Buzz

"169,400,000 people in the US access the internet. 92% of these people query search engines" - Nielsen Netratings

SEO Your Website and Personal Webpage

Being found in the major search engines is vital to anyone who conducts business on the Internet. There are only three steps you need to take if you want to quickly increase your site’s visibility in the search engines. The three steps are: positioning, optimization, and link building.

Search Engine Optimization Overview

There are two types of users who will visit your website or your Voices.com web page. Humans and search engine 'spiders'. Spiders (also known as robots) are computer programs developed by engineers to scour the Internet and find content to include in their search results.

It's important to develop the balance of a human-friendly website, while at the same time optimizing your content for the search engines.

Positioning by Keyword Term Selection

Let's start with a quick definition: Search terms are the words and phrases that people type into search engines. For example, if I go to Google.com and type in "voice over" , that’s deemed a search term.

To get traffic from search engines, you need to know what people are searching for, and who you’re competing against. This sounds very basic, but it’s important. Emphasize what your site offers that's of value to potential clients and how your services differ from those of your main competitors.

The Major Search Engines - Google, Yahoo and MSN

When users have needs, they typically query search engines and allocate only a few seconds to scan each of the web pages that the search engine pulls up. Be sure that you show up for the search terms that best reflect your voice over services.

Search Engine Optimization

One of the most important aspects of search engine optimization (SEO) is optimizing your page content. "Optimizing" simply means putting the keywords you’ve selected into your web pages in the right places, with the right formatting.

The first thing to understand is that you should only use 1-2 search terms to optimize each page. Once you’ve selected a page to optimize, and the search terms you are going to use, all you have to do is put those words in the right places of the HTML code and you're done.

Where the search terms go:

1. Your page’s tag
2. Your “keywords” and “description” META tags
3. In the first paragraph of body text
4. In the text of any links that point to the page

If you need ideas for words that you can use to describe your services, view our list of voice over keywords.

Be warned. Google has employed an "Over Optimization Penalty" for those people who violate the Google Guidelines and insert a string of keywords, hidden text or other unethical tactics to mislead the search engines. Learn more about Google information for webmasters.

Link Building & Link Popularity

“Link building” simply means getting other websites to link to yours. These links will bring in traffic on their own, and help you establish a credible reputation for your website.

Link building is an important part of search engine positioning, because search engines look at these links as a “vote” for your website, and they will boost your rankings accordingly when other sites link to you. Notably, links serve as pathways for search engine spiders.
Site Map

It was once said, "all pages within a site should be no more than two clicks away". You can achieve this by creating a 'site map' that lists all of the pages within your site. This makes it easy for search engine spiders to efficiently index your website's pages. This is also a friendly tool for new website visitors to locate the various sections of your site.

SEO Summary

Developing an effective search engine optimization strategy is key to receiving traffic at your website and your personal web page, and ultimately, getting you voice over work. Take a few minutes now to apply what you've learned. See the results of your efforts as search engines update your new content.