The top three search pages- the only place you'll be noticed
they say. Unfortunately, they are correct. How can you
possibly compete with millions of pages? Many represent
thousands of dollars of professional search marketing and
optimization per page, backed by budgets on which most of us
could retire. How can the little guy have a chance armed
with an already out-of-date search engine marketing book and
a ream of now dog-eared, printed web pages on the topic? Do
you really think you have a chance to land those top spots?
Yes, you do... the same chance the big guys have!
Do a search for Internet marketing or some derivative of
that and you'll be thrown into an expanding mass of
theories, techniques, methodologies, scams and some actual
useful information. Sorting through the latest trends,
applying them to your site, and most importantly
understanding what you're doing can be confusing to say the
least. Before we discuss how to get on top, let's define
some of the different players on the field.
If you've guessed it's not about which strategy to use, but
rather how to use each strategy effectively, you're headed
down the right path. I'm going to show you that all of
these techniques share one common thread... you master that,
and you're in the big leagues!
Here's the team line up in the current Internet marketing
playing field.
RSS
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It's a kind of
programming language format that lets you share news
headlines and stories through a type of Internet address
called an "RSS feed." You can import these feeds into your
site so you have the latest headlines from news around the
world.
But the great part about them is that feeds exist for almost
every subject matter, in every genre you can think of.
Track a couple down that pump news about your business
subject matter and you have juicy, up-to-date dynamic
content on your web page to attract visitors! You can even
take it one step further.
It's not that difficult to create your own RSS feed. In
this case, you're actually writing the news about your
business. People around the world can then display your
information on their websites. If you make those news
stories factual, appealing, attractive and easy to read,
you're on your way to becoming a household name.
Link Popularity
Many would argue that this is the most crucial factor in
search ranking today. You might have heard the "vote"
analogy. Where every site that links to yours is like a
vote for your site. The more sites you have linked to you,
the more votes you have... the more votes, the higher your
ranking.
That's an extremely simplified definition. There's a big
curve ball though. Votes are not equal. Search engines
weigh many factors about your site, your link text, the site
that links to you, and the number and type of sites that
link to it, just to name a few variables.
Link popularity is definitely a big contender in achieving
high rankings. But, you don't want to link to just anyone.
And stay far away from link farms and free-for-all link
sites. They usually cover a full gamut of different kinds
of sites. They're scams. And many are already banned from
search engines and you will be penalized.
You want to stick with sites that are similar in theme and
subject matter to yours. It's worth paying for some one way
links to your site from well established, authoritative
sources.
Articles
The concept of article marketing in terms of the Internet is
two fold. If RSS were like a news ticker, articles would be
the equivalent of magazines. Here's how the process works.
Write an article about one particular interesting facet of
your business. An issue, current event or strategy that
would peak interest in like-minded readers who are targets.
Next, post your article for free on sites like
content-articles.com and ezinearticles.com that store giant
collections of articles. Post your article on groups like
yahoogroups.com that announce new articles by particular
category.
Then, a person in your related field who is looking to fill
their site with some well-written, interesting things that
will keep people on their site selects your article to
publish and includes it for all of their traffic to read.
How does this help your business? The key is in the very
bottom of the article, in a few lines of type called the
resource box. Here, you put your name, and a well written
(and varying) text link to your website. (This is part of
the agreement. If someone wants to reproduce your words on
their site they may do so for free, but they must include
the resource box with the active links.)
Now, a search spider comes along and indexes your article on
their site, with a link pointing right back to your site!
And remember that links back to your site, in a search
engine's mind, mean that you must be important.
Secondly, people may want to learn more and follow the link
right back to your site. Hint... post your articles on your
own site too. If someone wants to read more of what you've
written, they have immediate access.
Blogs
According to Princeton University, a blog is a "web log, a
shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries
about their personal experiences and hobbies..."
What makes blogs so exciting is that anyone can have a blog.
It's a chance to establish yourself in your area of
expertise. Get your name around. People will keep coming
back to your blog to hear what you have to say about a
particular subject matter. While the term "diary" conveys a
free writing style, the content of blogs can be quite
educational and come from some powerful high ranking
industry people in an easy to understand, all professional
titles aside type of atmosphere. Hint: A blog can be an
unprecedented educational tool.
Imagine that your passion is physics and you could read
Einstein's own, every day thoughts on relativity in an
atmosphere of his laptop by a fireplace, typing away at
night in his jammies very relaxed, outside of the office.
You have access to some great minds and thinkers, learn from
them, expand upon their ideas, and become a leading mind
yourself.
Search Engine Optimization
This is the combination of art, creative writing and
statistical analysis that gives your site viewers rich
content and presents it to the search engines in the most
efficient method of achieving you high ranks. Optimization
includes researching keywords, analyzing your competition,
having just the right keyword in just the right place on the
page in just the right frequency in just the right line of
code so the engine feels your page is relevant. It involves
streamlining your code, placing things like CSS and Java and
other scripts in external files. Search engines love text,
not the framework that makes it look pretty on the page.
The Dilemma
Search engines are evolving at an exponential rate, forced
to adapt and develop battle strategies to combat programs
and technology developed to outwit them. When link
popularity became important, software to create hundreds of
doorway pages to sites was invented, to cite one example.
The consequences from these people trying to outmaneuver the
search companies are chaotic and create virtual gridlock on
the Internet. However, statistics overwhelmingly show
75-80% of site traffic comes from search engines. So search
engine marketing must be an equally strong part of your web
development thrust.
You think ok, but if search engines are always evolving to
stay a step ahead of the abusers, what if I manage to get my
site way high on the list, only to be at the bottom again
because a modification in the search-ranking algorithm is
made. Suddenly my top 10 results plummet to position 880
overnight. That's pretty upsetting, not to mention a huge
waste of money.
The Secret
Diversify
Don't rely only on keywords in your pages to get to the top.
Like you would diversify a stock portfolio, write some
articles, make sure you get yourself listed on good, quality
directories and sites, and optimize your code. Develop an
Internet marketing plan that won't cause you to plunge in
the search ranks because of an algorithm change. Insert
appropriately the eggs in one basket cliché here.
The Common Thread
RSS feeds, articles, link text, blogs... the combination of
these and other methods will bring you to the top. But they
have to be effectively consistent in one thing. They must
all have superior content written for the end user, not the
search engines. Remember; always sell to your potential
customers, not the engines. Here's why.
A search engine company's goal is to provide the end user
with the best, most relevant matches to a search inquiry.
If they fail, the user moves to a different search engine.
They don't want to lose customers any more than you do. To
keep a customer, a search must be matched to the best
content. Period. No matter what defenses or blockades or
changes they evolve with overnight. If they don't provide
results a user can use, they lose that user. And they won't
allow that.
Therefore, only legitimate, quality content will be matched
to the end users request. No matter what modifications to
algorithms or stops to doorway pages or link farms a search
engine company integrates into their defenses, they won't
deviate from their goal of being the best. They can only do
that by providing the best results.
An assortment of carefully planned and executed Internet
marketing strategies and techniques will get you to the top.
It does take some time, but your efforts must start with a
solid foundation. You must look at the big picture. It's
not something that can be done in an evening, so don't try.
Instead, focus on building a well diversified skeletal
system to your Internet marketing.
In Part two learn what good content consists of, how to
write it, how to get it, how to keep it fresh and keep your
audience.
About The Author
John Krycek is the owner and creative director of theMouseworks.ca. Read
more articles on the insights and secrets of website development and
internet marketing in easy, non-technical, up front English!
