5 Simple Steps to Great Search Engine Rankings
Author: Jason A. Martin
<p>Having your website rank well in the major search engines is
crucial to a successful Internet business. However, the
information on doing so, which abounds on the Internet, can be
perceived as complex and contradictive. Many website owners end
up overwhelmed by all the data and simply quit and move on to
other areas of promotion. By following the handful of steps
presented in this article you will be well on your way to solid
rankings.</p>
<p><strong> Primer</strong></p> <p>Each webpage is
its own unit, which has its own title and theme. A theme is most
commonly referred to as keywords or a keyword phrase. The theme
should be based on the most dominant data for that webpage.
Therefore, if you have a webpage that lists ten types of coffee
cups, “coffee cups” would be the likely choice for
the theme. However, if the theme is too general then you should
work to compact it as there will be far too many results in the
search engine to contend with. Perhaps your webpage lists ten
types of coffee cups which all have American symbols on them.
Two of the various possible themes would then be “American
coffee cups” and “patriotic coffee cups”. To
determine if a theme might be too broad, search for the theme at
a popular search engine and see how many results come up. It is
typical to see up to a few million results for any theme.
However, one hundred million results would be extremely high and
a different theme should be chosen.</p>
<p><strong>Step One:</strong>The title of your webpage means a lot.</p> <p>A website
should never have a loose and thoughtless title. The title
should be clear, compact, and related directly to the main theme
of the webpage. Let us look at three title examples for a
webpage that sells different types of red coffee cups.</p> <ul> <li><em>Bad Title:</em> Welcome to Joe’s!</li> <li><em>Better Title:</em> Joe’s red coffee cups.</li>
<li><em>Best Title:</em> Red coffee cups.</li> </ul> <p>Notice
how we trimmed the title down to simply the main theme. In the
bad example, the title does nothing to describe the products
offered on the webpage and therefore will end up hurting the
search engine rankings for this webpage.</p>
<p><strong>Step
Two: </strong>Use the <H1> tag.</p> <p>On the top of your
webpage put the main theme in a <H1> tag. This will help
establish what the webpage is about and Google will take the
data enclosed in the <H1> tag more seriously which helps
boost the overall theme in its ranking algorithm. This should be
at the very top of the webpage if possible and include only the
main theme. Using our title example above, you would insert the
following on top of the webpage: <H1>Red coffee
cups</H1></p>
<p><strong>Step Three: </strong>Utilize the
written word properly.</p> <p>The main keyword phrase (theme)
must be printed on your webpage multiple times. It must appear
natural in the flow of writing and not just thrown on the
webpage somewhere a few times.After massaging your keyword
phrase into the copy, bold one instance, underline one instance,
and italicize one instance. Again, basing this example from the
one above:</p> <ul> <li>Bold One Instance: My name is Joe and I
sell <strong>red coffee cups</strong>.</li> <li>Italicize One
Instance: Our <em>red coffee cups</em> ship directly to your
front door.</li> <li>Underline One Instance: Order today and
receive free shipping on all red coffee cups!</li> </ul> <p>By
doing this you will help enforce the theme of the webpage and
achieve better search rankings.</p>
<p><strong>Step Four:</strong>Establish incoming links.</p> <p>Before going any
further, I recommend you visit google.com and install the Google
toolbar. This will allow you to see what is called PR (page
rank). Knowing a website’s PR is extremely helpful, and
basically mandatory, for this step. It is more important to have
links today than ever. To rank high in the search engines, you
must have people linking to you. Failure to acquire incoming
links results in low or non-existing rankings. Here are some
techniques to build up incoming links:</p> <ul> <li><em>Submit
your website to directories</em>. Once listed, directories, such
as the ODP (dmoz.org) and business.com, will increase your
incoming links. When viewing a directory, check to see if they
have PR. The higher the number the better.</li> <li><em>Purchase
text links</em>. Many websites today sell text links at varied
rates. Purchasing a text link can help you gain traffic and will
increase your incoming links. Text links must be purchased or
placed only on websites that have either the same or related
theme as yours. If your website is all about coffee—a link
from a website about oil changes is not going to help you
much—and could actually harm your website rankings in the
future. </li> <li><em>Link Research</em>. Find out who is
linking to top ranked websites under your keyword phrase (theme)
and try to get listed on them. The idea here is to not reinvent
the wheel, rather do what already works. To find out who is
linking to top websites, visit Google and type the following
text in the search box: “link:site.com”—where
site.com is the website URL.</li> </ul>
<p><strong>Step Five:</strong>Work to ensure anchor text from incoming links contains
your main theme.</p> <p>When other websites link to you, try to
get them to use the keyword phrase for the webpage they are
linking to as the anchor text. This is not always possible and
that is ok. You simply want to try and get as many links on
target as possible. Not all links need to go to your homepage
because having incoming links to a webpage within the website is
beneficial also.</p>
<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>It is
possible, I believe, to go certifiably insane trying to deal with the all the information out there on search engine
positioning. Everyday the game changes as search engines alter
the way they rank listings. Can you do more to improve your
rankings? Yes, but I have listed the more powerful items.
Following the above, especially the link steps, will help you
build a solid foundation that will withstand the
changes—and keep you out of trouble.</p> <p>Getting listed
in the search engines and some directories takes time. Changes
and new listings can take weeks to a few months to appear. The
best way to get your website in a search engine is to let the
search engine find you. Do not waste your valuable time trying
to submit to search engines or paying someone to do so. By
gaining incoming links, the search engines will find your
website and rank it accordingly.</p>
<p>For more information on
marketing and all the aspects of running a business on the
Internet, please visit <a
href=" http://www.internetbusinessentrepreneur.com"> Internet Business Entrepreneur</a>—a website I setup to aid those
doing business on the Net.</p> |
