Search engines are the first things Internet surfers look for when they are searching for goods or services. Where your website appears to the visitors in their search results is of utmost importance. The objective of all Internet marketers is to ensure that their URLs appear right at the top of the first page or at least the first 50th position because visitors would tend to click only on the most prominent URLs.
This boils down to “Search Engine Optimization,” commonly referred to as “SEO” and it is also the holy grail of web design. There are many ways to optimize your site so that search engines will list your site higher in their rankings.
First and foremost, it is the “keyword”. Keywords are the foundation on which the entire search engine system works. If a top ranking site suddenly drops drastically, it may mean that certain content of the website has become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders and crawlers. Very often certain particular keyword or phrase has been ineffective due to fierce competition. For beginners, it is advisable to start with keywords which are not too competitive to at least get some traffic going first.
Hence, search engine optimization refers to the development of the right keyword strategies to ensure good ranking of your website. The most effective advertising technique online today is good placement in the search engines.
First thing you have to do is to choose your keywords wisely. There are a number of good sites that could help you select the right keywords (or phrases). One example of such free sites is http://inventory.overture.com. What you need to do is to enter your main site name and they would suggest the keywords in the order of search popularity.
Fill these keywords in the metatags first. As you would find in most good websites by clicking “View” and then “Source” within your web browser, the metatag description and keywords are always placed right at the top before the title and anything else. (Metatags are hidden HTML directions for Web browsers or search engines. They include important information such as the title of each page, relevant keywords describing site content and the description of the site that shows up when a search engine returns a search. Make sure your metatags accurately describe your content)
Also, ensure that your page title and your first page header use at least some of the same keywords. Bear in mind that the least amount of words you place in your title, the higher the weightage Google would give to each of your keywords thus improving your ranking. Keywords should be carefully distributed through your well-written and edited text as well. However, do not over do it by sprinkling these keywords repeatedly over your page which would look funny and awkward to human eyes. If this happens, major search engines would treat this as search engine spam and you would not rank well.
As we have heard it so many times before, “Content is King”. Any websites relevant information to a specific niche is what Search Engines are looking for. The more content you have on your website, the greater would be your chances of enjoying a decent search engine ranking. After all, it is information that draws more and more people to the Internet every day.
Thousands of authors are giving away articles for free reprint, and these articles cover just about any subjects you could think of.
Search engine spiders move from site to site across the Internet by following hyperlinks. If your sites are linked to more high-quality and high-trafficked sites (i.e. websites with high Google Page Rank), you would be held at high regards by the search engines too. It is highly recommended that you register your site with well-known directories such as Yahoo (www.yahoo.com), Google.com and the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org).
Search engine campaign and all the other necessary actions are to be carried out to increase your rankings.
The question is how to ensure that your prominence would continue. Therefore there must be a workable strategy to allow you to monitor and control your search engines positions.
The way search engines rank websites is not fixed and continue to change with time. Hence a top ranking website today could drop to the bottom of the page or even lost in subsequent pages. It is therefore advisable to create a system that could monitor your positions at least on a monthly basis.
Make an effort to now your competitor’s position against yours because their rise could lead to your drop. You can view their html codes as mentioned above. Do the necessary correction wherever applicable to improve your website to increase your position in search results based on the most popular search engines. (Some websites give information on the latest most popular list as this list is dynamic and keeps changing. For webmasters, the major search engines are the most important places to be listed, because they can potentially generate so much traffic)
If your search engine positions have suddenly dropped, search engines spiders may have found some problems with your website. Sometimes when you have changed the code, the spider may become confused and consequently drop your positions. If a spider happens to crawl at your website when it is down for changes, you could end up disappearing from a search engine index entirely. At times, a search engine may change its formula, and suddenly all websites come up as irrelevant as mentioned earlier above. If that search engine is a current favorite like Google, your position in other search engines could also suffer due to the domino effect.
The idea behind ranking high in search engine such as Google is to analyze top ranking websites and find out what they are doing as regards keywords and do exactly those things plus the extra which they have overlooked.
Search engine marketing campaign must be treated as a good medium to long-term investment because it entails a lot of effort and financial commitment.
Copyright© 2005 John Woon
http://www.johnwoon.com
About The Author: John Woon (Sung-Liang Woon) is a Latex Consultant with about 30 years of experience.
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Tags: key phrases, keywords, optimization, search engine optimization, Search engines, seokey phrases, keywords, optimization, search engine optimization, Search engines, seoShare This
Search Engine Optimization is a key to any successful internet marketing strategy. There are numerous definitions and interpretations as to exactly what Search Engine Optimization means. It is the process in which the careful and strategic placing, analysis, and wording of keywords of text on a particular website to enable optimum search engine rankings, this definition comes from www.pixelphoria.com/glossary.php. There are several ways in which this process can benefit internet marketing strategies.
When creating or updating a commercial website, the reason is typically to make the products more attractive to viewers, while at the same time creating the ability to gain more exposure with a broader audience. While most websites have a target audience, it is this ability to gain a larger, broader audience that they are all searching to gain. The Search Engine Optimization process allows for the creation of a higher page ranking when a potential viewer is using a search engine to find specific websites based upon the searchable keywords they will enter. This process identifies those keywords that will benefit a particular website and uses them in such a way that it gets a higher page ranking when those keywords are searched. For example, if “internet marketing” was searched for in Google, the more times the phrase “internet marketing” is included within the website, potentially the closer to the top the page will be displayed.
In this time of maximum Internet usage, many searchers only use first page displayed websites on their searches because this is where the pages with those higher page rankings are displayed, which translates into these pages find the highest relevance to their keyword searches. Please do not make the mistake of thinking that these websites are the only ones out there that will have the relevant search information, it just means that these websites have better marketed themselves to be located when specified keywords are searched, which is the exact benefit of Search Engine Optimization. This makes it even more critical that each website understand the importance of and the knowledge necessary to adapt their websites to benefit from Search Engine Optimization.
As should be understood by this point, it is imperative that an understanding of and taking advantage of Search Engine Optimization will provide the website a higher profile in the world of search engines. By taking advantage of optimization techniques, more searchers will gain faster access to the particular website. If the website has something worthwhile to offer in the world of ecommerce, then is a strategy that should be employed immediately.
Online reprint rights granted as long as the article is published in its entirety, including links and resource box. © John Doetsch 2005.
John Doetsch is founder of Websition.com where you will find additional articles and free web content written by the Internet’s most gifted authors. Visit his site at http://www.websition.com
Tags: benefit, engine, gain, internet, marketing, optimization, search, seo, websitionbenefit, engine, gain, internet, marketing, optimization, search, seo, websitionShare This
Getting to the top of the search engines, and staying there, is an ongoing process. This does not mean it is expensive to stay at the top. In fact, in most cases, it’s rather affordable. But beware, there are pitfalls along the way to search engine Zen.
The old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true”, applies to SEO (search engine optimization). There are many companies that will promise top results using less than ethical methods. Including slick salesmen that will convince you that all the top sites cheat the search engines in order to stay on top. You will run into web site owners that mask keywords to get top positions making it sound very tempting to follow in their foot steps.
Don’t be fooled by such hype. These are short term solutions that can lead to a permanent ban in the top engines. Once you are banned in Google, Yahoo, MSN or ASK, you may as well dump your site and start over. If you’re looking for long term success on the internet, don’t cheat the search engines.
One of the cheats I have been seeing lately is masking content with “noscript tags”. The noscript tags are used to define an alternate content (text) if a script is NOT executed. People have been taking advantage of this and filling it with content that visitors don’t see, but the search engines do. While this does work, it is short term and believe me when I say, you will be caught. You will have no warning, no second chances. You will wake up one day and your site will not be found.
There is no phone number to call, your emails go unanswered, and traffic to your site drops off overnight. Your income dries up and it’s all over. It can take six months or more to undo the damage and, in some cases, it’s permanent. The major search engines are always on the lookout for new cheats. When found, they will program the search engines to drop the sites using these methods. Without warning, you’re gone. Also, don’t forget, your competition watches your site and is looking for ways to rank higher than you. Your competition may report your unethical methods to the search engines.
If you’re planning to be around for the long haul and want some success on the internet, then you need to be ethical in your promotion. Unless you have daily time dedicated to studying SEO and making the needed changes, you should contract with a reputable SEO company. You need a company that studies the SEO industry on a daily basis to keep on top of what it takes to rank at the top for the long run. A company that is above cheats and quick fixes. A company that offers solid optimization that can keep you on top of the search engine results. A company that will take the time to target your specific audience to get you visitors that are interested in your product or service.
Many SEO companies will promise thousands of visitors a day. Unless those visitors are interested in what you have to offer or ended up at your site and did not find what they searched for, they will remember you. They will remember that you did not have what they wanted. They may leave disappointed and your good name will have a black mark next to it. Don’t get sucked into damaging your image by slick salesmen.
When looking for a company to handle your SEO, first and foremost, be comfortable with the people you will be directly working with. They will need total access to your web site and server to make the needed changes. At times, the verbiage of your site may need minor changes. A word or two may need to be changed to improve keyword density. You need a company you can trust with your company’s image.
In today’s business world, you must have a web site. After all, your competition does. Your site must be marketed ethically and monitored daily. Changes must be made ASAP when conditions change. Hire a professional to handle SEO. When your business is booming, it’s too easy to put SEO on the back burner. Before you know it, your rankings will have dropped from top to bottom, as well as your bottom line.
About the Author:
Mark Hochhaus co-owner of Technet Internet Marketing has been developing web sites and optimizing for search engines since the early days of the Internet. To keep abreast of his latest articles, visit: Technet’s SEO News Blog: The Optimizer
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