A different
approach . . .
Wouldn't you
rather achieve top rankings and keep them there,
and have those rankings equate to salës and
monëy in your back pocket?
After all, isn't
it ultimately the salës you're after, as opposed
to just the rankings? If those rankings don't
equate to traffïc that equates to salës, you
löse, any way you look at it.
Five Basic
Steps for Achieving Top Rankings without Chasing
Algorithms
1. Forget
about the search engines. Yes, you heard me
correctly. The search engines aren't and nevër
will be your "ideal target audience."
They don't buy your goods and services. They're
not who you should be trying to please with your
Web pages and site. Instead, write your Web page
content for your target audience.
2. Don't
ever forget the basics. No matter what's
happening in the algorithms, continue using your
main keyword phrase prominently in your title
tag, META description and keyword tags, link
text, body, heading tags, and so forth. That way,
when the algo dial is turned, you won't have to
make changes to all of your pages. You'll always
be ready.
3. Focus
your keyword-containing tags and body text on one
keyword phrase only. Each page should be focused
on one keyword phrase, and each page should have
its own unique tags.
4. Write
well-crafted content for your Web pages, and add
new content on a regular basis. If content is
king, context is queen. Focus on your keyword
phrase, synonyms and related words, and
surrounding text. Use a program like ThemeMaster if you need help determining those
supporting words.
5. Remember
that both on-page and off-page factors are
important. Don't sacrifice one for the other.
On-page factors are your tags, body text,
prominence, relevance, etc. Off-page factors are
link popularity (quality and number of your
inbound links) and link reputation (what those
inbound links "say" about your Web page
when they link to you).
What about search
engine research? Isn't it important?
It's crucial.
Let me give you an example. At the beginning of
this year, pages began falling out of Google's
index. The forums were alive with speculation and
what to do about it.
Through research,
we determined this was a compliancy issue. By
having compliant code, the search engine spiders
are more easily able to spider the content.
The solution? Make
sure you use a DOCTYPE tag and an ISO Character
Set Statement at the top of every Web page.
For example:
<!DOCTYPE HTML
PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.1
Transitional//EN">
<META
HTTP-EQUIV=content-type CONTENT="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
If you didn't know
about the compliancy issues, you could have made
changes to your Web pages that didn't need to be
made, wasted countless hours trying this or that,
all to come up dry.
Research helps to
make sure you remain on top of what's happening
in the search engine industry. It's what sets you
apart from other SEOs. You make your decisions
based on research and facts, versus speculation
and theory.
In
Conclusion...
"Take it from
someone who has been in this business for nine
years and studies the algorithms closely - don't
chase the algorithms. You say that you have a #2
ranking for a certain keyword phrase that alone
is bringing your site 550 visitors per day?
Great. In the time that you have spent gaining
that ranking, I have written 285 pages of unique
content, obtained 821 links, etc., and
collectively I am getting over 1,300 visitors per
day," says Jerry West of WebMarketingNow.
In other words, by
focusing on more than just chasing algorithms,
you have the potential of having a much more
successful Web site.
About The Author
Robin Nobles conducts live SEO workshops in locations across North
America. She also teaches online SEO training and offers the Workshop Resource Center, a networking community
for SEOs. Localized SEO training is being offered
through the Search Engine Academy. Copyright 2005 Robin
Nobles. All rights reserved.
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