Topics: How to Improve Your Search Engine Ranking

Search engine optimization is about trying to get free traffic from search engine results because of the quality of your website, and the work you do to achieve this. It is a better alternative to web adverting campaigns for getting a regular stream of traffic to your website.

Top Search Engines

The top search engines, which account for the great majority of searches that are done, are:

• Google - has by far the majority of searches that are done
• Yahoo! - has the next highest number of searches
• Windows Live Search (MSN Search) - comes a distant third in terms of numbers of searches
• Ask! (Ask Jeeves) - is in fourth position

There are other search engines which are vying for popularity, and there are also specialized search engines for particular kinds of searches. Some of these may be relevant to what your website is about. Bear these things in mind when deciding how to focus your efforts, and which search engines are more likely to bring in results for you.

On-page and Off-page Optimisation

• On-page Optimisation refers to all the things that you can do within the content of the pages themselves to make them more attactive to search engines.
• Off-page Optimisation refers to all that you can do outside the content of the web pages themselves, to make your pages more visible and easily found by visitors, and more highly positioned by search engines.

Top Tips for High Search Engine Positioning

Don’t cheat

Don’t be tempted to artficially increase your page rank using the wrong kind of Search Engine Optimisation software, which sends out link spam to thousands of blogs and forums. Don’t fill the meta tags on your page with hundreds of extra words to get attention. Search engines will notice this, and your page rank could drop very suddenly.

Have a blog

Search engines love blogs. Keep updating your blog with posts linking to your latest content. The search engines will keep coming back for more, and so will your visitors. Putting your blog in a subdirectory of you main site will increase the site’s authority.

Keep Pinging

If you have a blog, use the blog pinging services which alert blog communities to your new content. Make sure you ping whenever you place new content. Then visitors may start arriving almost straight away.

Focus on the Words

Search engines can’t read pictures or flashy design. Make sure your pages have lots of relevant content and good keywords, and the search engines will reward you for it.

Use Keywords

Use good keywords in your pages and use them often. Make sure that the content that you write uses plenty of the keywords that you want the page to rank highly for. Put the relevant keywords for each page in the meta tags at the top of that page.

Use Meta Data

The Meta tags in your web pages are there to tell the search engines what your page is about. Put in carefully chosen keywords, and it will help your page to be found.

Backlinks

The more pages the search engines can find that link back to your site, the more authority your website will have. Add links to your site in web directories, forums and blog comments. Exchange links with other website owners. The more sites that link to yours the better.

Help others

Don’t be selfish. Exchange links with the owners of other websites. Offer your expertise in forums. Post helpful coments on blogs. When your words have helped others, they will want to follow the link back to your site.

Participate in forums

Forums are a way that you can help others with your knowledge and expertise. Help others, and they will see you as an authority, and they will want to visit your website. If they like what they find, they will link to it and recommend it to others.

Add comments

Add relevant comments to blogs that you like. Include a link with your comment. Every time you do this, another link is placed on a website, linking back to your site. Blog readers will be encouraged to visit your site, and your standing with the search engines will increase. However, don’t place spam links. Everyone hates comment spam, and your web pages could disappear from the search results.

Write good content

Focus on the quality of what you write. If you keep writing good quality relevant content, everyone will appreciate and value what you write, and your pages will rank highly with the search engines. If the quality of your content is poor, you can only expect the position of your web pages in the search results to be very weak.

Become an expert

Become an authority on the subject which your website is about. Other sites will link to yours if you are the expert and your site provides that expertise. This means that you will have to learn about your subject, and it will probably help if you follow the latest developments in related news sites, blogs and forums.

Take advice

The search engines provide plenty of advice on how to have a successful website. Make sure you take that advice. Value the feedback and comments of others about your site.

Stay relevant

Stick to the subject that your website is about. Make sure each web page sticks to the point that it is written about. Make sure that visitors to your site get plenty of good relevant content on the subject that they were expecting to read about.

Keep up to date

Make sure you are aware of the latest developments in your field. Then you will be able to write meaningfully on the subject in your web pages. Show your readers that you know what is going on, and try to keep at least one step ahead of them. This means you should make full use of news sites, RSS feeds, alert services, blogs, and forums so that you find out immediately about new developments.

Be original

Don’t plagiarize, don’t copy others’ work. Aside from potentially breaking copyright on the work of others, your site will be seen by the search engines as having duplicated content, and it will disappear from the search results. Quote others, and use other sources, but make sure that the bulk of what you write is your own work in your own words, and your site will build an authority of its own.

Keep adding new content

Search engines love new, fresh, relevant content. Keep adding new content to your site, write blog posts linking to the new content, and place links to it on other websites. Give your readers and the search engines a reason to keep coming back for more.

Write your site for People

When people appreciate your website, they will link to it, and it is these links which will increase the standing of your website with the search engines. Make sure your site provides an experience which people will want to recommend to others.

Help the Search Engines to read your pages

Make sure that your website is discovered by search engines, at least by placing links on other sites so that it will be found, but preferably by submitting it directly. Submit your site properly to the search engines to make sure that they have the fullest awareness of your site. Provide a site map for the search engines to find their way around your site. Google and the other search engines set out how they expect this information to be formatted for the web spiders that crawl your web pages. Make sure you provide what they ask of you.

Analyse your Traffic

Use analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to find out where your visitors are coming from and what pages they view on your site. Use this information to help you know how to modify your site, and where to focus your efforts, in order to bring in the most traffic.

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Date posted: 17 January 2009
Author: Ambrose Burgin   Version: 1.03
Keywords: seo, search engine optimisation, ranking, on page optimisation , off page optimisation, search engine positioning