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WHITE PAPER
SEO: Optimizing Web Pages for Search Engines

Learn how your website can achieve consistently high rankings
among top search engines.

By: Richard Miller, Director, e-Commerce

Email: info@triseptsolutions.com
Web: www.triseptsolutions.com
Phone: 414.934.3900
Fax: 414.934.2391
Mail: 777 West Glencoe Place
Milwaukee, WI 53217

Trisept Solutions provides leading-edge leisure travel industry technology services featuring inventory
management, a full spectrum of electronic distribution products, and other IT solutions. Trisept Solutions
processes more than 300 million e-commerce transactions annually and facilitates the sale of more than
three million vacation package reservations for its clients. Its team is comprised of more than 200 innovative
professionals at its Milwaukee headquarters. Visit www.triseptsolutions.com to learn more about the world
leader in Web-based leisure travel distribution technology.
SEO: Optimizing Web Pages for Search Engines
In these times of sophisticated Internet search engines, it’s no longer enough to
just have a website. You need to ensure your site will consistently achieve high
rankings when “Googled”. Over 75% of consumers use Yahoo, MSN, Google
or another search engine to research vacation options. That’s why it’s critical
that your site content become search engine-friendly by implementing a variety
of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques.

As Internet users continue to become savvier and their search queries more
sharply defined, by properly optimizing your pages, your site will place higher in
the search listings and stay ahead of your competition.

This white paper will explain:

1) The basics of SEO
2) Benchmarking – what is it and why you should do it
3) Tips for research keywords & writing search engine-friendly content
4) How to submit sites to search engines and measure results

So, what does it take to get “Googled”?
A simple search engine optimization project is not hard to implement.
However, staying current on the latest trends, maintaining optimization and
reviewing the success of your SEO campaigns takes considerable time and
effort.

If you’re going to do it yourself, start with a simple strategy and proceed from
there as your knowledge and comfort level grows. Afterall, a little
optimization is better than none at all.

Pay-per-click

Organic

SEO: Optimizing
Web Pages for
Search Engines
July, 2006
SEO needs long-term commitment, but yields long-term results

Tackling SEO in-house is not necessarily the best option for all website
owners. A successful SEO campaign is an ongoing project, not a one-time
task. It takes time and resources to stay optimized and many site managers
have their hands full with other aspects of the business.

It may be more advantageous to contract SEO services from a reputable
search marketing agency. Outsourcing relieves a site owner of the burden
of researching, testing, implementing and maintaining a large scale SEO
project.

First things first

Before undertaking any part of an SEO overhaul, a website should undergo
a thorough analysis for the purpose of benchmarking. A snapshot with
current number of visitors, page views, unique visitors, and keyword ranking
serves as a gauge by which to measure any improvements gained as a
result of any SEO effort.

Do your research

There are many good sources of information to keep up with the latest in
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) including online forums, newsletters and
conferences.

Best SEO websites:

SearchEngineNews newsletter by Planet Ocean
ClickZ's SearchEngineWatch

Best SEO conference:

The Search Engine Strategies Conference is located in various cities
and countries throughout the year. The conference includes sessions
for all levels (basic to advanced) and allows direct contact with some
of the search industry leaders.

In the end, an SEO strategy can be as complicated and technical or as easy
and clean as you want. Ask questions. Read a white paper, like the one

SEO: Optimizing
Web Pages for
Search Engines
July, 2006
you’re holding now. Learning the ins and outs of search engine optimization
takes time, just like Spanish, Italian or any other new language.

Breaking it down: SEO Components

Search Engine Optimization is a skill that can be learned, just like any other.
Successful SEO strategies are built by utilizing these basic ideas:

Content - Otherwise known as body copy, content is what the search engine
spiders crawl over when attempting to match the keywords searched to offer
additional relevant information.

Common mistake: Jamming too many complex topics into a single page.
This just confuses the search engine as it searches for content relevant to
the search criteria.

The solution: Design your site to have a unique page or section for each
specific subject. Search engine spiders can recognize keywords that
have been embedded in a page, so be sure to pepper keywords into page
titles and tags, paragraph headlines and links.

Design - A flashy website may look impressive, but don’t let design get in
the way of function – or an effective SEO strategy.

Common mistake: Too much Flash and graphics. Search engines can’t
recognize keywords as phrases in a Flash or graphic format.

The solution: Keep the design simple. Successfully optimized sites avoid
slow-to-load graphics. Simple text-based designs attract search engine
spiders because they can process the relevant content much faster.

Tags - Often ignored, meta tagging is one of the more important
components of SEO. Page titles, meta titles, and keyword sets should be
created with keyword phrase-heavy content that compels users to click
through from the search results page.

Title Tag - A title tag for any web page appears in the blue field at the top
of the browser window. The title is usually the first element search engine
spiders encounter, thereby making it an important factor when giving your
site a ranking. An improperly composed title tag could be a major reason
why your site’s ranking is not as high as you think it ought to be.
Title tag

SEO: Optimizing
Web Pages for
Search Engines
July, 2006
Writing a title tag

Say your business sells vacations to Hawaii. How should your title tag
read?

Good: Hawaii Vacations
This page title tag is okay, but is limited in scope for both users
and search engines.

Better: Hawaii Vacation Packages
This is a bit stronger, but there’s still room for improvement.

Best: Hawaii Vacation Packages – ABC Vacations,
Luxury Vacations to Hawaii
This one is the winner because it includes relatable terms, is still
to the point, and conveys more relevant information to a potential
customer.

TIP – Each page of your site should have a title tag that accurately
reflects the page content.

Benchmarking your site
Benchmarking is about identifying your site’s strengths and measuring
growth. It’s also about understanding your site’s weaknesses and taking
steps to correct them.

Benchmarking exercises can include:

Evaluating the look and size of your organization’s home page and
measuring:

Page views
Unique visits
Total visits
Ranking in search listings

Other qualities of measurement include:

Page content and relevance
Consistency of content
Keywords and phrases

Lastly, an important part of benchmarking is getting a snapshot of the
competitive landscape. In order to be successful, you must understand your
competition. Looking at websites that offer services or products like yours
will provide ideas for things to emulate as well as avoid. A good place to find
these competitors is at the top of the search listings.

SEO: Optimizing
Web Pages for
Search Engines
July, 2006
Once a complete set of metrics has been established for your site, the data
gained from optimization can be reported and studied for continuing changes
or improvements in the future.

Researching Keywords

Keyword research - choosing the most relevant keyword phrases – is one of
the most important parts of any SEO campaign. You can spend a lot of time
optimizing your pages for better ranking, but it’s a wasted effort if the right
keyword phrases are not targeted. High search engine rankings due to poor
keyword selection may still not bring you relevant traffic. So, identify your
target audience and research what keywords they might be typing in the
search engines to discover your site. Below are some tools you may find
useful.

Keyword Research Tools

1) Wordtracker® http://www.wordtracker.com - Wordtracker® provides a
wide variety of ways to explore top-performing keywords.

2) Webmaster Toolkit http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com - Enter the word or
phrase you wish to be found under. The Webmaster tool will also
suggest additional words and phrases for you to consider using.

SEO: Optimizing
Web Pages for
Search Engines
July, 2006
3) Overture Keyword Selection Tool http://www.overture.com - If you’re not
sure what search terms your customers may be using, enter a term
related to your site and Overture will show you how many times that term
was used as a search query.

TIPS
1) Carefully target the search keywords
2) Keep key phrases relevant and targeted to what a specific web page is
about.
3) Avoid placing keywords in JPG, GIF or other graphic formats. Because
search engines do not read information contained in graphics, important
SEO: Optimizing
Web Pages for
Search Engines
July, 2006
words or phrases will be ignored. Although use of graphics may be more
visually sophisticated, it’s more important for people to find your page.
Find appropriate ways to ensure keywords and phrases remain in a text-
based format.

Writing for Search Engines

Most web users know how to use Internet search engines to help them find
what they’re looking for. The most-used search engines are:

Search engines have become invaluable tools for web users simply because
they’re able to instantly sift through millions of web pages. The matches they
find are then returned to the user with the most relevant pages at the top of
the list.

Because search engines respond directly to the keywords or phrase they’re
given, an internal algorithm drives the engine to find the relevant pages.
Thus, it’s critical that your web pages contain enough of the keywords and
phrases that your customers are using to find pages like yours.

Placement of keywords

Search engines perform their tasks similar to how the human brain performs
basic functions. Someone browsing in a bookstore will most likely start
searching for a book by looking at the title. Search engines do the same
thing, and that’s why it’s so important that the title of each page contain only
the most relevant information pertaining to the content of that particular
page.

EXAMPLE:

Let’s say a person conducts a Google search on the keywords “book family
beach vacations”.

The search engine logically pushes pages with the search terms appearing
in the HTML title tag to the top of the listing. The following result, offers a
description relevant to the keyword search.

Next, the engine checks to see if the search keywords relevant to the topic
appear near the top of a web page, such as in the headline or in the first few

SEO: Optimizing
Web Pages for
Search Engines
July, 2006
paragraphs of text. If they are found there, that page stays at the top of the
ranking list.

Because the title tag and body copy matched the keywords searched, the
keywords appear bolded. Also, some of the keyword-rich content will display
on the search engine results page, allowing the user to read an informative
description of your product or service.

Here are the Google results for “book family beach vacations”:

Keyword Frequency

The other way search engines measure relevancy is the number of times the
keywords appear within the page content or body copy. As part of the
retrieval process, a search engine analyzes how often keywords appear in
relation to other words in a web page.

Pages with a higher frequency of relevant keywords outrank other pages to
the top of the search listing that is returned to the user. Of course, all this
happens in the blink of an eye, and that’s why it’s so important to think like
the search engines “think” when writing content for your pages.

SEO: Optimizing
Web Pages for
Search Engines
July, 2006
Example of keyword-rich site copy:
Title tag

Keyword-rich
body copy

Don’t overdo it

A word of caution is in order, however. Going overboard with keyword or key
phrase placement in page texts can have the opposite effect. If the search
engine detects an abnormal amount of keywords, it may actually reject that
page from the final search queue. This is known as search engine
“spamming” or keyword “stuffing.” For example, repeating a word hundreds
of times on a page is a tactic that the search engine may already be trained
to recognize.

Submitting to Search Engines

Search engine submission, or search engine registration, is the practice of
listing your site with the major search engines. Most people with web pages
submit their sites to search engines hoping to be as high as possible in the
rankings, and hopefully on the first page.

However, just as it isn’t enough to simply have a web page, it’s also not
enough to just submit your site to the search engine. All a submission really
means is that the search engine has been made aware of your page.
SEO: Optimizing
Web Pages for
Search Engines
July, 2006
Unless your page is properly optimized, there’s little hope of achieving any
consistent or lasting results.

That’s where search engine marketing (SEM) comes in. SEM describes the
overall strategy of using search engines to market a website. That strategy
includes submission, optimization, managing paid listings and more.
Appearing high in the search engine rankings can be achieved if
optimization, submission and all other factors are carefully considered. By
approaching improvements to your site in this manner, the audience you
seek will be able to find you.

Metrics & Reporting

After your pages have been successfully optimized, it’s natural to want to
track the results. This is where having carefully documented benchmarks
comes in handy.

The original benchmarks created during the site analysis can be used to
measure all future performance. Checking regular monthly or quarterly
reports from a service such as HitBox or WebTrends help you track your
success from day one. You can then use that data to continuously make
improvements and upgrades to your keywords and page content.

Be patient

It’s important to remember that good SEO results take time. In other words,
don’t expect immediate changes in your rankings. It may take weeks or even
months for your SEO efforts to show results. But once those changes start to
happen, you should continue to rank well, especially if you practice a system
of regular monitoring and page updates.

SEO: Optimizing
Web Pages for
Search Engines
July, 2006
Doing SEO In-house

Undertaking an SEO project is a long-term commitment - not a one-time
task. SEO is a growing field that is constantly changing. Be sure to
dedicate enough budget, resources, and time to conduct a thorough SEO
campaign.

You may want to add a full-time SEO analyst to your staff or at a minimum,
dedicate an existing team member to the job. Hiring a person who already
has the knowledge and the skills will eliminate a time-consuming learning
curve. If this isn’t an option, there are a number of workshops, web groups,
and seminars available that can teach SEO practices effectively.

Another aspect of good SEO practices is strong copy writing. If you already
have a good copywriter on staff, they can be partnered with an experienced
SEO person to weave the all-important key phrases into the text.

As you explore the options for doing SEO in-house, consider all the factors
involved. If it appears to be too time consuming or too draining on existing
resources, you will want to find a reliable SEO firm to whom you can
outsource the project.

Outsourcing SEO

There are several reasons why outsourcing SEO may be your best option.
SEO practices change quickly. Your internal resources may be too busy
managing other aspects of your business to effectively stay abreast of the
latest developments in the field. An external SEO team dedicates 100% of
its time to maximizing the use of search engines. There is no learning curve,
there is no back burner. Your website is their top priority.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of outsourcing to a reputable, well-respected
SEO firm is that you can leverage their relationships with top search
engines. On your own, Google or Yahoo may not be easy to access. You
might have trouble getting a foot in the door. But a well-known SEO
company already has relationships with search engines and you can use
that to your advantage.

Trisept Solutions, one such firm, has been at the forefront of SEO since its
inception. Trisept Solutions, a leading travel technology company,
integrates SEO practices into web development services for many of the
travel industry’s leading tour operators, top hoteliers, and major airlines.
Trisept’s SEO team works closely with top search engines like Google, MSN,
and Yahoo to submit sites, test new search practices, and offer training
sessions for Trisept’s customers.

SEO: Optimizing
Web Pages for
Search Engines
July, 2006
Putting it all together

Whether you decide to tackle SEO in-house or to entrust a reputable e-
marketing firm to handle it for you, SEO is a vital part of any successful e-
marketing campaign. Creating a compelling website that engages visitors
and achieves your corporate objectives is only half the battle. Making sure
your customers and prospects can find it, is a whole other story.

Who We Are

Trisept Solutions - Search Engine Marketing

Trisept Solutions is the global leader in technology powering vacations,
providing airlines, hoteliers, tour operators, and travel agents with innovative
leisure travel technology. Trisept’s e-marketing services include Search
Engine Optimization, Paid Placement Campaign Management and Affiliate
Marketing Management. A few of the brands we manage search engine
marketing for include Funjet Vacations, Southwest Airlines Vacations, Spirit
Vacations, Midwest Airlines Vacations and United Vacations.

For more information about Trisept Solutions and to learn more about its role as the world-
leader in web-based leisure travel distribution technology, visit our website at
www.triseptsolutions.com or contact us via info@triseptsolutions.com.

SEO: Optimizing
Web Pages for
Search Engines
July, 2006