Some people don't understand the importance of website content. Let me use voice-over talents for example. I see most voice-over talents complain about the fact it is so hard to get work in an overcrowded industry and the fact their business is suffering. They also complain about the fact that profile listing websites like voices.com/other are well overcrowded.

Upon launching a new voice-over profile listing website which only lists particular talents based on their profession and experience. I've also provided those talents with their very own blog which is easily maintained by the user. The website I refer to is EveryDemo.com. Not many users are using the blogging system and I'm OK with that.

I haven't decided if the people who are not bothered to use a website system dedicated to the promotion of their profession and their choice to not post on it is either lazyness, lack of interest to network with other talents who might recommend them. Or they're to lazy to be creative and post new content to promote their own profile on the EveryDemo.Com system. I sometimes think they're just in the VO bis just to make a quick $$$ - Maybe I'm wrong, and they just have no idea about any of this and they're oblivious that the below is necessary to their promotion?

The message I'm trying to put across here is this; owning a website and putting it into Google search engine for submission is simply not enough. Search engines will list your website at the very back of the Google statistical web-search results. Now you ask, "How can I change this so my website is listed first"? "Why does Google do this"?

Well obviously Google will want to display the best website which contains more of the very keyword you searched for. Google will select a website which contains the most content/articles/blogs/story's/ containing the keywords been searched. It's been known by most Search Engine Specialists that you must provide at least 165 web pages based on your profession to be even considered by Google ranking.

In this post, I am going to explain a little bit about your needs and how to accomplish this. Read on.... I am going to name 5 steps or less.

1) You should have a website set-up which works for you. Your website should be set-up with "meta tags" and meta descriptions" for your web-page contents. If you don't know any html. Look into getting your website designed using an open source CMS - Content Management System. To list one or two; Mambo or Jommla...

Most CMS software will auto generate meta tags and descriptions based on the article you wrote. Creating new web-pages with a CMS software requires no programming knowledge at all. It's as easy as using a forum, - Its editor is just the same!

For every web-page you create, you need to specify your meta tags and page descriptions. Meta tags will contain keywords you think users will use to find your content on Google. But you should try to avoid keywords like voiceovers and voice-overs if you're a voice talent.

Why? Currently, Google Results 1 - 10 of about 1,730,000 for voiceovers. That's a big number to compete with isn't it? So google is showing 10 websites on the first page out of 1,730,000. I'm guessing most of you are behind the 1,500,000 mark. Why? Simple, lack of content!

You need to have a minimum of 170 website pages based on your profession I.e. Voice-overs. SEO experts say 140 to 150 pages is enough, but I feel you can never have enough content to promote your own services. So get writing folks, you've a long way to go.

This is really step one, if you feel this is a lot of work to rank well, then simply leave the voice-over industry and pick a profession less populated. And try promote that! I am not going to go into the "whole SEO - search engine optimisation" thing. I'm explaining it to you briefly and basically.

2) Content is key, and you need lots of it to rank well in all search engines. So after you've wrote loads of content, be sure that your website is not using the same "keywords" on all pages. Google and some other search engines punish websites and don't rank them well because of duplicate/same keywords on each page. Now you have created your website and created loads of articles about you and your experience and your industry. Your ready for NO.3.

3) Your website has a lot of content, and the best way to have people linking to story's you have written is to have a syndicated feed known as an RSS feed. RSS feeds can display your content in various places whom subscribe to your feeds. More on RSS feeds here: http://www.whatisrss.com/ I am not affiliated with that link!

One thing Google does when a search is submitted; it looks up the searchers keywords and searches its database of websites which display that keyword the most. And out comes the NO.1 Ranking on Google based on the results:
1) Key content on the displayed website.
2) Key links linking to the displayed website.
3) Key clicks - how many users selected to view that website based on the users keyword searches.

You need to get people to link to your website and you should also link to theirs. But If you can get away with getting them to link to you without linking back. This is better for you! Logic dictates why.

4) Now is a good idea to check your sites content publishings. Are your titles accurate and do they make sense? Your website content should be layout like so:
http://example.com/Articles/Content/Titles of your content(s).html
http://example.com/Your-name/VoiceOver-Blog/
http://example.com/Voice-over-Demos/Commercial-Demo.mp3
http://example.com/Articles/Random-Articles-or-RSSFeed/
http://example.com/Voice-Over/Shop/index.html
Now, ONLY use the keyword once on your website, that keyword being the industry you work in. And use it in title/directories.

If your titles are showing as above or if they need to be rewritten or renamed. DO NOT RENAME THEM! Follow the below step:

5) Is the scenario that you do need to rewrite your URLS. You should hire a web developer, (not a designer), one who knows ".htaccess/linux" programming language. You can get a developer to rewrite your URLS in .htaccess so that your titles remain the same, but anyone new to your websites will be directed to the new URL. No it is not a URL redirect. Its a URL rewrite. And it works great, especially when Google/alike come around to re-index your site, they wont find broken links, and they will be brought to the new URL for re-indexing. In turn, you will display more accurately on search engines.

I hope you follow this brief blog post as a guide to setting up a new website and how to go about it, so it works best for you. Remember, there is nothing worst than having a website that's not making you money. Hire a professional and get your shit together and start making money from it today! Use any and all FREE social outlets to promote you as a person and/or your services.

Good luck with your new venture. And I hope this quick post helps you to better layout your own website. I have attached a .rar file. Inside it is a PDF file with a simple guide to help assist you to understand a bit more. With thanks to my friend Darrin Ward for providing me with it for redistribution. Darrin is a SEO specialist and can be found at http://darrinward.com and is also available for hire.

Keith