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

---

Search Engine Optimisation: The Soon to be Impossible Dream!

There are today search engine and internet marketing services, in... Read More

Search Engine Marketing 101: What Search Engines See When They Visit Your Web Site

If you have a Web site, have you ever wondered... Read More

Local Customers Know Where to Find Local Businesses... the Internet

Through search engines and directories, the Internet provides a quick... Read More

Search Engine Optimization Tips For 2005 - Part One

Anybody who has their own website or is involved in... Read More

Keywords, Ranking, & Search Engine Optimization Fun

I am a Search Engine Optimization newbie. I have read... Read More

Choosing your Meta-Keywords

Introduction This article assumes you already know what... Read More

Whats with the Competition? Ever Heard of Cooperation?

I attended the SES Expo in San Jose, CA the... Read More

Types of Links

Internal Linking ? An introductionThe web as they call it... Read More

Google Contest - Nigritude Ultramarine

Search engine optimization experts are having fun with Google. Experts,... Read More

5 Qualities to Look for in a Search Engine Optimization Program for Your Website

These days with millions of websites out there, you need... Read More

Search Engine Optimization, Positioning: Is Chasing Google Algorithms Worth It?

Google is the undisputed heavyweight champion of search engines. Most... Read More

Should You Be Linking for Traffic or Rankings?

Just for a change, rather than a technical article, I... Read More

SEO #4: Off-page Optimization

Yesterday you should have read the third course out of... Read More

Google PageRank Explained

1. What is PageRank? Here is what Google says:" PageRank... Read More

Google, BackRub, Backlinking, and the Link Hunting Obsession that Takes Its Toll

Google is currently one of the dominant entities on the... Read More

The Long And Short Of It Is That These Two Sales Techniques Are The Same

With the Internet beginning to stand up and be counted... Read More

7 Search Engine Optimization Strategies

Search engine optimization refers to the technique of making your... Read More

Are You Hung-Up on Page Rank and Back Links?

It's unfortunate that many website owners are so hung-up on... 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

How to Top Google by Writing Articles

Search engines determine their rankings based on two things: ... Read More

DIY SEO - Part 2 Tags n Things

Part 2 Tips 4 tagsMeta tags are the descriptive tags... Read More

Google Is Not Only A Search Engine!

When you now organize a street interview and ask people... Read More

An Ethical Alternative to Doorway Pages

Definition: A doorway page is content created specifically for the... Read More

Taking Advantage of Googles Sandbox Effect

Most new sites submitted to Google (at least within the... Read More

Search Engine Marketing 101 For Corporate Sites

When most people want to find something on the web,... Read More

Over Optimization and the OOP - Does a Penalty Exist?

If you have questions about whether or not the Over-Optimization... Read More

The Modern Day Search Engine

The first task most netizens do when they log on... Read More

Goofy Mistakes that Hurt Your Search Engine Rankings

One thing is for sure, you don't want to spend... Read More

How to Get Listed in Yahoo Within 48 Hours, Without Paying $299

First of all you need to get a blog. If... Read More

Screwed: Is this an inevitability in the SEO World?

By about 2pm everyday, each of my team members has... Read More

Keep Your Content Fresh with this Quick and Easy Tip

Some of the Search engines want only original content. So... Read More

Optimizing Your Website

Search Engine Optimization, optimizing your website for it to be... Read More

How To Conceal Your Website?s ?Fingerprint? From The Search Engines

The internet marketing industry is now flooded with various page... Read More