Search Engine Placement
Strategies
Obviously, placement of your listing in the search engines
is critical to being found by your customers and top 10 placement will make a
significant difference in the traffic to your Web page. At a minimum, you need
to be placed in the top 30. A listing further down is not of much use as most
users will only view results from the top 10 to 20 positions.
- Search engine positioning was the
top method cited by web site marketers to drive traffic to their sites
(66%), followed by email marketing (54%). (Direct
Marketing Association, Aug. 2000)
- In a study released by ActivMedia Research in September
1999, Search Engine Positioning was ranked as the #1
Website promotional method used by eCommerce sites.
- Meta tags are the most popular
search engine optimization technique, used by 61% of those surveyed,
followed by optimizing page titles (44%) and link building (32%).
(Iconocast, Nov. 2000)
How do you get a top-10 listing?
Quite simply, you've got to really, really want to
get there. By that I mean you have to be willing to spend the money, and take
the time to learn the secrets of getting there. Simply putting a page on the
web won't get you there. Making a one-time submission to the search engines
won't get you there. It takes time, effort, and knowledge -
there is no other way!
You have
to know the many techniques that will move your web page to a top 10 position.
We have spent countless hours studying the search engines and spend countless
more hours keeping up with their changes. We have tested our submissions and
have a proven track record of achieving that coveted top 10 position for many
of our clients.
Basically, you've got to discover
what the search engines want, create a page that gives them what they want, make the submissions, monitor
your placement over a period of time and modify and resubmit your pages to make
sure you stay on top.
The best way to optimize your web pages for
search engines is relatively simple and follows many of the basic SEO
principles. When it comes to search engine optimization, there are two main
factors that determine you websites ranking.
- “On page” factors that you can easily
control in your favor.
- “Off page” factors such as backlinks and how
other sites link or “point” to your website.
Being able to formulate effective relevant meta-tags and
on page elements is important to pulling a good ranking. Always keep in mind
the following as you optimize your web pages:
- Make each page unique and its meta data different for
each page.
- Make your pages meaningful for the visitor and that
they contain good relevant content.
- Create search engine listings that communicate to the
searcher what the page is about.
Competition for that coveted top-10 position is fierce and
there are others out there doing what they can to get a better position than
you and in some cases to bump those who have better positions.
Learn What the Search Engines Want
Since each search engine catalogues the web differently,
it is necessary to understand the individual search engines and how they "look"
at your page. Check Search Engine Watch for details and the latest information
on the various search engines.
In general, your copy should be high in
keyword rich text, and there should be at least 5 pages, your site should be
static and not have dynamically delivered content that the engines can't read.
Flash and over usage of graphics also pose a problem for the search engine
spiders as well as sites in frames that can often not be read.
When you
submit your website to a search engine to be indexed in its database, it sends
a "robot" to scan your page. Using complex algorithms to rank your page for
keyword relevance, the "robot" determines whether you'll be ranked number 1 or
1,000,000 when potential visitors conduct a search looking for sites like
yours. These robots generally look at four key elements in your web page: URL,
<TITLE>, <BODY>, and <META> tags. The keywords you use in
these tags are the pieces that most search engines use to index your page and
are the words that people looking for your page will use to find it.
OnPage Factors
Title
The <TITLE> tag is the single most important phrase
you will write for your website. It is weighted heavily by all the search
engines and is usually the hyper linked sentence that leads to the site from
the search engine results pages. The title is vital to identifying the web page
and should be created to describe the individual page in a meaningful way
enticing users to click on it. It is crucial to include your company’s top
key terms within the title tag. The title should be a maximum of 10 words total
or a maximum of 50-70 characters. Make your titles clear and specific to what
the page is about. Do not stuff keywords in your title just to put something
there. Ask you self a question on each page, "what is this page communicating
to the searcher?" Format the title to answer that question.
META
Tags
Make your meta tags descriptive and
relevant and your site will generally rank higher in search engine
listings. Many search engines use your site's meta tag key words, to determine
if your site should be included in someone's search results. If your key words
closely match the words entered in a search, your site will be ranked in the
results.
NOTE: The importance of meta tags has diminished in recent
months as current algorithmic studies have shown that the meta tag is no longer
such an important part of your optimizations. However, since most engines do
display them in the results which can help with getting people to click onto
your site, keeping the meta tags strong, relevant and descriptive of your
content is too important to ignore.
Choosing the right keywords in the
META tags can mean the difference between a highly-visible website or one of
those websites that get lost at the bottom of those long search lists. Your
META Tags should be absolutely first and come before images, javascripts, wav
or flash streams, etc. Spiders and "bots" that index pages cannot read these
files.
The <DESCRIPTION> tag is one of the most important
sentences you will write for your web page. It is the best place to formulate a
more detailed explanation of the page that is being optimized. Think of this
sentence as your “hook” and in most cases is what is used as content
in the search engine listings - so write a sentence that makes the reader want
more - to go visit your website. Keep in mind the following when crafting your
description. The description tag should be between 15-20 words and should
emphasize the keywords used in the title tag. Keep the description concise and
specific to the contents of the page. DO NOT use the same description for every
page. Make each one unique.
The <KEYWORDS> tag serves as the
location for your key terms and phrases on topics that are covered in the
document. This META tag seems to be decreasing in importance and some search
engines no longer use them in their ranking algorithms. I do suggest you still
use them and more importantly focus on using good keywords in other areas of
your web site. The best advice for use when utilizing the keywords meta tag is
to highlight QUALITY keywords in your list. Keep in mind the following when
creating the keywords tag. Use quality keywords that are specific to the page.
Formulate the keywords tag as if someone would be searching for information
contained within. Include misspellings and other ways keywords could be used in
the keywords tag. DO NOT use the same keywords tag for every page of your
website. Begin your keywords tag with the primary keywords you are wishing to
target.
Choosing KEYWORDS!
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I can't emphasize enough: choose
your keywords wisely!! It cannot be emphasized enough that TARGETED
keywords are critical and your keywords must be relevant to your content and
should attract the kind of traffic you can actually convert into customers.
Select three to six key words or key phrases that your customers would use in
searching for you. Find out some popular synonyms for each keyword. Every page
on your website should be focused around a theme. If you don't know the theme
or keywords a particular page of your website is targeting, visit one of the
many keyword density analyzers that are freely available.
KEYWORD Density
|
Keyword Density Analyzer Tool is a FREE tool from Article
Underground that will show you what words appear on your web pages and how many
times they occur. It will even check your meta tags and warn you if it finds
errors! |
Your body text MUST include the keywords and phrases that
tell about your business, its products and services. Keyword density is
an important variable that many search engines use when determining how relevant a page is when returning search
results.
Keyword density refers to the number of times a
keyword appears on a web page relative to the other words on the page. If your
keyword/phrase is "Internet Marketing" and appears along with 9 other words,
your keyword density would be 10%, if it appears with 99 other words, it would
be considered 1%. If it appears on the page all by itself it would be
considered 100%.
It would appear that if keyword density is kept
somewhere around 2 - 5%, that element of your web pages should generate decent
results.
Other
elements that can control how your web site is ranked in the search engines
include:
- How early on a page is the keyword? Keep you target
KEYWORDS at the TOP of the page. Be sure and make each page headline <H1>
tag a keyword(s) and have additional lines of text, repeating the keyword(s),
immediately following your headline.
- How many times does the keyword appear on the
page?
- How close do the keywords appear together on the
page.
- BOLD keywords that are important and unique to the
page.
- Where are the keywords located? In the title, in the
META tags, in headers <H2, H3, etc.>, within links, in "ALT" tags, or in
comments tags?
- Hyperlinked TEXT can also help your page optimization.
Be sure to include keywords in meaningful links to other pages on the site. DO
NOT use the keywords in more than 50% of the links however, because this could
be identified as spamming.
- Select domain names and file names that contain your
main keywords. Big points can be scored when the url or domain name has the
primary target keyword contained within. When building individual pages within
your site -name the pages with the main keyword of that page.
- Site maps can be highly effective when created
properly. They are a keyword rich static page that lists all the pages and
topics on your site, with links for your visitors and the engines to follow
through out your site. If you link to your Site Map directly from your homepage
then you can be sure that the search engine Spiders will be able to easily
reach and index all your pages.
Some
Things to Avoid
- Some people will try anything to get a top-ten listing
including "spamming" the index by stuffing keywords to trick and fool them into
putting their page on top. Most search engines discourage this practice and in
some cases will ban the submission from their index or otherwise penalize
you.
- Hidden text is a spamming technique that is easily
detectable. People change the font color to the same as the background, and
then fill the pages with enormous amounts of key term text that some believe is
appealing to the search engine spiders. This will result in you being banned
from the engines.
- DO not use the same page title on every page in your
web site. Each title should be focused on the actual content of that particular
page.
- DO not use image or javascript navigation to link
together pages of the site. The robot may not be about to follow these
links.
- Affiliate links can also present a problem for robots,
in that they might not be able to follow them and penalize the page for such
use.
Off Page Factors
Link POPULARITY
This is a very important factor in how well your site
ranks in many search engines. The more people linking to you, the better
placement you will have in the search engines. When the search engines assess
your site for ranking they often take your popularity into consideration. The
more links you have on other sites the higher your ranking, which means more
visitors to your site.
In-bound Links
In-bound links are one of the
most important factors for getting good rankings in the search engine these
days. The very best way to increase the number of similar themed websites
linking back to your site is thru the use of articles. You should have topical
articles written with the resource box of the article pointing back to your
website – written and distributed at a minimum of once per week. Whether
you write it yourself or have it written, it is the one single tactic that will
do more for increasing search engine rankings and targeted traffic than any
other single tactic.
Another excellent way to get more inbound links to
your site is to post articles on a
blog dedicated to your web site. By posting regularly to your blog you will
send the search engine spiders crawling all over your blog as well as your main
site. Fresh content is exactly what the search engines are looking for –
give them what they want.
Reciprocal Links
The Internet works on links
and trading links with other sites is important. Every time you exchange links
with another site you increase your link popularity.
Most people get
around the web by following links they find while surfing. Web surfers visiting
other sites you've exhanged links with are oftentimes looking for just what you
have to offer and may click to your site when they see your reciprocal link.
This process of navigation means the more links you have the better.
Research other sites that are similar to yours and begin developing links to
your site at other pages. Don't be afraid to link to other sites, even your
competition. You will find that having good links on your page add value and
increase business.
For some search engines, links to your home page
are good enough. At least some of your links, though, should be targeted at
your internal pages. For example, if your site sells tools for gardeners, get
some links set up to your "how to" and FAQ pages too. This will help you get
more of your site's content into the search engine, and increase referrals
significantly.
Yes, this can be a very tedious process but posting your
page to all the directories, search engines and free for all pages is probably
the best start to traffic after you get your site in order. Dedicate 10 minutes
a day to locating and contacting other webmasters to swap links and adding your
site to directories. Link building is a slow ongoing process that pays off over
time.
Internal Links
It's also important to focus on
your own internal links. While not as powerful as in-bound links from other
sites, they are counted by the search engines and have some effect on your
ranking.
A common mistake is to have every navigational link to the
home page use the anchor text "Home" or "Homepage" or something like that.
Search engines use the anchor text of internal pages to rank your site, too, so
using "Home" won't help you rank for anything but the term "Home"!
It
is better to use keyword rich anchor text in your navigation.
Are You Ready to Submit Your Site to the
Search Engines?
 How to Submit Your
Site to Search Engines
 More ways to bring traffic to your
site
Let's Continue the Promotion
Strategy...
 Plan
 Implement a Killer Site
 Promote, Promote, Promote
Sounds simple enough, don't you think? The problem
with many Internet marketing ventures is that one or more of the above steps is
ignored or done incorrectly. I suggest that if you work through each step in an
orderly way, your success is virtually guaranteed!
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