How to get your Website to the First Page of Google Search Results

Introduction

After years of developing & marketing Websites online, I've read thousands of articles, blogs, commentaries, comments, and you name it, on the subject of search engine optimization (or SEO as it's now traditionally called).

People ask me all the time, questions like, "so should I hire a company to optimize my Website?" Or, "... so what am I doing wrong, I've got this great Website but no one is visiting it; what should I do?"

Getting ranked on the first page of Google for any keyword or phrase isn't an easy task. If you're going to take on the challenge of doing this yourself, then be prepared to work! You either have to have a lot of money or a lot of time, and for most people the former doesn't hold true so get ready to put in some "sweat equity".

First of all, it's important to understand how the Google Page Rank system works. A Google Page Rank is a term that was originally derived from a abstract entitled "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine" (see resources below for a link to the online abstract) written by the creators of Google, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page. In it, they described in detail, the inner organic workings of a search engine, and specifically their theorem on the computation of search engine results via a Page Rank System through Google's search engine. Their argument was that their new computation of popularity based on Hypertext Linking (or the links you would click on to take you from one Web page to another Web page, or one Website to another Website), was a far superior system that would provide better and cleaner search engine results, allowing you to find what you were looking for quicker (and without the human interference that they argued existed in search engines during the mid-90s).

So why is this so important? Well, in essence, your popularity on the Web (your Page Rank) will be determined by the number of links that are linking into your site with specific keywords and just how popular the pages are that contain those links into your site (amongst some other elements). While the actual algorithm is beyond the scope of this article, it's simply important to note that in order to get ranked high, you need several "high quality" links with your keywords coming into your site. By "high quality", of course I mean the page that's linking into you must have a high order of importance (relationally speaking on average to other Websites on the Web). For example a link from a site like Yahoo.com will be of much higher quality, then say, a site like myfavoritecookies.com.

So how do you get started getting your site to the first page of Google?

Things You'll Need

• A clear understanding of your targeted keywords for your Website.
• An ability to develop content, such as through an online blog.
• A lot of patience. Ranking on the first page of Google will take anywhere between 6 to 12 months (with at least 20-30 hours of work per month).

Steps

1 Step One

Your first step will be to understand the specific keywords that are applicable to your Website. While it may be nice to think as broadly as possible such as (web design, rather than seattle web design), it's important to think niche so that you can get to the top of the results quicker (inverse relationship of less results equals higher likelihood to climb the ranking quicker). For this step, think to yourself, "if I was looking for my business on the Internet, what search phrase would I use?" For example, if you own a vacation rental software business, you wouldn't want to start with the phrase "rental software" but rather "vacation rental software". Knowing the keywords people might search for your business with is critical to the success of your online presence.

2 Step Two

Research your competitors. Check out the sites that rank on the first page of Google and take a careful look at how their site looks by examining their source code through your browser. But be careful not to copy content or META tags as search engines will pick up on this and penalize your site. It's very important to BE ORIGINAL.

3 Step Three

Knowing your keywords and analyzing your competitors is one thing, but designing a site that takes advantage of those keywords is an entirely arduous undertaking in and of itself. There are several criteria that come into play with Website elements to improve the search engine awarness of your Website for your targeted keywords.

These elements are:

a) META Tags

b) Page Title

c) Image ALT tags

d) Website text

e) SITEMAP.

There are several rules to follow when designing and coding your site for search engine awarness (or having a professional do it for you). While the entire spectrum of rules is beyond the scope of this article (but will be addressed in an article to follow), here are a few basic tips (also see the resources below for links to valuable information regarding Web SEO-driven design & coding).

a) Make sure your keywords are seen in your Keyword & Description META Tags at least three times but not more than seven.

b) Make sure that your page title contains your site keywords at least once but not more than three times.

c) Make sure that your site has at least three instances of your keywords in Image ALT tags and make sure that all your images have ALT tags that are descriptive to the actual image.

d) Make sure your Website text has at least three instances of your keywords and not more than seven per Web page (more than that may be considered keyword SPAMING by the search engines).

e) Create a sitemap for your Website (see sitemaps.org for more info).

4 Step Four

We've all heard the cliche that "content is king", and getting ranked high will certainly involve some element of the creation of "content" (in addition to your link popularity). Content can come in the form of articles, well-phrased comments, intuitive blogs, and other Web-based commentary that is carefully worded and properly linked to your site with your keywords (check out sites like blogger.com, wordpress.com, and blogspot.com for online blogs).

5 Step Five

Signup for an analytics software package such as Google analytics (free at www.google.com/analytics/). You'll need to learn how to read analytics to see how your progress of visits to your site is coming. You can also run your own searches on Google daily to see where your site is listing in the search engine results.

6 Step Six

Market, Market, Market. You need to market yourself every day and in every way that you can. Build links to your site on blogs, through comments, through press releases, through your local chamber of commerce publications, in print, on Craigslist, and just about anywhere you can. Also, the more info on your site, the better, so build that content and use it to spread the word about your site.

7 Step Seven

Have Patience. This process is going to take you a good 6 to 12 months. You need to build content and create links daily to get ranked high. Remember, Google will need to believe that your site is more important (link wise & content wise) then your competitors for your given keywords, so you have some work ahead of you.

8 Step Eight

Use your contacts. If you have contacts at other Websites, try to get them to link to you. Also, find directories online applicable to your Website and try to get listed there with your keywords or just with a link. The more links into your site, the better!

How to Research Keywords

Introduction

In order to rank higher in the search engines, you have to pick popular keywords and place them throughout your website content as well as in your META tags. Keep reading to find out how to research keywords using Nichebot, a free keyword research tool. Then, after you've discovered the most popular keywords related to your website, edit your website so you can make it more search engine friendly.

Things You'll Need

• Internet access
• Website
• Keyword research tool

Steps

1 Step One

Think of words related to your website that people might enter into the search engines to find you. For example, let's assume you sell writing services. People may search for you using writing services as the keyword phrase. And there you have it, a keyword phrase to help get you started.

2 Step Two

Enter your keyword pharase to search for related words

Go to Nichebot (see the resources below for other free tools to help you research keywords). Once you've arrived at the Nichebot website (see resources), type writing services in the keyword research tool's box, select Overture from the drop down menu and then click on "Search" to begin your keyword research (refer to the screenshot on your left).

3 Step Three

The results

Browse the results and write down the keyword phrase or phrases with the most number of searches. Using Nichebot, we can see that the top four keyword phrases for writing services include resume writing services, writing services, document services writing and professional writing services. If resume writing is a part of the writing services you offer, then by all means, add resume writing services to your list of keyword phrases. If resume writing is not a part of the writing services you offer, don't add it to your list. Instead, keep browsing for phrases related to the kind of writing services you offer. For instance, professional writing services are popular with 569 searches in the last 30 days, and that would fit no matter what writing services you offer. As for document services writing, well, it may be popular as well, but it wouldn't sound good typing it into your website's content. However, you could try typing document writing services into Nichebot to see what results it yields.

4 Step Four

Researching your competition

Surf to Google and enter the following into the search box: inanchor:"your keyword phrase" inurl:"your keyword phrase." Replace "your keyword phrase" with one of the keyword phrases you just wrote down. This process lets you study how much competition exists for that keyword phrase; the lower the number the better.

5 Step Five

If the number is under one million, circle it. If the number is over one million, draw a line through that keyword phrase, because you don't want it. In our sample screenshot above, when checking the competition for writing services, we see the number is 582 … well below one million. Therefore, we definitely want to circle this keyword phrase!

6 Step Six

Continue to research keywords by checking the competition numbers for each keyword phrase you wrote down from your keyword research at Nichebot. Remember, circle all the keyword phrases that return a number under one million, because these will be the keywords you want to use on your website and in your META tags.

How to When to Consider an SEO Company

Introduction

The key to getting your website or online business noticed is search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is an online marketing method best left to professionals. Read the steps below to know when to consider using an SEO company to help you.

Things You'll Need

• Website or online business

Steps

1 Step One

Try finding your own website. Pretend you're a customer looking for a service you offer. For example, if you sell antique popcorn makers, go to Google and Yahoo and Altavista and type in "antique popcorn makers." If your website appears low on the list of results, or not at all, you could benefit from an SEO company.

2 Step Two

Keep your customers up to date. Customer retention is an important part of increasing business. Return customers account for a large portion of sales, and the best way to keep them coming back is a newsletter. An SEO company that specializes in custom content can easily craft an enticing newsletter for you.

3 Step Three

Increase your traffic and back links. One way to increase your traffic is to get other popular sites to link to yours. A large part of search engine optimization is cultivating relationships with other sites to encourage relevant linking that yields more hits and page views for both sites.

4 Step Four

Make your website more interesting. You may have an excellent product or service; but people surf the Internet just like they surf the channels. They don't stop to look at a site unless there's something interesting to grab them. SEO companies can help you develop intriguing, attention-grabbing content that's relevant to your product or service.

5 Step Five

Announce news about your business. An age old method for spreading the word about new developments or a new business is through the press release. These walk a fine line between journalism and advertising. They're great ways to attract new customers through news networks.

How to Write for Search Engines

Introduction

Writing for Search engines requires an eye for formatting and content in such a way search engines as well as people can read and get something from it.

Things You'll Need

• Good Grammar, Spell Checker, Proof Reader

Steps

1 Step One

Determine what you are going to write about

2 Step Two

Before starting to actually write, create a small outline with at least 3 sections to emphasize

3 Step Three

Prioritize the sections based on importance to the overall topic as mot readers of web content browse.

4 Step Four

The first sections ( most important ) first sentence should focus on the overall topic.

i.e. This is what search engines will also focus on.

5 Step Five

If possible, try to include some bullet points in the first section. ( Search engines also focus on bullet list )

6 Step Six

Once your article is written, revisit and write a brief summary that emphasizes the 3 sections.

7 Step Seven

Have someone proof read to see if it makes sense to them.
( This is probably the most important step )

8 Step Eight

If any changes are suggested, try and incorporate these changes. ( It's very hard to be critical when you are looking at things your own way ).

How to Enhance Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with Your Web Site

Introduction

One of the major things that business owners are interested in when it comes to their Web sites is creating traffic to it. In technical terms, they want to enhance their "search engine optimization," or SEO. These steps will help you create a Web site that will be more visible in search engines.

Things You'll Need

• Web site creation software
• Internet browser

Steps

1 Step One

Create a Web site using software like Front Page or Adobe Dreamweaver.

2 Step Two

When choosing your domain name, select a name that accurately describes your business. Choosing a name that is close to the front of the alphabet should help your site come up sooner in search engines (for example, "www.AmericanPlumbing.com" rather than "www.FredsPlumbingSuperstore.com".)

3 Step Three

Decide which keywords you want to be associated with your site. Choose words that are used commonly in search engines. Enter the keywords in the html coding of your pages. You can enter different words in each page, but be careful not to use too many keywords as this may have the opposite effect of what you're trying to achieve.

4 Step Four

Incorporate your keywords in the actual names of your Web pages. For example, if you want people to find your plumbing site when they type in "commercial plumbing" in the search engine, name your pages "commercialplumbingprices.htm," "commercialplumbingtips.htm," etc.

How to Create A Top Site Web Site

Introduction

A top site website is basically a website of your own, which appears on the top of all search engines in terms of viewership, traffic and content. To create this website, it should contain a quantitative as well as qualitative data that is extremely easy to use, read and understand. It should also be appealing and interesting enough to keep readers returning to your site. You can create a website on your own if you have the knowledge of HTML, java script and FTP. Otherwise you can get a website made from professional designers online in the following way.

Things You'll Need

• Internet
• Website
• Good content
• Computer

Steps

1 Step One

Visit any search engine and search for website creators.

2 Step Two

Click on the one that is most appealing to you and create an account.

3 Step Three

Select the style of your website, including the template, colors of the text and background, image and where your company name appears.

4 Step Four

Create your home page, which would include details about you, your company and other product and service details.

5 Step Five

Include a contact page that includes the e-mail address or phone number to reach your company.

6 Step Six

Create a domain name for your site. You can buy your own domain name as your web designing site provides you with this option.

7 Step Seven

Get web space for your site to be shown on. Submit your sites to major and minor search engines.

Tips & Warnings

• To create a top site website, you have to make the site look extremely flawless and the service it provides should be extraordinary.
• Give your site a combination of usable information attractively designed and easy to access.
• Make sure that your content is very precise, so that while someone is doing a search on a relevant word, it matches correctly.

How to Help Promote Your Podcast by Tagging Your Text

Introduction

Tagging your text is a good way to generate traffic. Many search sites use tags to help generate helpful search results. Associating your podcast with certain tags will help people find your work easier.

Things You'll Need

• computer
• a podcast to work with

Steps

1 Step One

In order to add tags to your podcast, you go to your text description.

2 Step Two

Include text links in your text description.
Here's one way to do this: Technorati is a blog search engine that uses tags to generate their results. A test link would look like this:

rel="tag">keyword

Just copy and paste the html and change the "keyword" accordingly. << rel="tag">> is the important part to make sure you include.

Another example:

rel="tag">keyword

3 Step Three

For small amounts of content with one user, tagging text manually is a good way to go. If you're working with bigger things, you might want to consider web services that automatically extract tags from text. Two free services are Tagthe.net (TTN) and Yahoo's Term Extracter (YTE).

4 Step Four

Icerocket is another example of a search engine that recognizes tags. Tag pages often get indexed on Google. Once you're finished tagging, people who search through the tag pages will be able to find your podcast. More exposure will hopefully lead to more traffic and more listeners