Most business owners have a website, a blog, or both. Some have combined them into one. We are the latter of this example, where our blog is the website. If you desire to do business on the web, like many of your clients will, you have to understand page ranking and how things are found on the web.
All search engines, like Google.com, use a variety of methods to determine which pages are displayed high (on the first page, top lines) in their results. Their exact methods (algorithms) are private, but there are things you can do to improve your overall ranking. This is often referred to as Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. Utilize as many of these tips as appropriate to move you up the rankings. We’ll focus on Google in most of our examples, since it is the number one search engine currently.
Links
One of the biggest factors Google looks at is the linking, or what is referred to as hyperlinks. Google looks at both links to and from your website when it searches your site. Google also looks at the words you use in links to help determine the content of your page. To take full advantage of this, use links within web pages as a way to emphasize keywords. Instead of using the phrase, “click here to learn more about SEO” you could say: “Read more about SEO” (Search Engine Optimization).
Links from other websites to your website are used to determine PageRank as well. You can use Google Toolbar to check your current PageRank. You can improve your PageRank by exchanging text links with other relevant websites. Banner exchanges are not as effective. You can also improve your PageRank by making sure your website is listed with important directories. In other words, check the PageRank of the home page of the directory.
Keywords and Key(word) Phrases
You can focus on one word or a short phrase that best describes your product or service If you were searching for your own website, what keyword phrase would you type into Google for each page? It may be helpful to get a different perspective. Ask someone else to read your page and suggest what they think your keyword phrase might be. . You may want to read about effective Google searches to see how keyword phrases help with searches.
You can also check Google Trends to see if one phrase is starting to gain popularity. Try to stick to one subject per page, and stick to one keyword phrase per page. That doesn’t mean you should write unusual text or odd phrases. Clear, consistent writing is both easier to search and easier to read.
Density or Repeating Information
Another thing Google looks for when it catalogs pages is the density of the keyword usage. In other words, how often the keyword occurs on that page. Use natural phrasing as the rule here. Don’t try to trick the search engine by repeating the same word over and over or making text “invisible.” It doesn’t help and, in fact, that behavior may get your website banned. Provide a strong opening paragraph, since Google may not search beyond the first 200 words for keyword density.
Assigning Names to your Pages
This is such an easy process, but many miss it by a mile. If you do not specify the names of your pages in settings, they will be given a default name by your system. WordPress, as an example, will use numbers at the end of your page to assign it a specific location. For example www.mywebsite.com/page=123.
Most experts agree that keywords in the title have a greater weight than keywords in the body text. It’s only logical that if a page has a title of “baseball teams” that the page is more about MLB than it is about bats or equipment, even though those words may be mentioned more often in the page. Google does keep track of titles and index them separately, because you can restrict your searches to Web page titles. It stands to reason that they index titles separately, because they weigh them separately.
Graphics Need to be Search Friendly
Many home pages use Flash on them. You may enjoy the techie look and feel, but search engines tend to skip over them. Even if it does not skip it, the ability to read it is limited. You can use text links instead of flash. You can also tag your images so they can be read by the search engines as well as your visitors.
Check all available Directories
Some of these sites may be known to you, but you can go to one place (dmoz.org) and search them all for your site, to verify if you are on the directory. Sites like AltaVista, AOL, Bing, Delicious, Digg, Gigablast, Lycos, and Yahoo, just to name a few. If you are not found here, then submit it. Also, consider specialized directories that may represent your industry, as an example. Don’t get crazy here, just ensure you are where you are supposed to be.
Good luck. This is just another way to help you Market Naturally.
