5 simple ways to gain leads & attract search engine spiders --by Anna Dalea, Owner of ERT Website Solutions

Most people think that optimizing your website for search engines is a quick and painless task.  Not true! It can take up to 3 months to see results.  However, there are some simple things that you can do to speed up your sites visibility.  Search engine spiders are extremely essential in helping you climb the ranks.  If you can get their attention, you'll be climbing a heck of a lot faster.  Here are some things you can do to speed up the process.

1) page optimization -- This is basic. Edit your page titles & tags to describe your page (using powerful keywords). Create file names that use your keywords (example: If your page's theme is baseball bats your file name should be "baseball_bats.html"). Make sure to use headings for your pages that use your keywords. Don't forget to optimize your alt text... this is key; especially for photos, videos and images. Lastly, you need amazing page copy & keyword density (copywriters can help to market your company through the copy on your site).  Do these things and you should be off on the right foot.

2) link popularity -- Spiders like to frequent popular sites that have updated content... make sure that you become popular by getting quality links from other sites (preferably within your industry).  What you don't want are sites that have nothing to do with your business linking to you.  The best links are from forums, blogs and sites in your profession.  For example, if you sell baseball equipment, sports sites, sports news sites or other stores that sell baseball equipment should link to you.  Write personalized link letters to the person who runs the site to request they link to your site, giving them reasons why it would benefit their clients and their site as well. And make sure to update your content frequently... as spiders love to retreive new information.

3) web articles -- A quick way to get your company out there is through the press.  Journalists are constantly looking for something interesting and they frequent blogs, forums & subscribe to RSS feeds searching for that "new thing". By writing and submitting articles to online "magazines" you will soon be considered an expert.  The great thing is, they will always drop your link onto the page so that viewers can visit you.  Spiders love articles and press releases. Submit your articles as often as you can to become visible and to increase traffic on your site.

4) ditch the newsletter and create a blog! -- The newsletter is fastly becoming a dinosaur.  Subscribers are starting to unsubscribe because their mailboxes are getting too full and there's too much to read.  They're turning to blogs and forums to get content they want to read about and some subscribe to RSS feeds. Yours is not the only newsletter in the mailbox, so you can imagine how tiresome it gets to read every newsletter that hits your inbox.  Blog... it directs traffic to your site once you get people interested in what you have to say.  Warning! In your blog DO NOT try to sell your business... write about topics you think your audience needs to know about; write How-To articles; respond to news reports, press releases and other forum/blog comments.

5) social networking -- Remember, becoming popular is important for your web traffic.  By submitting articles to blogs/forums and news sites, you're making yourself more visible on the web.  When you submit articles, you have the link to your site posted so that viewers can check it out.  Social networking is great for you to form a fan base and gain connections.  Also, I need to mention media.  Use videos, photos, blogs, podcasts and online broadcasts to put your company out there. Spiders enjoy these media opportunities because they are growing ever more popular. Just make sure to have appropriate titles and descriptions that contain your keywords, and if you can link back to your site, DO IT!