Ten Tips to the Top of the Search Engines
By Jill Whalen.
We condensed an article by Jill Whalen of High Rankings to bring you these terrific tips on enhancing your presence at the top of the list in internet searches.
- Start out slowly. Choose a domain name that best fits your brand, and start out by optimizing just the home page.
- Learn basic HTML. Your high rankings can depend on knowing some codes that are necessary.
- Choose keyword phrases wisely. Use a research tool such as Wordtracker.
- Write approximately 200-250 words of visible text copy based on your chosen keywords. The search engines need to “read” keyword-rich copy on your pages to classify your site.
- Create a killer Title tag. [These] are critical because they’re given a lot of weight with search engines.
- Make sure your site is “link-worthy.” Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization campaign.
- Create meaty Meta tags. Create a Meta Description tag that uses your keywords and describes your site.
- Be careful when submitting to directories such as Yahoo, DMOZ, JoeAnt, Gimpsy and the like. Making mistakes in this process could cost you dearly as directory listings are difficult to change later.
- Don’t expect quick results. All search engines measure link popularity, and it takes time to really and truly become one of the most popular sites in your niche.
- Don’t constantly “tweak” your site for better results. It’s best not to make changes to your on-the-page optimization for at least three months after you optimize it.
If you’ve followed these tips and still can’t find your site in the engines, the first place to “tweak” would be your page copy. If you added less than 250 words of visible text on your pages, this could be your culprit. Also, double-check your keyword density, and make sure that you only targeted two or three phrases per page.
Eventually, you’ll see the fruits of your labor with many top-ten rankings in Google and the rest of the search engines!
Jill Whalen of High Rankings is an internationally recognized search engine optimization consultant and host of the free weekly High Rankings Advisor search engine marketing newsletter. She specializes in search engine optimization, SEO consultations and seminars. Jill’s handbook, “The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines” teaches business owners how and where to place relevant keyword phrases on their Web sites so that they make sense to users and gain high rankings in the major search engines.