Get The Rankings You Want

[Jackie]

Where do you rank on the World Wide Web? It's not enough to have a website; you have to get ranked on the first page to get noticed. Otherwise, holding your position at number 28,432 on Google isn't going to do you much good. Check out some easy ways to improve your page rank and get yourself noticed.

Search engine optimization (SEO) ensures that your website copy is written and structured in a way that improves chances that your website will be found when someone performs a search. For example, if your company sells insurance, you'd use words or phrases such as life insurance, insurance quote, insurance agent, or home insurance.

Write articles that grab the interest of readers right now. Include case studies and whitepapers on your site that will give your visitors a reason to always come back. Or even check out what's going on in the news and be there first to report changes that impact your industry. For example, if you sell mortgages, be the first one to report the drop in mortgage rates. You'll generate a lot of traffic and increase your ranking. Remember, time is of the essence. If you find out something new and hot, you should write about it before your competition does!

Search engine spiders are looking for sites that are periodically updated with rich content. Do not offer content that isn't useful. Some people try to place content that is rich in keywords but doesn't offer the incoming traffic anything beneficial. Low traffic will equal lower rankings with top search engines. The idea behind rich content with specific keywords is that because you keep posting content, soon you will be ranked within the search engines for specific words. So, when I post articles about the different insurance rates and options, etc.; when an on-line visitor is searching for this info they will land on your site and may become potential clients.

Content must be used to provide new and interesting information that your reader wants to know about, offer helpful tips, or solve a problem. This content will get you link-backs which are excellent for driving traffic. You can also post articles through authentic submission sites, and that will also generate a lot of traffic. Many companies publish with different online magazines etc., not only to prove their expertise but also to gain more traffic linking to their sites.

[Manny]

Yes, content must really be planned very well. Once your content is of quality, most likely, visitors will keep on browsing through your site and they would keep on coming back, hence, traffic is generated!

[juanthedj]

I've got to learn more. Thanks Jackie!

But how about a site thats more like a Photo Blog, or there are more photos than text. Are there some more ways to increase traffic with these type of sites/blogs? Actually, this is the type of Blog that i have. And i don't get ranked at all. Or maybe my blog, i still very new and needs more postings. I've got to work on it more... huh!

[Charles]

Hi JuanTheDJ, as far as ranking is concerned, there is an easy way to have it ranked, that is by bidding in Google Adwords or AdSense. Once you have successfully bidded a certain keyword there, once a user searches for that keyword, your blog site would appear as an Sponsored Link. One trick though, you have to pay. Good luck on your business.

[juanthedj]

I copy you, Mr. Charles, with the Google stuffs. And i have an Adsense account, too. But bidding for Keywords?! I haven't encountered such yet in Adsense. I knew for a fact, that when you get highly ranked, you get traffic... Now, where can i find those keywords stuff? Huh?! i hope i'm not asking too much here on Jackie's Thread!

[Charles]

Originally Posted by juanthedj

I copy you, Mr. Charles, with the Google stuffs. And i have an Adsense account, too. But bidding for Keywords?! I haven't encountered such yet in Adsense. I knew for a fact, that when you get highly ranked, you get traffic... Now, where can i find those keywords stuff? Huh?! i hope i'm not asking too much here on Jackie's Thread!

Sorry if I have confused you JuanTheDJ, but keywords pertain to AdWords, and for the AdSense, it's entirely different process.

AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis. Google is also currently beta-testing a cost-per-action based service.

Google utilizes its search technology to serve ads based on website content, the user's geographical location, and other factors. Those wanting to advertise with Google's targeted ad system may sign up through AdWords. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the ads are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the ads is often relevant to the website.

I hope that I was able to clear the matter to you JuantheDJ, and see you around!

[Thesa]

Anyone and everyone would love to see their sites on the top of any search results, so how to go about it and get a good ranking?

Following are some tips:

1.Do not purchase a new domain unless you have to.

Due to Google's "aging delay" policy for all new domains, it is safer to use your existing domain/website if possible.

If you are redesigning or starting from scratch and have to use a brand-new domain for some reason, your site can take up to a year to show up in Google for any keyword phrases that are important to you.


2.Optimize your site for your target audience, not for the search engines.

This may be strange, but the fact is that search engines are looking for pages that best fit the keyword phrase the net users types in.

Hence, if the net users are typing words that relate to your site, they shall be your target audience. You need to optimize your site to meet their requirements. Therefore, if you are unaware of your target audience, then you need to find out one way or another by visiting online communities, forums and sites.

This information shall prove crucial to your resulting website design, keyword research, and copy writing.


3. Research your keyword phrases extensively.

The phrases you think your target market might be searching for can be incorrect. So, to find the optimal phrases to optimize for, use research tools such as "KeywordDiscovery, Wordtracker, Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data".

Note down all the relevant keyword phrases for your site, and choose a few different ones for every page. Avoid general keywords such as "car" or "vehicle" as they do not specifically tell what your site is about. Better use terms like "Honda Car" or "heavy duty vehicle"

[Thesa]

More Tips:

4. Design and categorize your site acccording to your keyword research.

Your research can unearth previously unknown to you, areas of interest or ways of categorizing your products/services that you may wish to add to your site.

Taking an example as below:

Your site sells toys. There are many ways you can categorize and lay out your site so that people will find the toys they're looking for. Are people looking for toys that are for babies or "preschool" children or other "older" children. , "to fit their child's stage of development? (Look for keyword phrases such as "preschool toys.") Moreover, they can be looking for specific brands too.

Whatever may be the case, your keyword research will show you that people are looking for toys in many different ways. Your job is to make sure that your site's navigation showcases the various ways of searching.

Make sure you have links to specific-brand pages as well as specific age ranges, specific types of toys, etc.


5. Program your site to be "crawler-friendly."

The search engines can't fill out forms, can't search your site, can't read JavaScript links and menus, and can't interpret graphics and Flash.

Nevertheless, it does not mean that you can not use these things on your site. Although, you may require alternate means of navigating your site as necessary.

If you have only drop down menus, to choose a category or a brand of something, the search engine crawlers will never find those resulting pages. So, you need to have some form of HTML links in the main navigation on every page which link to the top-level pages of your site and so on.

The HTML links need not be text-only links. They can have graphical image navigation that is wrapped in standard tags, which is recognized by the search engines.


6. Label your internal text links and image alt ( tags) attributes as clearly and descriptively as possible.

Your site visitors and the search engines look at the clickable portion of your links (aka the anchor text) to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through. Do not keep them guessing with non-descriptive links (like "click here").

The cool thing about writing your anchor text and alt attributes to be descriptive is that you can almost always describe the page you're pointing to by using its main keyword phrase.

So, it pays to be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site.

[Thesa]

More Tips:

7. Write compelling copy for the key pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases and your target market's needs, and make sure it's copy that the search engines can "see."

This is an important and crucial topic for a successful website. The search engines need to read keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site.

This copy need not be buried in graphics or hidden in Flash. It should be written based on your most relevant keyword phrases while also making an emotional connection with your site visitor. You can make use of the target audience analysis to find out the keyword(s) and their phrases.

To keep in mind that there is no magical number of words per page or number of times to use your phrases in your copy. The important thing is to use the proper and relevant usage of your keyword phrases.

They should be used in such a manner that it makes sense to do so for the real people reading your pages. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page for no apparent reason is not going to work.


8. Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page's unique Title tag.

Title tags are critical as they are given a lot of weight with every search engine. Whatever keyword phrases you've written your copy around should also be used in your Title tag.

To keep in mind that the information placed in this tag is what shall show up as the clickable link to your site at the search engines.

Therefore, it is necessary that wherever the the keyword should

-- Should reflect the content of the page accurately
-- Be among the keyword phrases people might use during a search engine to find your stuff.


9. Make sure your site is "link-worthy."

Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization campaign, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your site's overall link popularity.

Depending on your site, you get links. Therefore, if your site is full of wonderful and useful information, other sites will naturally link to it without your asking.

It's fine to trade links; but to be sure that you are providing your site visitors with "quality links" and not links to sites that do not meet the standards.

As, the links speaks a lot of your site and their type says just that to your site visitors as well as to the search engines.


10. Don't stick to specific keyword phrase(s) or be worried of the rankings.

If done above so far, then your site should have improved in terms of traffic and rankings. Moreover, you should just forget about where you rank for any specific keyword phrase and instead measure your results in terms of increased traffic, sales, and conversions.

You can try out the free trial of "ClickTracks, which easily tracks and measures those things that truly matter.

It certainly will not hurt to add new relevant content to your site which shall improve its value. Thus, if your site is a business site and not an archive for the history of your products, as it makes no difference to your site visitors nor the engines.

[Gajandra D]

Many a times when you go to website it turns you off. Is this because more and more people get obsessed with keyword enrichment rather than relevant content. I realize that crawlers are nothing more than a automaton that only looks for these keywords rather than actual relevance to the user.

Eventually more and more sites are going to present the same basic idea according to their category and where exactly is this going to take us. Lets hope AI comes and grades content according to a variety of standards rather than words or just links.

[David Tan]

Want to check out rankings in a single page?

Google Rank, Alexa Rank, etc...

You can use www.popuri.us

[Gajandra D]

I would like to know if there is a resource on the web that keeps track of active websites in the world. It would be fun to know just how many active domains whether it be .com, .org, .net or any other extention out there.

I have also wondered if there is one body that keeps tabs on all these statistics categorized by country and broken down by type of domain.