|
/pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> |
How To Improve Your Search Engine Ranking
With search engines like Google currently indexing over 8 billion pages, it is becoming more and more difficult to get a top search engine ranking. Type in a popular search phrase such as "Internet Marketing" into Yahoo or Google and you will be returned over 8 million results!
Unless your website is in the first two or three pages, it is unlikely that you will receive many visitors from search engines.
So what should a webmaster do to give their website the best chance of ranking high in the search engines?
All search engines work slightly differently and have ever changing algorithms for ranking web pages, but these tips can be applied when planning, developing or marketing a website to help you reach that top page of search engine results.
(1) Choose your keywords carefully
It's extremely important to set aside time to research your keywords. It's best to do this in the planning stages, before developing your website, but many of us start a website without knowing a thing about how the search engines work, so you may find yourself doing this weeks or months later.
Try to choose phrases that are searched on frequently and if possible have a low number of competing websites.
To get an idea of the number of times a keyword is searched for per month, type a keyword into the box at
Overture Search Suggestion Tool
This will tell you how many times your keyword was searched on in the previous month (based on Overture's partner search engines) and give you a list of similar keywords.
Another useful tool to help you choose your keywords is Word Tracker. This tool will help you choose your keywords and give you a "KEI" for each set of keywords based on the popularity of the keyword (number of searches) and the amount of competition.
You can try this out for free on Wordtracker
If you manage to pick your keywords in the planning stages you may even be lucky enough to find a domain name that contains your keywords.
(2) Optimise your pages
Once you have decided on your keywords you will need to optimise your pages for those keywords. Here are a few tips.
- Ensure that the Title of your page contains your keywords.
- Mention your keywords inside the meta tags. Most search engines no longer use meta tags, but some make use of them so it is still worthwhile using these.
- Try to make sure that the first occurance of readable text on your page contains your keywords
- Ensure that your keywords are mentioned in the initial paragraph of your page
- Use your keywords throughout the text of your page - but be careful not to overdo this. Your page should still be readable by humans!
- Use your keywords between the headline tags on your page ("H1" tags or H2/H3 if H1 is too big)
- Occasionally bold or italicise your keywords
- Make sure that links pointing back to each page on your site contain the keywords for each page
- Give all your images an "ALT" tag and put your keywords in here too - again, don't overdo this
- Try to put some of your keywords in your outbound links
(3) Start Linking
One of the most important criteria in getting a good search engine ranking is the number of backlinks you have to your website from related websites.
Type in your chosen keywords to Yahoo or Google and take note of the top 3 sites returned to you.
Now go to Link Popularity Checker and put the URLs of the top three sites into the linking tool, along the URL of your own site.
Have a look at the difference between your site and the top 3 sites and this will give you an idea of how many links you need in order to get a top search engine ranking for these keywords.
The best ways to get links back to your site are:
- By writing articles related to the subject of your website and getting them published on the internet
- Reciprocal Linking with other related websites
- Posting on newsgroups and forums that allow you to have a signature attached to your posting (with your uRL in it)
- Submitting your site to directories.
Try to make sure that the anchor text (clickable text) that links back to your site contains your keywords.
(4) Add Content Regularly
Another thing you may have noticed is that top ranking websites have lots of content.
Regularly updating your website and adding fresh content will also help your site to rank more highly in the search engines.
If you don't have time to create your own unique content there are plenty free articles available Just type "Free website content" into Google and you'll have your pick of the 18 million results that it returns to you!
To improve your ranking, follow steps 1 and 2 above and repeat steps 3 and 4 regularly.
Suzanne Morrison is the webmaster and owner of http://www.homebiz-direct.com To learn more about how to promote your website visit her Beginner's Guide to Internet Marketing
Keyword Research Made Simple!
Keyword Research is the first task in optimizing your web site and pay-per-click campaign. Here you need to know what keywords your target group is using.
Has Google Lost the Plot?
With the help of MSN, recently I've been reminiscing about the Google of old. Remember those days? When you could take a good quality site, add a few keywords, get a few incoming links and bada-bing, bada-boom, it'd be #1 on Google? Remember the old days, pre-Florida, pre-sandbox? The days when we, as search engine optimization specialists, didn't feel like a private schoolgirl smoking in the bathroom? When we didn't feel like the iron fist would come crashing down at any moment? Yes, those were the good old days. And MSN has finally brought them back, though on a much smaller scale.
How To Get Number 1 Spot In Google, Every Time, Guaranteed
Woaah! Wait a minute. Before I exclusively reveal these insider secrets can I ask you question? Well, actually, I want to ask you a series of questions.
How To Really SEO Your Site
Search engine optimization is one of most popular online marketing tool for any website. With more websites coming online every day the competition gets larger, so you have to make sure you can out SEO them before they out do you. In this article I will tell how to increase your ranking and how to out do your competition.
How to Get Listed in Yahoo Within 48 Hours, Without Paying $299
First of all you need to get a blog. If you don't have one yet, you can get one for free by going to www.blogger.com
The Reality of Search Engine Submissions
Over the last few months, search engine submissions have changed dramatically. Now is the time to analyze the way we're submitting our Web pages and to rethink our submission strategies.
Page Rank Purgatory - Simple Things You can Do to Keep Your Web Site Out of Search Engine Hell!
Are Meta Tags Really Dead?
How to Get One Way Backlinks
Don't be fooled into believing that all backlinks are created equal because their not! Why, you may ask? It's no secret that many webmasters trade links left, and right, for the benefit of a higher ranking in the search results, but search engines have caught on to this technique, and are very aware that this is major threat to the relevance of the search results.
Search Engine Optimization and Web Site Usability
Build a Web site and the people will come.
How Do I Improve My Web Site Conversion Rate? Part 3
Question 1
Search Engine Optimization Strategies Guaranteed to Skyrocket your Rankings
The point of optimizing your website is so that you will get ranked higher in the search engines and receive more visitors to your site. As a result, you will increase sales and revenue. Consider the following tips so that you will be able to optimize your site and be returned as a higher result in the search engines.
See No Google, Hear No Google, Speak No Google
That's right - I dreamt of a World Wide Web without the Googlopoly. And let me tell you - it was a scary place.
Keywords, Choose Them Wisely
By now you have likely heard that keywords and keyword phrases, are extremely important in having search engines display your website. So how do you choose them? Guess? Ask a friend? Check successful competitors sites? There is a better way!
Google Traffic Report Card-Does Your Website Pass? Part 1
This is part 1 of a 7 part series that examines the 7 factors of incoming links that Google considers when choosing a spot for your website in it's SERP's.
Search Engine Copywriting: Focus on One Topic
Perhaps the simplest of all the lessons I have learned about writing for search engines is to keep my pages simple. That is to say, whether I am thinking about my readers or about Google, there is a huge advantage to keeping most of your pages confined to a single topic.
Whats the Big Hurry?
Quite often I get asked what the magic solution is for getting better Google ranking. Sometimes the questions sound fairly naive, something like this:
Keyword Ownership: What It Is And Where Its Headed
Have you ever got one of those silly emails that offers to let you own a keyword? Silly question. How many such emails do you get every day?
Speed Indexing - 3 Steps to Getting Your Website Listed in Google Quickly
Getting your website listed in Google quickly simply requires that you know what Google is looking for and how to apply that to your site. Fortunately, what Google is looking for is pretty easy to understand and use in your marketing plan. Start with these suggestions as soon as possible so you will increase your traffic. Consider the following suggestions to get your website listed with Google, and listed as well and quickly as possible.
Are You Hung-Up on Page Rank and Back Links?
It's unfortunate that many website owners are so hung-up on Page Rank, they'll rarely if ever, link to a site with a page rank lower than their own.
Three Search Engine Ranking Gold Tips
Getting a high ranking in the search engines is something with many variables.