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Search Engine Secrets - Get Top Listings On Google & Yahoo!
By Robert Boilard (c) 2005

Let me show you How to Get Top Listings for every page of your
site and Rank #1 for all of your Keywords in the Search Engines
- Guaranteed.

Did you believe this? If your like me you've probably seen a
million pages and emails like this that claim they can work
miracles for you in all the search engines. They claim
everything from having inside information or special
relationships with Google and all the search engines.

The simple Truth is this: No one can guarantee top listings on
any search engine, in fact, no one can even guarantee that
you'll ever be listed. So beware of big claims and unethical
SEO firms as there are many out there.

So how do you get top listings in the major search engines. Let
me try to answer that as simply as I can without thoroughly
confusing you. CONTENT - yes that's right... content is still
king... the more you try to fool search engines the more damage
you'll do to your rankings. Search engines are getting smarter
and smarter and they have seen every trick in the book done by
every unethical SEO/SEM firm and spammer out there. So don't
fall prey to the hype and false claims.

Here's the big Search Engine Secret

Well Written and Related Content, Relevant Page Titles and
Meta-tag Descriptions. So there you have it, the secret is
out... if anyone tries to tell you different or convince you
otherwise - put away your check book and run. Yes, there are
other things you can do to help your rankings using the 3 items
above and a few more.

How to Improve Your Chances in the Search Engines Rankings:

*** Know your top keywords.. Use Yahoo's Keyword Tool
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/?mkt=us&lang=en_US
or Goggle's Sandbox
https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox to
find what users are actually typing into the search engines to
find sites like yours. Once you have all your top keywords -
don't lose them... you will use these over and over and over
again.

*** Use your top keywords in the content of your pages, in your
page titles and in your metaa-tag descriptions. I don't mean to
use pages that are filled with nothing but keywords - use them
in Real Sentences. Pages that are nothing but keywords will
hurt you in the search engines, this is called keyword stuffing
and will hurt your rankings or worse yet, get your site delisted
or banned from the search engines. Simply take your current site
content and use your top keywords in appropriate places where
they make sense in real sentences.

*** Don't over use keywords or try to use too many on one single
page. Having your main keyword in the title, the description and
a couple times in the page content is usually sufficient. Do
this for every page of your site optimizing it for the subject
of that particular page using the relevant keywords from your
research. I see so many sites with the same Title and Meta
Descriptions on every page. Make sure yours are different.

*** Get as many high value links as possible. Best way to
determine High Value links is to install the Google Toolbar at
http://toolbar.google.com/ and use Google's Page Rank to
determine link value. You can also use our PR Tool at
http://www.i4market.com/tools/rankcheck.html. The higher the
rank the better. You may have to pay for links on PR7 or higher
sites - but don't pay too much. You can also use Alexa Traffic
Rank or their toolbar - http://www.alexa.com/. The more High
Value links you have, the better your Search Engine Popularity
will be.

*** Install Link Exchange Software... but be selective about
the link exchanges you approve.

*** Add value added relevant content to your site, such as
articles, news, blogs or tools related to your business or
industry. This will increase your search engine saturation. A
site with 100 pages of good quality content has much a better
chance of being found than a site with only 10 pages.

*** Use Google XML Site Maps or find a company that will create
one for you.
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/about.html

*** Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the
important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100
or so links, break the site map into separate pages.

*** Try to use text instead of images to display important
names, content, or links. Search Engines do not recognize text
contained in images or flash content. If you must use images,
then always use the Alt tag to describe the link.

*** Check for broken links and correct HTML.

*** If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains
a "?" character), be aware that not every search engine spider
crawls dynamic pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and
the number of them few. Don't use "&id=" as a parameter in your
URLs, since Google does not include these pages.

*** Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number
(fewer than 100).

*** Make use of the robots.txt file on your web server. This
file tells crawlers which directories can or cannot be crawled.
Make sure it's current for your site so that you don't
accidentally block the spiders from content you want included.

*** Understand the difference between a Search Engine and a
Directory. A Search engine uses spidering technology and will
search the web for new sites. Directories will not seek you out
and you will have to tell them about your new site manually.

*** Revisit your keywords on a regular basis. There are a
1000's ways to search for the same thing, search patterns
change from time to time. You'll want to keep up with those
changes.

*** Submit your site to the search engines, if it has never been
submitted or you are not listed in that particular engine. Most
search engines still have a free submit for the "Natural
Listings", yet they may not be easy to find. You can find
Google's ADD URL here
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

*** Submit your site to Directories including Yahoo! and
DMOZ. DMOZ (http://www.dmoz.org/) is the Open Directory Project
and is used to power thousands of other sites and directories -
Inclusion in this directory gets you links in 1000's of other
sites. DMOZ is also the directory Google uses.
http://directory.google.com/

WHAT NOT TO DO.

-- Don't Use hidden text or links.
-- Don't Use doorway or gateway pages.
-- Don't Use pages that redirect users to other places.
-- Don't use any type of cloaking technology - no matter how
   great it sounds. It might work for a short time - but you
   will get caught.
-- Don't use Flash content for important information. Flash is
   an application that is completely invisible to most search
   engines. Flash is good for animations and other page
   elements - not for an entire site unless you also have an
   html version.
-- Don't Use misleading or overly repeated words.
-- Don't Use Bait & Switch tactics... they don't work.
-- Don't Use Duplicate sites or pages.
-- Stay away from Free For All or Link Farm schemes because
   these will only hurt you.

There are many things that affect your rankings other than just
the content on your pages, so DON'T obsess about being #1 - you
may never get there no matter what you do. Your time is better
spent operating your business in areas you have more control
over.

Following the above guidelines will get you the best results
your site can achieve. That's not to say that there is not
more you can do - but these are the main items that will affect
your rankings in the SERP's (Search Engine Result Pages). The
internet is a huge place and technology changes all the time
- so do the search engines - a site that is #1 today might be
#1001 tomorrow.

You can try to do all this yourself or you can hire a company
that specializes in SEO/SEM (Search Engine Optimization &
Search Engine Marketing), however beware, there are many that
will separate you from your money quickly and leave you with
little to no results. We suggest you take some advice from
Google concerning selecting an SEO firm for your company.
http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/seo.html

Above all else - remember this - There are NO GUARANTEES in any
type of marketing campaigns, be it on the web, in print, on
television or radio. So spend prudently and select your
Marketing firm wisely!

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Robert Boilard is a professional developer, marketing strategist
and one of the principals' at i4Market, LLC. Since 1993 Robert
has been producing successful websites and marketing campaigns
for companies from the 2 person office to the Fortune 500's.
Visit us today! http://www.i4market.com/
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