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Keywords, Competition and Being Number One- Uncovering the Algorithm
By John Krycek (c) 2005

By following these steps you will see that most closely
guarded secret-- the search algorithm. Remember the movie
"the Matrix?" The Matrix is there, you just can't see it.
So is the search algorithm.

It's easy to pay a Search Engine Optimizer to give your
pages some ranking power. Unfortunately, given the inherent
time factor involved in climbing the ranks, your money may
be long gone before you know if you've spent your money
well.

There Is No Magic Pill

Forget any advertisement you see for instant number one
search results or automated this or that. Most are scams,
and the ones that aren't might get you positioned, but it
will be very short lived.

Search engine optimization is an ongoing process. Achieving
and maintaining a high rank, especially on highly
competitive keywords, requires constant maintenance. If you
do find a legitimate SEO firm, it is well worth the money to
pay their monthly maintenance fee and let them continue to
help you after the initial project. At least for 6 months
or a year as you establish yourself.

In this article we'll look at some of the intricate and
complex tasks of optimizing a page for long term ranking
power. You will learn how to read between the code and the
content to find what is necessary to bring you to the top.
Being number one is easy to say, but is quickly overwhelming
when you stare at tens of thousands of pages you want to out
rank. So how do you begin?

The starting line on the road to that first page SERP
(search engine results page) ranking is not as blurry as you
might think. In fact, you can uncover the starting line,
the route, and all the scenery along the way to the finish
line without knowing the search engine algorithm.

STEP 1- Your Keywords Are The Crowning Achievement Of
Gruelling Days Of Work

If you have investments in the stock market you know how
much research and thought goes into choosing those
securities. Now take that same effort and multiply it by
three. That's how much planning and revision your keywords
should take.

A simple, broad key phrase like "shoes" could hypothetically
bring you up in a countless stream of different searches.
Women's shoes, baby shoes, sneakers, high heels, etc.  If
somehow you manage to settle into a good ranking (which
would be difficult) you would have more traffic on your site
than you could handle. But traffic is worthless if it
doesn't get to it's destination. Chances are, you weren't
that destination.

Your keywords must be focused and precise, specific to what
you are selling. Using a key phrase like "Gucci mens black
leather loafer" will bring a targeted lead to your site.
You may not reach as many people as the more generalized
keyword, but the people that do come to you have a much
deeper interest in the specific product you are selling.

Therefore you have much greater chance of converting that
targeted lead to a sale. Your keywords are your magic
beans, your winning lotto numbers, your energizer bunnies,
your sales force, whatever you want to call them. They must
be perfect.

STEP 2- Want To Be Number One?  Look At Who Already Is

Competition Analysis- no SEO book can give you this information.

Now take your keyword list and type them into a search
engine. Who comes up in the first ten results? That
company that is number one is because they have most closely
matched what the search engine algorithm says should be
number one. You can learn a great deal from them.

A.  Internal Factors

Take that number one page, and the other top 9 pages and
study them, look at the code, break them down. You are
looking at the first half of what is needed to rank in the
top 10 pages for your key phrases on that particular search
engine. The list of what to look for is enormous.

Studying the Internal Factors on a page is taking it apart
to see how it's put together. Not how it works, but
statistical research into the precise construct and layout
of keywords and phrases in relation to each other within the
page.

Start with these areas:

URL address, Page Title, Meta description, Meta Keywords,
First sentence on the page, Body copy, Bold or Emphasized
Phrases, H1 or other tags, Alt Tags, Navigation system

In each of those sections, look at:

Keyword densities- the number of times your phrase and each
word in your phrase appears compared to the text around it

Where, and how many times, the same phrase and words appear
in different sections

The word and character position of each phrase in each
section

The total number of characters

The total number of words

The quality and thought of the content

Beginning with these comparisons should keep you quite busy
for awhile. A spreadsheet is quite useful. Some
commercial products are also available that can make this
daunting task much more feasible. Keep looking for other
patterns and differences. You want to duplicate them in
your own page. NOT copy and steal. You want to mimic the
patterns that are bringing that page to the position it's in.
Then move onto to examining the external factors of these
pages.

B.  External Factors

External factors of a web page deal with the links to, from
and within a web page, both inside the same site, and out
into the web. This analysis usually takes more time because
it involves more dissection of pages beyond the one you're
trying to optimize. In this analysis, as with Internal Factors,
you want to compare and contrast your page versus the top 10
competitors, find similarities and differences. Here is a
list of criteria to get you started.

Number of internal links (to the same site) on that page

Number of external links

Number of links pointing TO that page* (see below for
details)

The link/anchor text- which keywords are used and where

Google Page Rank value of incoming links

Alexa Rank of incoming links

*To get a listing of the links that point to a site, type
the following into Google, MSN and Yahoo searches:
"link:www.domainname.com". Google tends to only show a
small portion of the links back, but MSN and Yahoo will give
you much more pertinent data.

Now you want to compare the content on each of these pages
to the one they point to. Is it of similar theme, in what
context does the link back appear and where. Subject of
much debate, the consensus is that Google Page Rank does not
mean what it used to. However, if it is in some fashion a
measure of how significant or "important" a site is, it is
worth looking more closely at the sites that link back that
are of high page rank.

Even A Surgeon Uses Tools

Now, this is definitely a ton of work to do all by hand.
There are software programs that can help do some of the
digging and mathematical computations for you, figuring out
densities and organizing information.

Tools like this are definitely ones a professional SEO will
have in their arsenal. But remember, these are tools, not
miracle workers. It takes a human being to evaluate and
realize connections, similarities, draw conclusions and
interpret the data. Then, you have to extrapolate this
data.

Remember, you want to do one better than every site you just
examined. To do that you have to draw some conclusions and
make some educated guesses and link to even better sites.

Final Thoughts

You have access to the inner workings of every page that you
want to beat. Learn from them and do one better. This
process is not a one-time shot. It is ongoing. Check your
key phrases every week. Do the same people still rank in
the top ten?

Some have probably moved. Remember too that they're going
to adapt to maintain their positions too. If you want the
ranks, you have to spend the time, and not just once, or pay
someone to do it for you.

Don't ever believe anyone who says they can guarantee any
kind of results. And ask them how they will optimize your
pages. If they explain to you something like the above,
then you've probably got yourself someone experienced and
honest. Your money will be well spent and you'll quickly
recover it.

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John Krycek is the owner and creative director of theMouseworks.ca
web design in Toronto (http://www.themouseworks.ca). Learn more
about search engine optimization
(http://www.themouseworks.ca/html/website_articles_indx.html)
and internet marketing
(http://www.themouseworks.ca/html/website_articles_indx.html)
in easy, non-technical, up front English!
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