When people with websites find out I'm an Internet Marketing Consultant,
the first question I'm often asked is: "why isn't my website ranking in the search engines?" There seems
to be this assumption that "if you build it, they will come". Many website owners are often disappointed
once their site is up that the site is ranking poorly or not at all. They question me why it isn't and what they
can do about improving the site rankings.
If you want to improve your, or your clients', website rankings in the search engine results of the major search
engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN, you must learn what makes a site rank well. Not knowing what makes a page rank
well is why your competitor's website is at the top of the search engine results and yours is not. Search engine
optimization or SEO strategies are the critical components that help your site rank well. If you want your site to
rank well in search engine results, your page must have these 4 essential factors of search engine optimization:
1. The first element to search engine optimization is the web page
copy and content. Search engines look for good quality, relevant pages with the keywords your audience uses when
they search online. Each of your website pages should have the keywords and phrases your clients are searching for
on each particular page. If your site is about "Internet Marketing Strategies", then you should have those keywords
in the web copy of that page. The more relevant your copy is to the targeted keywords your audience uses, the better
the relevancy of the site in the rankings for those search terms.
2. The second critical factor to help your search engine optimization
tactics are meta tags. Meta tags, often overlooked and misunderstood, are elements of HTML coding on a website.
Search engines use these meta tags to help them determine what the site is about and assist with indexing a website.
Most meta tags are included within the 'header' code of a website. The most important tags are the title tag,
description tag and the keywords tag. Different search engines have different rules about how these tags are used
and how many characters they should contain. Of importance to the process is if you know how the big three - Google,
Yahoo and MSN - review the tags, then you'll be targeting 90% of potential web surfers.
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3. The next component in your site search engine optimization strategy
is internal linking. By optimizing your linking structure, you'll be creating a rich web of interlinking within your
site. Whenever possible include links to related products, articles, and information. The navigation menu plays a
key role in passing deep link gain into your site. This will help pass on your page ranking. To help out your internal
page ranking, create a site map that can help search engine crawlers find all the rich content and related pages on
your site. You should also use anchor text when internally linking within your site. Instead of using "click here",
use keywords or phrases like "Search Engine
Optimization" as a text link.
4. The fourth factor to good search engine ranking is off page tactics.
The most common tactic is obtaining quality back links or inbound links to your site from relevant websites.
Initiating and maintaining linking strategies is a core factor to getting your site in Google search results. Google
expresses the quality and quantity of these back links as PageRank or PR. PageRank is a function of the quantity and
strength of inbound links. PageRank estimates the likelihood that a given page will be reached by a web user who
randomly surfs the web, and follows links from one page to another. In effect, this means that some links are stronger
than others, since a higher PageRank page is more likely to be reached by the random surfer.
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Some great ways to get quality inbound links include: Links from your industry peers, business partners and associations.
There are also industry directories, such as web designer directories and more general SEO directories where you can
submit a link to the appropriate category. You may want to consider writing and submitting topic relevant articles to
article directories like ezinearticles.com. With every article submission, you are allowed to include your resource box.
Your resource box can contain a link to your website. Press releases are perhaps the most underrated tools to acquire
one way links. All you have to do is to write an objective, newsworthy press release announcing your website, and
thereafter, submit the same to press release wires throughout the internet, such as www.prweb.com.
Press releases are also an excellent way to gain direct visitors.
With these 4 essential tactics, you'll be accelerating your search engine optimization strategies and on the path to
higher search engine ranking. SEO is not about tricking search engines, but making it easier for them to spider your
site or client sites to determine the relevancy of the site. With just a few SEO adjustments to your website and content,
in no time you could soon find your site at the top of search engine results for your targeted keyword.
About The Author
Keith Raymond is an Internet Marketing Consultant and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist. Learn more about Internet
Marketing strategies and Search Engine Optimization
techniques to turbo charge your website's performance and search engine rankings.
