Strategize for Organic Search

If you’ve got a presence on the Internet, you’re missing the boat if you haven’t geared up for organic search. Although there are more “sophisticated” ways to divert search traffic to your site, the vast majority of search-initiated leads come from this more pedestrian approach.

The terms “organic” or “natural” search refer to the traditional practice of search engines “spidering” pages and returning to fill their indexes with data. Regardless of how well you’re doing with your other traffic driving activities, it’s worth your time to prepare for these arachnid visitors. Here are some reasons why:

“Online shoppers are nearly three times more likely to find what they want on the Web by using search engines versus responding to advertisements.” -- WorldPay - Feb-2002

“According to Google, more than 55 billion searches were conducted on their search engine alone during 2002 and nearly 80 million searches ‘of a commercial nature’ are being conducted each day.”

It would be much too ambitious to try and lay out all of the details of how to prepare for organic search here. However, the following are some “Do’s” and “Dont’s” that will help you take care of the basics and steer clear of some of the common trouble areas.

• Use Meta Tags: Both Description and Keyword tags
• Use Page Titles
• Use IMG ALT Tags
• Use Flash Pages Sparingly
• Include Keywords in Site Content
• Avoid Frames
• Get Listed in the Open Directory
• Get Other Sites to Link to You
• Don’t Use Redirects
• Don’t Hide Keyword Text