High Search Engine Rankings - A Long Term Strategy

The last 1.5 years have shown major changes in search engine behavior across the board. Algorithms change at random dates. Websites that ranked great in search results are suddenly completely wiped out from the search index. It becomes less and less predictable what a certain change to your website will get for results. A major change to a website or the way how it is promoted could have a major impact on search engine success for that website.

Webmasters need to gear to up to stay ahead of the game. As changes cannot easily be reversed to re-establish search engine ranking a website could be dead in the water for 3-6 months before it eventually recovers. It might actually not recover at all and becomes dead internet real estate. The difficulty every webmaster is facing - each major search engine uses different criteria to judge a website and how high it will be listed in search results. Success in MSN does not necessarily mean success in Google or Yahoo and vice versa.

To further see the impact of search engine changes one also has to consider who is affected most. The "aggressive" webmaster with lots of affiliate shopping websites and websites mainly build to generate advertising income will certainly see a different impact compared to a webmaster that is going a much more conservative way. There is a major difference in building a website for short-term success (or mid-term for the matter in Internet terms) and in building a website for long-term success.

Search engines will (or partially already have) develop filters to sort out websites with certain type of content or that promote certain type of services. This way they hope to increase the quality of the search results and to provide better quality of service to their clients/visitors.

Webmasters looking for long-term success need to change the way how they operate to succeed. Unless you have a lot of money you can throw at the problem (advertising, marketing), you need to work very conservative in regards to search engine optimization and how to achieve high search engine listings/rankings. Plan projects a long time in advance. Buy domain names way ahead of schedule and place some content on them to get them indexed and accounted for. A domain name being 2 years old or more (and indexed for that period of time) is more valuable than a 2 week old domain name registration with some duplicate content. Slowly build back links to the new domain. Search engines seem to be looking at back links in a way that a large increase of back links in a very short period of time is less valuable or reason to suspect brute force search engine optimization (brute force SEO) which can result in complete removal from the search index. So, a strategy of slowly increasing the number of back links is more desirable and will be more effective for the long term success. Do not do anything on a website that does not look 'natural' in regards to growth. Adding 1,000+ pages in a day does not look natural. Adding 25 pages of content over a week looks much more natural. Time does a good thing. A site becomes more popular and also gets more back links. With the increased popularity an increase in the growth rate does not look as much problematic anymore. Now adding 50 pages of content in a week just matches the overall growth rate much better. And again - time passes by and the popularity goes up (ideal case). An increase in adding back links and content just looks more natural.

This sort of natural growth will be important to achieve search engine success in the future. The second key is good, high quality content and easy to read URLs. A combination of these two key ingredients will almost guarantee success in how your website is ranked in search engines.

About the Author

Christoph Puetz is a successful entrepreneur and international book author. Examples of his search engine optimization work can be found at Cooking Recipes, Highlands Ranch and at How to start a web hosting business.

This article can be published by anyone as long as the resource box (About the Author) is posted on the website including the links. These links must be clickable.

---

Reciprocal Links to Boost Link Popularity ?

Link popularity means the number of incoming links pointing to... Read More

Search Engines: Different Types, Different Strategies

There are four basic types of Search Engines: Free Search... Read More

Whats All This Hype About Links?

What's all the talk about links we hear about? Reciprocal... Read More

Search Engine Copywriting: Focus on One Topic

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

SEO Basics - 8 Key Strategies For Online Business Success

The world of search engine optimization (SEO) can be a... Read More

How You Can Easily Compile A Gigantic Keyword List

It doesn't matter what kind of marketing you are involved... Read More

Optimize Your Site Pt2

6: The hidden benefits to having the right links. Every... Read More

The Other Side of the Search Gods Abracadabra!

Thousands of servers ...billions of web pages.... the possibility of... Read More

Your Online Home-Based Business Can Lead To Search Engine Stress

As a member of several search engine optimization forums, I... Read More

Google Patent Application - User Data As Part of Ranking Process

In this third article, we continue to dig into the... Read More

The SEO Game - Do You Play It?

Most people do not think of SEO as a game.... Read More

Submitting Your Site To The Open Web Directory: Some Dos And Don?ts

One of the most important steps in any site's publicity... Read More

Anatomy Of A Top Ranking Web page

Optimizing web pages for high rankings in the search engines... Read More

Microsofts New Search Engine

I tried out Microsoft's new search engine (beta version) the... Read More

An Introduction to Google Sitemaps

... and why I 'm dying to get finally in... Read More

Search Engine Traffic Domination - How to Turn the Search Engines into Your 24/7 Salesmen

Getting your website returned by the search engines as a... Read More

What is Google Talk ?

The advent of Internet has affected lives of almost the... Read More

All About Links -- Interview With Link Building Expert , Bob Gladstein

Julia: Welcome Bob. Thank you for taking the time to... Read More

Reciprocal Link Exchange Management Software

When shopping online for Link Management Software that can... Read More

What is PageRank?

Chances are you have been on the Internet and have... Read More

Two Myths About the Search Engine Listing

Getting top search engine listing is perhaps one of the... Read More

Pay Per Click Versus ?Organic? Search Engine Listings - The Pros and Cons and Best Uses for Each

What's the difference?For those who aren't quite clear what the... Read More

Getting Listed in the ODP, Google Directory

First of all, the Google directory is really just the... Read More

Site Maps: A Force To Be Reckoned With

Another important component of search engine optimization is the use... Read More

How to Get One Way Backlinks

Don't be fooled into believing that all backlinks are created... Read More

How to Succeed with the Search Engines

The Cold Hard Facts?..One of the most important factors in... Read More

Beyond Hits!

Your Website visitor reports are a goldmine of information. If... Read More

Five Tips to Improve Your Chances with Google et al.

"Dear David: I just created a website on baby toy... Read More

10 Ways to Tackle Keyword Research and Selection

You need to be extremely careful with keyword research so... Read More

Search Engine Optimisation - Getting Targeted Traffic

Getting SEO right is an art and it's based on... Read More

Dont Focus Too Much on Your Internet Business Website Ranking

No doubt, having a high search engine ranking is very... Read More

How to Improve Your Search Engine Rankings

When people think of search engine optimization, they immediately think... Read More

Search Engine Optimization: Site Structure and Popularity

In the Global Internet era the industry presence is undoubtedly... Read More