There is no guaranteed way to get to the top
all the time. If anyone tells you that they
can get you to the top, they are stretching
the truth.
Actually some search engines now have paid placement,
where you can pay for your results to be shown
at the top. However, since it is transparent
to the user who has paid for top placement,
most surfers will ignore these results and start
with the "real" results.
It is also possible to buy banner ads which
are relevant to the search words, but this is
not the same as matching your site to the search
criteria.
If your site is very highly specialized, for
example you deal in "Chinese Acrobatics",
then it should be possible to get your site
listed at the top providing that surfers enter
the words "Chinese and Acrobatics”
or some combination of these words, in any order.
What is possible, though, is optimizing your
chance of getting to the top, by ensuring that
you have sufficient content on your site and
in its individual pages, and that technical
matters such as your Meta Tags are carefully
chosen to reflect the general content of your
site, and the particular content of your pages.
Obviously, by submitting your site and all your
pages to all the major search engines, you will
increase your chance of being listed.
Just as there is no way to guarantee that you
can get to the top, it is not possible to guarantee
that you will stay there. What is possible is
to maximize your chances of both getting near
the top and staying there.
To do this you need to optimize the design and
content of your whole site for search engines,
including the "meta tags."
You will also need to submit to all the major
search engines, and re-submit to most of them
whenever your page contents change, and periodically
in case some engines "drop" your listing.
It will also help to monitor your ability to
find your site on most of the major engines
by typing in many possible queries.
Only by frequent monitoring will you know whether
your site is still findable, how easily findable,
and whether you need to fine-tune your content
or re-submit your pages.
In the final analysis, the actual ranking is
not the most important single consideration,
although a high first page ranking is highly
desirable.
The most important thing is to get a high number
of interested surfers to your site. By "interested",
we mean people who are actually interested in
seeing or buying or using your product or service.
Getting to the top and staying there requires
continual work and effort.
Here's the length of time it currently takes
to get listed at each of the major search engines
once you have submitted your web page.
MSN : Up to 2 months
Google : Up to 4 weeks
AltaVista : Up to 1 week
Fast : Up to 2 weeks
Excite : Up to 6 weeks
Northern Light : Up to 4 weeks
AOL : Up to 2 months
HotBot : Up to 2 months
iWon : Up to 2 months
Listening to our competitors in this business,
you would get the impression that there are
all sorts of secret methods and tricks which
can be used to successfully push your web site
up the ratings, and get you onto the first page
of all the search engines, and even to the number
one position.
Our competitors probably don't want you to know
what work they are actually going to do on your
behalf, so they make out that they have "secret"
methods. When we look at what they offer, usually
it is very little, but they manage to make it
sound like a lot!
We prefer not to have any secrets from you,
which is why you will find lots of advice on
our site about your contribution to the effort.
The starting point is content. Unless your site
tells people all about your services or products,
search engines can't successfully and accurately
index your site and match it to surfer’s
inquiries. Most of our advice is common sense
and logic, but distilled from considerable thought
and experience.
Search engines are designed to bring sites to
users with the most relevant content to their
search. So content is king! The truth is, search
engine optimization is about 10% technical and
90% about knowing how to write the right kind
of content to appeal to search engines. Writing
for content is in itself a whole industry If
your site doesn't have much content, don't expect
great search engine placement. You simply must
have lots of 'good' content for the search engines
to index. And making good solid 'content' is
one of our specialties.
You will find companies advertising that they
will get you a guaranteed "Top 10"
position in a specific number of search engines.
The catch is that this is for a very specific
and limited number of 2-word, 3-word, and possibly
longer phrases, with an upper limit of about
six or perhaps eight phrases. We can match this
if you want, but we believe in the broader aim
of maximizing the number of relevant visitors
to your site. Certainly we too use a number
of two, three, four and longer keyword phrases
in meta tags, but we try to find a different
set for each page, aiming for maximum relevance
to the individual page, while retaining the
overall context of your site. Because we take
a broader approach, we believe you will benefit
from attracting a broader spectrum of visitors.
If you really must have
a list of "secrets", these would be
on them:
1. Ensure plenty of site
"content".
2. Ensure content is of high quality.
3. Use an accurate, and preferably different,
title for each page.
4. Use an accurate "description" for
every page.
5. Create a list of "keywords" which
are highly relevant to each page, while retaining
the overall site context.
6. Ensure the site is "user (including
robots) friendly".
7. Plan out a search engine submission strategy.
8. Monitor performance at regular intervals
for all your main pages.
9. Monitor your site traffic statistics.
10. Modify your submission routine, and alter
your sites content as necessary.
This question is rather like the old story about
the person who asks "How do you get to
Carnegie Hall", only to get the reply "You've
got to practice, practice, practice!"
In this case, it's a slightly different answer
which still means the same thing. To get to
the top of the search engines, first you need
to have plenty of good quality content within
your site, and on each page of your site. This
means a lot of work. Without the hard work,
there is very little chance of getting to the
top of the search engines, and staying there.
Obviously, even if you put in the effort and
create a wonderful website, it will not just
get to the top of the search engines by itself,
it will need to be promoted. With a great site,
the chances of getting to the top and staying
there are greatly increased. The site itself
and all its pages should be submitted to the
search engines, bearing in mind our advice given
on other pages.
Firstly, we build sites from the ground up with
Search Engine Optimization in mind so all the
technical aspects of SEO are already included
in our typical web site build. We'll talk to
you about your expectations for search engine
placement. Depending on how much you're relying
on search engines to bring you traffic, we may
suggest that we take a swing at either writing
or editing your content to play to the search
engines.
The effort required for optimizing a site depends
on the site, the industry, and your competition
because search engine placement is all about
relativity. Your site could be awful, but if
it's the only site about the Californian Purple
Gorilla, then you'll still make it to the top
of the rankings, and conversely, your site could
be nearly perfect in terms of being optimized,
but if you're up against websites with deep
pockets and large amounts of time and resources
to throw at their efforts, you may never get
to the top.
