When you set up your website for business, your primary concern is getting up and running. You may ask friends who hosts their websites to help you decide who to go with. But, choosing the right website host can help with your SEO marketing strategies.

What to Look for in a Host

There are tons of website hosts out there. Some are free and some require a fee. When you are looking for real estate for your business, you don’t want to go with the free options. They would be good for those who are producing websites for family and friends or maybe even some affiliate mini sites but not for a full-fledged business enterprise. There are too many limitations.

What kind of server do they have? The server is where all of the information is stored. A server needs hosts websites for the hosting company. When someone wants to access a page on your website, the server lets you access it. More powerful servers are faster at their job and pages appear in seconds for your visitors.

One of the most popular servers is Apache. Apache is open source which means that it is free for web hosts. Also it supports a number of applications including content management systems and blogging platforms. If you use Joomla or WordPress, you are using an Apache-based server.

One problem that users of free hosting services run into is lack of bandwidth. They won’t be able to upload files, videos, audios and the other Internet marketing tools used to increase your site’s salability. You will be limited in what you can do. Once your site is up and you are promoting it, changing hosts midstream can be a nightmare.

Why is this Important?

Search engine optimization involves a lot of different aspects. You will be optimizing content for your site and uploading it to many different web pages. You don’t want to be limited in the number of web pages that you can create either. Each page represents a unique URL and a different keyword that you are focusing on.

You may be the one designing your website or a website designer. You don’t want to be limited by your platform as to what you can so. Changing templates for different times of the year or just to fit the way you want to conduct business are important. The wrong web host can make this difficult to tweak templates to be more SEO friendly.

Also, with free hosting you probably won’t have full administrative control of your website. You can add files to prevent spamming on your blog (and you can add one with better web hosting) and also to capture website stats or place a web counter on your site pages. Just having enough access to edit content on your site is not enough.

When you are in the planning stages for your business, don’t forget to consider web hosting and its impact on your SEO strategies. Choosing the right one can make all the difference.

Linking is important for website ranking, but link building is not the easiest thing to accomplish. When people get to know you hopefully they will want to link to your site. To help them along, give them some content they can’t resist.

Inbound Links

A website is your place in cyberspace. When people learn how great you and your products are, they can let others know about you. Linking to your website is one way to do that. It is also called a backlink. It is a link to your site on their website or blog.

There are two kinds of inbound links: reciprocal links and organic links. Reciprocal links are those that you get when you agree to swap links with another site. It could be a friend who wants to help you out and vice versa. Getting links like this is okay but not the best when it comes to moving up in the ranks.

You have to look at the quality of the sites that you are linking with. They may offer to swap links but if the site is not optimized, reputable and/or well-presented it can backfire. You can be marked down for poor link building. And paying for links isn’t much better. After you have worked so hard on your site, you don’t want it to go to waste like that.

Organic links come from those who are not asked to link to you. They have heard about you (through your stellar marketing campaign) and want to let others know something awesome is in their midst. These links are rated higher by search engines. When you are just getting started it is hard to get links like this.

Obtaining Links

How do you get the links you need and want?

• Use your content. Writing content that is optimized for keywords in your niche can rank high. Others will click on you first. Sites within your niche that are trying for those higher spots will check you out to see why they can’t knock you off the top.

• Establish expert status. Post content to article directories. Write for other blogs. Being found in other places increases your visibility and adds to your credibility. Everyone wants to be associated with an expert.

• Comment on blogs within your target market. Go to where your potential customers are. Give sound advice and add a link to your website. Pretty soon these people may become loyal readers who will link from their blogs to your website.

Use your content to help build quality links. The combination can lead to increased traffic and subsequently more sales.

When you see people perusing magazines on racks, when they find one they want to read, they are not reading every article inside. They look for headlines and titles that catch their eye. The same goes for websites on the Internet. You can learn to write titles that will have visitors stopping in for a spell.

Title Basics

A title is not just a little blurb at the top of your content. That title can be used to further optimize your page. Here is an example. If your website page is about chocolate (a sweet and reoccurring example), the content needs to relate to confections. But, your title doesn’t have to be simply “chocolate.”

A well-optimized title will include some or all of the following:

• Keywords – You have yet another place on your webpage that keywords can be used to help improve your rankings. If you choose keywords carefully, you can match a phrase that most people are going to use.
• Hook – What is going to entice people to keep reading? Tell them what they will get. “How to Make Chocolate Strawberries” is interesting. Readers know just what they will be learning. Using numbers is even better. “5 Ways to Melt Chocolate” let’s readers know that they don’t have too much to read and that you will lay it all out for them.
• Focus – Don’t take up two lines with your title. Use as few words as possible that will appeal to readers and also include a keyword or a keyword phrase. To reinforce that title, use that keyword again in the first sentence of the opening paragraph.

Even if you have titles on articles you would also benefit from a headline on your webpage. The article is just one portion of the information contained on your webpage. Don’t forget that headlines can be optimized as well.

• Font size – Your headline needs to stand out from the rest of the information on the page. Use a larger bolder font but nothing too flowery. You want readers to see it not grimace at it.
• Use keywords – What is the page essentially about? Use that keyword so readers know what all of the information will pertain to.
• Use a link – When someone runs their mouse across the headline they will realize that it is clickable. It can link to the homepage, your site map or anywhere else on your site that would be helpful to visitors.

Titles and headlines are front and center on your page. Make them eye-catching and enticing so visitors will stay and read more.