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Search Engine Optimisation The Hows And Whys To Achieve Top Rankings
Why should you bother to optimise your website pages and submit them to as many relevant engines & directories as possible? Well, just consider these staggering facts:
- The rate of people buying merchandise (everything from shoes to eBooks) online is growing at a rate of over 20% a year. In 2005, an estimated $150 billion was spent online and according to industry experts this is just the tip of the iceberg.
- 80% of BUYERS who use the internet for their purchases find their chosen websites via search engines.
For serious targeted traffic there are very few things that beat high search engine rankings.
So how do you go about yielding top search engine rankings? Its actually not as easy as some of the SEO eBook & course peddlers would have you believe. You really need to have a search engine friendly site, know what keywords your prospects are looking for, understand the additional factors search engines look out for and then submit to the correct engines & directories.
This takes time, experience and more than a fair bit of effort. But once you do this, youre well on your way to high search engine rankings and in todays internet era, that can really push your business to the top of the league while crushing the competition beneath your boots.
Lets now look at how we can identify our keywords so that our website pages are perfectly optimised when the search engine spiders come a knocking.
How To Find The Right Keywords For Your Website
How well do you know your niche and your customers? Lets find out. First consider your website and then write down ten key phrases that your potential customers may use when searching in the engines. Now, do this for each individual page on your website. For example if you have an information site on dieting in general, the keywords for your page on exercise should be different from your keywords on healthy eating. If you want high rankings then your keywords should be skilfully spread out over the page (as well as the header on your webpage).
Posting Your Optimised Website To The Most Important Search Engines & Directories Why Hand Submission Is Best
Search engines dislike automated search engine submission programs and sites. Many of these programs (available via free submission sites/software) just do not consider the rules of the individual engines. Search engines have also reported that these types of tools are responsible for a lot of spam sites bottom line, using these type of programs and sites to send your submissions can hurt your chances of high rankings.
Its always best to submit manually, even though this can take a great deal of time.
Trick The Engines, Get Your Site BANNED The Black Hat Techniques That You Must Never Use
There are always those who dont want to play by the rules. They want an unfair advantage over everyone else. They want to deceive the search engines to get higher rakings.
It works. For a little while. Then they get caught out and penalised BIG TIME. Their sites plummet down the pages of the engines. Or perhaps banned altogether.
You should never use black hat techniques to try and pull the wool over the eyes of the search engines. These type of techniques include automatically generated doorway pages, stashing away popular but unrelated keywords, hidden text and other dodgy methods. Some unethical merchants even sell software that can help you do some of the above by yourself they know they are hurting your search engine placement prospects and your business but they couldnt care less - their sales copy is so magnificent that theyll convince you their software is the answer to high rankings. Always be wary of buying any software that claims to increase your placements and always get advice before putting such software into use.
After Submission Keep Promoting Through Backlinks
Your promotion efforts should not stop after you finish submitting to the major search engines and directories. When search engines ponder where to rank your site in their engines they will consider your link popularity the number of other sites that are linking to yours. Search engines figure that if many other (related) sites are linking to yours, that it must have a certain buzz about it. And so they rank your site higher.
Content, Content, Content (Its King You Know)
Another thing search engines love is content. If your site has a large amount of relevant content and a large number of relevant sites linking your way then youll have the search engines humming with delight. Higher placement.
Submitting content should be done on a regular basis but how can you increase the number of links to your site? Here are some dynamic ways to do this that search engines LOVE:
- Post in forums that are relevant in your niche and leave your website URL as your signature (a signature file is a few lines of promo text that most forums allow you to tag to the end of your post).
- Write articles on your site topic and submit them to article directories and publishing networks (there are thousands of these to choose from get your article into as many as possible). Again, your website URL should be stated in the signature file at the end of your article.
- Find authority sites in your niche and request them to publish your articles on their website. Lots of publishers are too busy to write new content and if your article hits the spot you could well find them publishing it.
Obtaining good search engine placements requires a methodical and patient approach. Do the things mentioned in this article and your chances of good, organic placement will be high. And then perhaps you can enjoy your fair share of the $150 billion thats being spent online every year.
