Basics of Search Engine Optimization for Investigation Websites

The “Title Tag” is the Meta Tag given the most importance and is the information you see at the top of your web page (in the blue bar if you are using Internet Explorer or the Firefox web browser). The Title Tag is also the information used to present search results in the major search engines; see “Pensacola Private Investigator” in the example above. Most people leave this title set to the default that says “Home” or “Index” or “Page 1,” which is terrible and you NEVER see these websites in the first few pages of search results. The Title Tag on your homepage should be your most important keyphrase! Hint: your homepage Title Tag should NEVER be your company name because when people are looking for a fugitive recovery agent in, let’s say, Boston they are not going to search by company name that they do not even know exists, instead they are using search phrases like “Boston bounty hunter” or “Boston bail agent.”

The “Description Tag” is used to provide more information about your website to both searcher and search engines alike. It is important to use your keyphrase in a manner that makes sense to both a human visitor and a search engine trying to determine what your website is about. I chose the description “Florida Private investigator in Pensacola serving the Gulf Coast with offices in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.” because it incorporated the separate phrases “Florida Private Investigator” and “Private Investigator in Pensacola” and still remained “readable” by a potential visitor.

The “Keyword Tag” is much less important these days but should include a list of about 10 to 20 individual words that can be assembled to create phrases and search terms that match your desired keyphrases and your website’s content. Put valuable keywords at the beginning of your list.

One word of caution: Be careful with your use of your keyphrases! Do not “over do” it or the search engines might believe that you are “keyword” spamming and ban you altogether. “Keyword Density” is a term used heavily in search engine optimization and is essentially the number of times any keyword is repeated within a web page, expressed as a percentage of the total number words on the page. Generally speaking keep your use of keyphrases to one or two specific search terms per page, use them once in each Meta Tag and keep keyword density between 5% and 10%. Don’t fret over this too badly but you can find simple and free keyword density tools on the Internet by searching on the term “keyword density analyzer.”

Using your keywords and keyphrases in your website’s navigation structure is important too. Ideally, your URL (http://www.yournamehere.com) and your page naming structure (http://www.yournamehere.com/pagename.htm) should also incorporate your identified keyphrases. For instance if you were a process server in Newport Beach, CA then maybe your website’s URL should be http://www.newportbeachserviceofprocess.com or if you already have a URL that you are attached to then you might include the search phrase into one of your important pages like http://www.yournamehere.com/newport-beach-service-of-process.htm.

Lastly, developing an intelligent strategy to develop inbound links is critical to search engine marketing. Inbound links are important because they give search engines and site visitors a way to find your site too. They are like little “onramps” to your website on the Information Superhighway. Search engines are designed to believe that more links to your website means that your website is more important than the others competing for the same keyphrases. If those inbound links also happen to come from sites with similar subject matter then they think your site is even that more important! Links on other peoples websites pointing back to yours should ideally incorporate your keyphrases rather than just your URL. Search engines give more “statistical weight” to text links like “Bounty Hunter” over http://BeABountyHunter.com.

There has been a lot of debate over whether “reciprocal links,” basically links on separate websites pointing to each other (“I’ll link to you if you’ll link to me.”) carries the same weight as one-way inbound links. The bottom line take away here is that reciprocal links and inbound links are weighed exactly the same- the search engines only begin to ignore links when it becomes obvious that the link is from a “link farm” or other method webmasters use to try and manipulate search results. Think quality over quantity.

Search engine optimization and marketing really takes very little time to accomplish effectively and the results will pay huge dividends. Putting up an attractive website and making it visible to your potential customers searching the Internet must become a cornerstone of your marketing and advertising foundation. If it is not, then you will languish among the others who most often wonder why their phone is not ringing while their competitors are staying busy.