Optimizing Your Website: How To Increase Your Website Rankings

Authored By Steve Phillips

Every day, millions of people use Google, MSN, Yahoo! or another search engine to find products, services and information on the Internet.

Search engines are so popular some users have made them the first website that appears when they open their Internet browser. Heck, one search engine – Google – is now a verb ("I 'Googled' ABC Corporation today").

Ask yourself: "how many potential customers are searching for my goods and services?"

Then ask: "how many of them are finding my site?"

If your business has a website, now is the time for you to grab your fair share of business from search engine results.

Consider:

• Within the first two months of 2006, business on the Internet is up – way up.

• Are your potential customers finding you? Do you know where your website is ranked?

• What terms do potential customers use when they are looking for your products or services?

Welcome to the world of search engine optimization, also known as SEO.

Search engine optimization is the process of "optimizing" your website in order to obtain higher rankings in search engines, especially Google, MSN and Yahoo! Search.

Think about it for a moment. If your website is ranked higher in Google, then more potential customers can find you. If more people can find you, then you'll gain more inquiries; more leads; more subscriptions to your online newsletter and, yes, even more sales.

Business owners want to be in the Top 10 in search engines because the impact is great.

If you have tried SEO in the past, or you are leaving it to your web developer, chances are good your efforts may be old and tired. The rules have changed significantly over the past year and they are now changing almost monthly.

Previously, web site designers would place "keywords" in their site's HTML Meta Tag section and wait for the search engine crawlers to find the keywords and rank their site/page accordingly.

Now, search engines are taking a closer look at the site's content; page title; page descriptions and link popularity. Search engines are also on the look out for developers who try to cheat the system and create "false gateway pages" or try to hide extra keywords in their website. Conducting these "black hat" techniques can get your site banned for life. If you are leaving SEO in the hands of someone else, make sure you are well aware of the actions they are taking.

Here are some helpful tips when optimizing your website:

1. How are people finding your site now? Do they know your website's URL or are they currently finding you by conducting a search? What keyword(s) did they use to find your site? Where is your site ranked in Google? In MSN? In Yahoo? Answering all of these questions can be very helping when creating an SEO plan.

2. What keywords best describe your business? These are the keywords you should be using and concentrating on with your site's content. In some cases, you may find you're not using the proper keywords in your website and, therefore, not obtaining a high ranking.

3. Find better keywords. Always be on the lookout for strong keywords. Search the Internet using those keywords. Are there hundreds, thousands or millions of other pages fighting for the same keyword? By the way, if you search the Internet with a particular keyword, did you find your competition's site?

4. Re-write your copy. Once you have found the keywords you want to use, you may need to re-write you site's content using them. Remember, search engines will "crawl" your site's content to collect and count keywords. Don't overuse them to get a higher count. Always create and write your website for your customers first.

5. Re-write your site's title; page titles and page descriptions. Use the same keywords you've used in your website's content.

6. Are you using too many different keywords on the same page? Ideally, search engines like each page to contain one theme (people like this too!). If you have three different themes on the same page, consider breaking them up into three different pages. This way, you can focus on specific keywords on specific pages.

7. Always write fresh content for your website. Websites can get stale with the same copy. Search engine "spiders" (crawlers) love words and they love fresh content. Get into a habit of adding new content to your site. Write articles; tips, and press releases. Create a blog and/or a newsletter. Introduce an employee or a new service or a new product. When writing fresh content, always include the keyword(s) you are focusing on.

8. Create Link Partners. Ask other websites, especially those in your industry, to put a link on their website pointing back to your site. Not only do the extra links create an opportunity for more traffic, but search engines give consideration to higher rankings when a linking process occurs. Note: Be careful not to submit your site to "link farms." These are sites with no content. Instead, they are created for the purpose of tricking search engines into thinking you have a popular linking program.

9. Get listed in directories, especially Yahoo! Directory, Excite, and DMOZ…just to name a few. Some directories charge a submission fee, but the payback in potential traffic is good.

10. If you are not ranked in the Top 500 in a particular search engine, changes are good the search engine has never found you. Therefore, when you are ready, you can submit your site to a search engine. Some search engines will "crawl" and rank your site within 7-10 days. Others, like Google, may take 6-8 weeks or more. Don't be impatient and over-submit your site to search engines as this is considering SPAM and could get your site temporarily blocked.

True search engine optimization never ends. It is not a one-and-done process. Once a search engine finds your site, never settle on your initial ranking. If you're ranked No. 50, there are 49 sites ahead of you. (Note: most studies find the average user may not look at search results beyond three pages, which is the Top 30 positions). If you slow down or stop optimizing, you can bet your rankings will drop.

Rankings change every day as businesses are constantly optimizing their website. They realize the potential traffic involved for obtaining – and keeping – a top ranking in search engines.

Now, more than ever, is the time for you to take advantage of what may be an untapped marketing tool for your business.

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