Unfortunately when we build a website or add a new web page to our site
we aren't able to simply tell the search engines what keywords we want to be ranked well for. Instead, Google and all search engines index your web pages based on the words that they find on each page of your site.
So, since you can't suggest to Google what keywords you want to rank well for you must instead use good search engine optimization methods for coaxing the search engines into finding your desired keywords.
That's why optimizing each page of your website with relevant, high ranking keywords is so important to improving your Google keyword ranking. The frustrating thing is that you don't always rank well for the keywords you optimized your pages for …or instead, you might find that you rank well for keywords you didn't optimize your site for at all.
So how can you effectively get listed for the keywords you want to rank well for? Well, nothing is a guarantee but here are a few things you can do to show the search engines what keywords you want to rank for as well as demonstrating that your site is relevant to your specific topic:
Use good site structure
Keep your website logically organized by using categories that make it easy to find related content. A well-organized web site also makes it easy for the search engines, as well as human visitors, to find what they are looking for; it also makes it a lot easier to grow your site logically.
To ensure that the search engine spiders index all of your pages make sure that every page of your Web site is no more than two levels deep from home page, in other words it should not take more than two clicks to go from the home page to every page of your site.
Create web pages that use different but relevant search terms
The search engines determine what your site and pages are about by the terms that are used. But it verifies its findings by looking for other relevant yet 'different' terms on the page as well.
For example, if you have a page about handbags you should also include terms like purses, totes, clutches, backpacks, etc. Wordtracker is an excellent tool for digging deep and finding these related terms. Using these different but relevant terms shows the search engines that your website is related to your page's general topic.
Study the pages that rank higher than yours
You might think your pages are optimized perfectly for your chosen search terms but low and behold there may be pages ranking higher than yours.
Unfortunately it takes more than good search engine optimization to get a great search engine ranking, there's still a bit more to the equation and it includes analyzing the inbound links of the top ranking web pages.
Start by finding out what inbound links there are for your competing sites and try to establish just as many inbound links for your site. You can find out how many inbound links there are for a website by going to www.yahoo.com and typing into the search box
link:http://www.websitename.com
When working on establishing quality inbound links don’t forget to use the keyword phrase you want to rank for as your anchor text. This will help ensure ranking for your chosen keywords.
In summary… using all of the above strategies will help ensure your site gets ranked for the keywords that you intended, you can also use a top rated SEO software tool and be guaranteed top 10 rankings on Google for the keywords you want to rank high for.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, a really good article! There are somethings I would have never of thought! I’ve been using XSitePro to build my websites, it takes care of all the SEO for you. If you’ve created a search engine unfriendly website XSitePro will tell you how to fix it, its REALLY easy to use aswell! My website is really highly ranked on google now!
In your article you say;
“Keep your website logically organized by using categories that make it easy to find related content. A well-organized web site also makes it easy for the search engines, as well as human visitors, to find what they are looking for; it also makes it a lot easier to grow your site logically.”
I think that is really excellent advice and it’s something that lots of people who are new to building websites forget.
Hey Francis, I too use Xsitepro and have been very much impressed with the the specialized tools it comes with, including the SEO tool. It also makes adding pages and links very easy and a lot less time consuming. Of course, structure counts, and Xsitepro also helps with that as well.
THere is a lot of popularity today among blogs but I’m a little torn between great site builders like Xsitepro, Sitebuildit! and using blogs like Wordpress. I use and like them all. One of the problems I’ve noticed with blogs is that I’ve sometimes tried to look up specific content and had no luck, plus most blogs tend to be a little busy and that can be very distracting. That’s not to say blogs aren’t great for feedback and social networking because they are, and I do like to supplement my sites with a blog simply for those reasons.
Thanks for your comments!
A really nice introduction to improving your site rankings!
I would say the most important thing with SEO is relevancy: your page title should contain your keywords, as should your H1 heading tag and the first couple of paragraphs of text.
You should aim for your inbound links to come from pages with relevant content and have the anchor text of these links as your keywords.
I would also say be VERY wary of any product or service that offers top ten results guaranteed.
Absolutely, those are all great points. Linking to relevant pages and using the appropriate anchor text is key. The other thing that’s important as well is maintaining focus meaning don’t drift off topic, this can sometimes confuse the search engines. If your page starts to include sub-topic information, simply create another page for it and link to that page.
I also agree that you should be wary of products and services that guarantee top search engine ranking but there are a few products that actually do a great job at improving your ranking. They may guarantee top ranking for your keywords but the real guarantee comes with refunding your money if it doesn’t, that’s the guarantee you really want. Products like IBP and WebCEO offer money back guarantees but not all personal services do, so be careful.
Liz, outstanding article. Full of information. I agree with you. Having good site structure is critical to a high Google ranking.
Studying your competitors’ sites that rank above you makes perfect sense. I haven’t done enough of this. As you say, having quality income links is so important to your ranking on the search engines.