Search Engine Optimizing

The key to high search engine rankings is to do the right things in the right order.

Search engines continue to change how they rank the importance of a webpage. They've gone from META Tag keyword, to META Tag descriptions, to keywords in text, to keyword phrases, to amount of hyperlinks, to quality of text, to the quality of the hyperlinked pages, to amount of external hyperlinks, to the quality of external hyperlinks. All these changes happened in less than a three year time frame.

Then they started penalizing for over use of keywords, using link farms and resubmitting a website more than once during a set period of time (each search engine has their own unique time frame).

What is search engine optimizing?

To some people it's getting the highest ranking in a specific search engine by following all the guidelines of that search engine to ensure a top position. Unfortunately many people fail to meet those guidelines or don't know which elements are of more value. Then of course those values can change overnight.

You'll note that we said specific search engine. Since each search engine looks for different values for ranking purposes it's almost impossible to be in the top ten of every search engine. But all search engines do have a few things they all use as part of their ranking system.

Content is the main item that every search engine is concerned with. Inside that content is of course keywords or phrases that a search engine will use when asked to perform a search.

But did you know that keywords or keyword phrases are judged on the amount of times they appear and not always positively. It can severely hurt your ranking if it appears to often.

We suggest focusing on only one or two keyword or keyword phrase per page of your website. This may not seem like a lot but if your site has 20 pages you can focus on up to 40 keywords. Each page should be considered a landing page for your site. If you have proper navigation on your pages, it will easily allow viewers to see everything you have to offer.

Include your keyword or keyword phrase at the top of your page as well as in at least one header phrase. Your keywords should be in the Title tag as well as in your page description tag. Many search engines no longer look at the keyword tags, but we recommend using them and including the plural forms as well.

Graphics not only slow down your website but can keep it from being properly indexed for your ranking. Use only the graphics you need. Stay away from using a large amount of Flash or Java Scripting as these can stop a search engine dead in it's tracks.

Search engines don't index images, therefore any text on your site that is presented in image format won't get indexed. To solve this problem, you can enter the image description in the ALT tag. To be sure that the search engines recognize all the content on your site, fill in your ALT tags with your keywords. This will boost your keyword frequency and help your site achieve better ranking.

Using proper navigation tags to link pages. Search engines follow links to see the entire website. If you use Flash or Java Scripts for your links odds are the search engine will stop and only index your home page. Make sure you have no broken links on your website. Search engines don't think so they stop at a broken link.

Speaking of links many people believe the more links they have the better their rankings will be. That still holds very true but only for inbound links (links without a return path), not reciprocating links (also known as link exchanges) which link two websites back and forth. Google was the first one to penalize websites for having link exchanges they feel it's a form of cheating to get better search engine results. Many websites have now seen their Google rankings drop drastically due to the new penalty. To find out how to recover or increase your ranking in Google go to our
Getting a Top Google Ranking Page.

Getting a Top Yahoo! Ranking Page

Getting a Top Ranking in MSN

Another thing to try to remember, search engine submissions only have to be done once if done properly, search engine optimization is an on going work in progress. Since search engines are continue to change almost monthly you'll need to stay on top of them or hire someone to keep you updated.

Now that you've take the time to read or at least scan the page. Here is the proper thing and the proper order.

1. Before you even build your website you need to choose the keyword phrases that people would use to find your website.

2. Build your content text around the keyword phrases. Try to include it in your first sentence but only if it makes sense to do so. Don't over use the keyword phrase use it no more than twice per page. Content is still king for both your visitors and search engines. Don't sell either short.

3. Build your website but don't use frames, flash or dynamic web pages.

4. Submit your website properly to search engines and directories. Take the time to learn what guidelines they use and what they will not accept.

5. Get as many one way links to your website from directories or pay to have good websites link to yours. Don't use reciprocating links if your looking to do well in Google.

6. Monitor your results from your website to find out what is working and what is not working.