think people would type:
"salt-water fishing reels fla". Like that.
Pepper your pages with descriptive words people would search
on to find your products. Maybe on your Home Page it says:
"Salt-water fishing reels are our business at Buckie's Salt-Water
Fishing Reels of Florida." right at the top.
Or, you can waste the focus of your Home Page telling
people about you; "My Sister, Dreadful-Dreary-Boring, and Cousin,
Snivelling-:Little-Rat-Face, really enjoy filleting fish so when I got out
of Joliette prison in Illinois we moved in with my Uncle,
Homely-Fat-Nagging, in Chicago and opened our store." You
probably won't get many hits on salt-water fishing reels in Florida using
that on your Home Page.
Try this; imagine everyone at Wrigley Field standing. If
you're not a Cubs Fan, sit down. If you don't have Cubs "spirit
wear" on, sit down. If you're not a clueless college girl wearing
a Fukudome (Fuk-U-Do-Me in Sorostitute*) jersey because you think its
sexy, sit down. If you don't have a Cubs Debit Card, sit down. You can see
how hard it would be to get to where you want to go and the internet is
even bigger than Wrigley.
Maybe SEO is a little more clear now, maybe not, that's your
call, and that's Cocktail Talk.
