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October 12, 2004
Many people are touting that keywords, the typing of specific
words in the code of a Web page, is out-dated and out-moded. Newer programs
like Macromedia Flash do no have the option of using keywords if the site
is created entirely using that program, and many believe that the new technology
is forcing keywords out.
That may be true, but search engines cater to the largest
denominator. We in America, and
especially Washington where Microsoft is headquartered, think that if we
don't have Windows XP then we are behind the times, but this isn't entirely
accurate. As of October 2004, Windows 98 is the most popular operating
system in the world, with Windows 95 not far behind. These operating systems
were never made to view things like Web sites made with
Macromedia
Flash.
Does that really matter though? We think it does, and
here is an example:
Daffodil Valley Times (www.daffodilalleytimes.com)
is a community Web site created by Intra-Designs to give the people of
Puget Sound a place to get information about our area. It's a fairly large
site, extending over 200 pages to date, and it's relatively popular. The
site recently celebrated 8000 visitors per month (August 2004). Here is
the daily statistic for September 1, 2004 (look at the yellow visits column):
At 211 visitors, that would equal about 6000 people per
month. The statistics go up and down per day, and this happened to be a
slightly
low day.
Now, here is the daily statistic for October 1, 2004:
Yes, that is 7488 visitors, actual people, that went to
the site that day. 7488 is almost as many people as went to the site the
entire
month of August.
Why did 10 times the number of people find Daffodil Valley
Times starting the end of September? Keywords. Keywords are not a magical
word that will mesmerize people to come to your site by magic. Keywords
allow people to find your site when your information is what they are looking
for. The proper placement of keywords, both in the back-end code and on
the Web site itself, could produce surprising results when you least expect
it.
So what keywords are prompting almost 8000 people to flock
to Daffodil Valley Times every day? Mt. St. Helens, of course. Like I said,
sometimes the right keyword will produce surprising results when you least
expect it. DVT happens to have a Webcam of Mt. St. Helens. Those few keywords,
on that one page, have guided surfers using over 58 different search engines
to DVT. We have had that Webcam for two years, and relatively few have
visited it, but they say timing is everything. The right keywords, combined
with the timing of the event, enlightened 250,000 people to the existence
of DVT. It would be an enormous price to pay for that kind of advertising.
Keywords are not dead. The days of using misleading keywords
are. Search engines are getting smarter about identifying keywords, and
identifying Web designers that use misleading keywords. The "art" of using
keywords on Web sites is becoming a very specialized field. Most designers
don't know how to do it.
These statistics show you that we at Intra-Designs take our
work very seriously. We are Search
Engine Specialists. We don't just say it, we prove it. We have won
over 15 awards for Web site design. We have designed over 10 sites that
hit #1 in Google for certain keywords. We have designed sites for businesses,
civic organizations, educational groups, and government structures.
Contact us today, and we will get started on your own personal
Elegant Design for a New Millennium.
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