How To Improve Your Search Engine Ranking

With search engines like Google currently indexing over 8 billion pages, it is becoming more and more difficult to get a top search engine ranking. Type in a popular search phrase such as "Internet Marketing" into Yahoo or Google and you will be returned over 8 million results!

Unless your website is in the first two or three pages, it is unlikely that you will receive many visitors from search engines.

So what should a webmaster do to give their website the best chance of ranking high in the search engines?

All search engines work slightly differently and have ever changing algorithms for ranking web pages, but these tips can be applied when planning, developing or marketing a website to help you reach that top page of search engine results.

(1) Choose your keywords carefully

It's extremely important to set aside time to research your keywords. It's best to do this in the planning stages, before developing your website, but many of us start a website without knowing a thing about how the search engines work, so you may find yourself doing this weeks or months later.

Try to choose phrases that are searched on frequently and if possible have a low number of competing websites.

To get an idea of the number of times a keyword is searched for per month, type a keyword into the box at

Overture Search Suggestion Tool

This will tell you how many times your keyword was searched on in the previous month (based on Overture's partner search engines) and give you a list of similar keywords.

Another useful tool to help you choose your keywords is Word Tracker. This tool will help you choose your keywords and give you a "KEI" for each set of keywords based on the popularity of the keyword (number of searches) and the amount of competition.

You can try this out for free on Wordtracker

If you manage to pick your keywords in the planning stages you may even be lucky enough to find a domain name that contains your keywords.

(2) Optimise your pages

Once you have decided on your keywords you will need to optimise your pages for those keywords. Here are a few tips.

- Ensure that the Title of your page contains your keywords.

- Mention your keywords inside the meta tags. Most search engines no longer use meta tags, but some make use of them so it is still worthwhile using these.

- Try to make sure that the first occurance of readable text on your page contains your keywords

- Ensure that your keywords are mentioned in the initial paragraph of your page

- Use your keywords throughout the text of your page - but be careful not to overdo this. Your page should still be readable by humans!

- Use your keywords between the headline tags on your page ("H1" tags or H2/H3 if H1 is too big)

- Occasionally bold or italicise your keywords

- Make sure that links pointing back to each page on your site contain the keywords for each page

- Give all your images an "ALT" tag and put your keywords in here too - again, don't overdo this

- Try to put some of your keywords in your outbound links

(3) Start Linking

One of the most important criteria in getting a good search engine ranking is the number of backlinks you have to your website from related websites.

Type in your chosen keywords to Yahoo or Google and take note of the top 3 sites returned to you.

Now go to Link Popularity Checker and put the URLs of the top three sites into the linking tool, along the URL of your own site.

Have a look at the difference between your site and the top 3 sites and this will give you an idea of how many links you need in order to get a top search engine ranking for these keywords.

The best ways to get links back to your site are:

- By writing articles related to the subject of your website and getting them published on the internet

- Reciprocal Linking with other related websites

- Posting on newsgroups and forums that allow you to have a signature attached to your posting (with your uRL in it)

- Submitting your site to directories.

Try to make sure that the anchor text (clickable text) that links back to your site contains your keywords.

(4) Add Content Regularly

Another thing you may have noticed is that top ranking websites have lots of content.

Regularly updating your website and adding fresh content will also help your site to rank more highly in the search engines.

If you don't have time to create your own unique content there are plenty free articles available Just type "Free website content" into Google and you'll have your pick of the 18 million results that it returns to you!

To improve your ranking, follow steps 1 and 2 above and repeat steps 3 and 4 regularly.

Suzanne Morrison is the webmaster and owner of http://www.homebiz-direct.com To learn more about how to promote your website visit her Beginner's Guide to Internet Marketing

---

Google Page Rank - Important Or Just Another Number?

In my last newsletter I wrote about how your websites... Read More

Soliciting Search Engines

As your guide operator through the web, search engines are... Read More

How To Syndicate Your Content

Note: In order to preserve the proper format for the... Read More

Boost Your Website Rankings with Expert Content

The chase for a high web ranking is constantly on... Read More

Get A Top Position In Google In Three Days!

So how do you get a top listing in Google... Read More

Basic Search Engine Optimization For Dummies

OK, you published your site, now you just sit by... Read More

?Web Content Management System fr Window?: Search Engine Typos

Oops! I meant "web content management system for windows." Do... Read More

When SEO Takes the Value out of a Website

Every webmaster would like to see his/her website to be... Read More

Click Click Boom: a Linking Strategy that will Blow Away Your Competition

Web marketers, do you hear what I hear?"Click-click BOOM"That's the... Read More

Complete Web-Site Optimization For Search Engines (Part 2)

Source code optimization.{title}...{/title}This tag is to be a winner. This... Read More

Are You Losing The Battle For Search Engine Traffic?

Search engine traffic should be a priority for any online... Read More

Google Rankings ? Achieving a Top 10 Position in Google ? Part 1

Achieving a top ranking position in Google is every webmasters... Read More

META Tags Explained and How To Use Them For Ranking

The META tags are used to provide extra information about... Read More

Designing a Better System for Search Engines

Designing a Better System for Search Engines and Information Distribution,... Read More

Adding Content To Your Site Every Day

If you have been a webmaster for more than a... Read More

Web Site Copy is about More Than Keywords

Let's say you are writing a web site to sell... Read More

Tips On Optomizing Your Website For Search Engines

I wish to give a few little tips, about optimizing.... Read More

Dont Submit Your Website To Any Search Engines

We all want to get our websites high up in... Read More

Are Your Keywords Making Money for You?

I built my website, it's perfect. My chosen subject of... Read More

The Importance of Correct HTML Syntax in Search Engine Positoning

There is a lot of competition to get good spots... Read More

?Google Friendly? Solutions to Graphic-Intense Sites

We all know that the search engines can't "see" or... Read More

A Three Day Marketing Plan for Better Google Rankings

If you're reading this article, you've probably discovered that simply... Read More

Link Reputation - How to Improve Search Engine Rankings

One of the most overlooked strategies to improve search engine... Read More

Search Engine Optimization - Enhancing Web Site Visibility

I've had several prospects and clients say to me "I... Read More

Martial Arts Webmasters: Time to Optimize Your Site!

A few months ago I was looking through the search... Read More

The Write to Link Popularity

Incorporating writing as a means of boosting your link popularity... Read More

Search Engine Copywriting: Focus on One Topic

Perhaps the simplest of all the lessons I have learned... Read More

Google Gunning For Directories?

Why is it that webmasters are so quick to blame... Read More

Search Engine Updates vs. SEO

Webmasters always anxiously wait for a search engine update. Those... Read More

Without Conversion Rates You Don’t Know If You’re Mickey Mouse Or Mickey Mantle

I couldn’t agree more with the headline of this article... Read More

Googles New SEO Rules

Google has recently made some pretty significant changes in its... Read More

Google Rank Cake

6 cups thick content mix 1 jar word of mouth,... Read More

SEO -- Tips to Optimize Your Webpage to Compete for a High Ranking

Search engine optimization (SEO) is very important to websites. If... Read More