There are billions of web pages on the Internet. It's obvious that not all of them can be listed in the top 10 results on search engines. Search engines only list web sites that they find relevant to a special topic. You must make sure that your web site is such a site.
75% of searchers never look further than page one (Source: Georgia Institute of Technology). Most search engines display ten results on the first page; and very few searchers click the links to look at the second page. Usability expert Jakob Nielsen points out: "Users almost never look beyond the second page of search results." Danny Sullivan, ClickZ Search Engine Marketing Columnist, puts it out this way: "Being listed 11 or beyond means that many people may miss your web site."
Google explains the ranking algorithm on their company pages:
"Traditional search engines rely heavily on how often a word appears on a web page. Google uses PageRank™ to examine the entire link structure of the web and determine which pages are most important. It then conducts hypertext-matching analysis to determine which pages are relevant to the specific search being conducted. By combining overall importance and query-specific relevance, Google is able to put the most relevant and reliable results first."
Google uses PageRank (which is a mathematical formula and not the green bar in the Google toolbar) and hypertext-matching analysis to rank your web pages. To get good results for the PageRank factor, you need good links from related pages that point to your site. It's a simple principle: if page a links to page b then it is a recommendation from page a to page b. The more links point to your web site, the better your rankings. The quality of the links is also important. A link that contains the keyword for which you want to have high rankings in the link text is better than five links with the text Click here. A link from a web site that has a related topic is much better than links from unrelated sites or link lists.
As mentioned in the explanation of Google's hypertext-matching analysis, Google also analyzes the content of other web pages on your site to ensure that your web page is really relevant. That means that you should optimize different pages of your web site for different but related search terms. The more web pages of your web site are optimized for keywords about a special topic, the more likely it is that you'll get high rankings for a special keyword that is related to that topic.
There's only a handful of search engines that can really bring visitors to your web site. As always, it's quality that matters, not quantity. For this reason, you should concentrate on the important search engines when you submit your web site to search engines. Currently, there are only four major players: Google, Yahoo, MSN Search and Ask.com. They are responsible for the bigger part of the search engine traffic you can get because they also power other search engines, for example the search engine on AOL.com displays Google results.
Before you start with your search engine optimization efforts, you must make sure that your web pages are spam free. This is very important. If you use a spam technique on your web site, all other search engine optimization efforts are pointless.
If a search engine has tagged your web site as a spam source then you have to remove the spam elements from your web pages before the search engine will take another look at other elements of your site.
Most search engines consider the following spam:
· cloaking (the web server returns different pages for search engine spiders and human web surfers)
· doorway pages
· misleading redirections
· hidden text (text has a color that is very similar to the background color, text in very small font sizes, text that has been hidden with CSS tags etc.)
If you use one of these techniques on your web pages, remove them now. You might get short term results with them but it is extremely likely that search engines will ban your site if you continue to use them.
If you use unethical search engine optimization methods then search engines might ban your web site. Search engines consider some methods such as doorway pages and cloaking as spam. Using the wrong search engine optimization methods can get your web site banned on search engines.
If you have spam elements on your web pages, all other optimization efforts are pointless. As long as you have spam elements on your web pages it is very difficult to get high search engine rankings.
When web surfers want to purchase something online, they go through three research phases. Web surfers usually start with general keywords. After becoming more educated about a particular product or service, they will use more specific keywords. As soon as the web surfers know what they want, they use specific keywords.
For that reason, keywords can be divided into three types:
· Keywords for browsing
· Keywords for comparing
· Keywords for buying
1. Keywords for browsing
During the first research phase, web surfers use general keywords to find information. For example, a web surfer might be interested in an MP3 player. The keyword that the web surfer might use in search engines could be:
mp3 player
People who use keywords for browsing are usually looking for information only. Keywords for browsing usually have a very high search volume. Getting a top 10 ranking for these general keywords is very difficult and nearly impossible.
2. Keywords for comparing
In the second research phase, web surfers narrow their selection because they now know what type of product they want. For example, the web surfer might have found out the he is interested in an
USB stick MP3 player with 1 GB flash RAM. The keywords of these web surfers are more specific:
mp3 player 1 GB
mp3 player usb stick
mp player under $100
trekstor mp3 player
samsung mp3 player
People who use keywords for comparing are more ready to buy. Comparing keywords are probably the best keywords that you can target for your search engine optimization campaign. They often have much lower search volume than general keywords but they will lead to more sales and it is much easier to get top 10 rankings for these keywords.
3. Keywords for buying
During the last research phase, web surfers know what they want to purchase. They are just looking for the web site with the best offer. For that reason, these surfers use very specific keywords:
trekstor i.beat cebrax 1 GB
trekstor i.beat cebrax 1 GB free shipping
philips SA178/07 1 GB
much if you offer competing products.
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