Strategies for Raising Your Website's Search Results

Why do some websites or pages appear at the top of a search list? Quite simply, they have been optimized according to the criteria of the search engine providing the list. By employing a marketing technique called search engine optimization (SEO), you may be able to improve the ranking of your website in keyword or key phrase searches.

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo! send out automated "crawlers" or "robots," also known as "spiders," to trawl the Web, categorizing everything they find according to search relevance. A site's ranking is based on hundreds of variables such as keywords and key phrases, links to and from the site in question, and HTML code. Essentially, each website has to be "search engine optimized" to increase the possibility that it will be picked up by the spiders and ranked highly according to their rating criteria.

Although each search engine uses ever-changing search schemes for ranking sites and URLs, an understanding of a few basic SEO strategies may help develop higher search engine rankings.

Content Strategies

Content on the Web should be well written and informative. Readers have to respond to it in some way to make them want to come back for more. Even if readers have seen the information before, they may be more likely to return if it is well written and easy to read.

Create the expectation that new content will be added on a regular basis. Visitors who know that new content will be added every Monday morning, for example, may be more likely to return. However, even frequent updates can't overcome content that is poorly written, difficult to read, and uninformative.

Create unique content supporting the products and services offered by your website. Content should be relevant to your business offerings and attract potential and existing clients rather than just traffic for the sake of traffic. Building a loyal following could help inspire regular visitors to the site who will recommend it to like-minded individuals.

Avoid duplicate content. Pages on a website that contain essentially the same information, or information with only minor changes, are not liked by either search engines or readers. Stay away from duplicate content URLs, as they will invariably contribute to a lower search engine ranking. Duplicate content page examples include republished articles from other websites and multiple product description pages with few changes among them except the title.

Keyword Strategies

Keywords are one of the mainstays of search engine evaluation methods. However, they need to be used carefully.

Determine the popular keywords or key phrases that visitors use to find content or activities similar to those offered by your site. Analytical tools are useful to help identify them, but be aware that using a keyword or key phrase that gets lots of hits may not automatically enhance the popularity of your website.

Use your chosen keywords and key phrases effectively throughout your content pages. Do not overdo their use but make sure they are featured in such main text blocks as the title, subheadings, link text, and page URLs. They should be placed near the start of each text block at a frequency that will not draw negative search engine attention from overuse.

Also, in the title of your articles, be sure to include any keywords you want to use in your SEO efforts.

Link Strategies

Links can be key to increasing traffic to your site and getting search engines to rank your site higher. However, it's not enough to be linked to hundreds of mediocre sites.

Focus on linking to a few well-respected, highly ranked sites and getting them to reciprocate with a link to your site. Link directories — either fee-based or free — can also help. However, nothing beats good content in trying to encourage links from other sites.

Don't link just to your home page. Particular attention should be made to have links to as many different pages on your website as possible. Links throughout your website tell a search engine that there is plenty of content worth visiting and that the links are not simply generated automatically in some way.

Don't forget social media when it comes to linking. Free widgets are available to allow visitors to bookmark your site from social media sites. Such links can be valuable for search engine rankings.

Make sure that each page's source code cites a text link first. Search engine robots follow the first link they find on a page, so make sure the first link isn't an image link in your navigation bar. Titles can be applied to links as well, adding to the page's relevancy for some search engines.

Article exchanges can be useful in one respect, but be careful they don't devalue your site in favor of other sites. Although publishing another site's article with a link back to the original site, and having the other group publish your article with a link back to your site, can create valuable high-quality links, it can also completely negate the time and effort it took to generate original high-quality content for your own website in the first place. If unique, high-quality content is a major selling point for your site, you need to think twice about allowing other sites to carry your original content.

Structuring Your Site for SEO

There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to move quickly from one page of a website to another. The pages on a website should be optimized for ease of navigation as well as SEO. So structure your website with lots of links to other pages on the same site. Make it easy for visitors — both human and non-human — to move between pages and not miss any of your content via a site map, home page, or navigation bar.

A site map linking to every page on the website can allow search engine robots and visitors to access any page with just two clicks. A navigation bar does the same job for smaller sites that don't need a separate site map.

As with any business application, it's important to track whether SEO is working effectively and, if it is, to see how it might be improved. There are a number of free site analytical tools that can be used to assess website performance, including Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics, as well as Yahoo! Site Explorer.

SEO is constantly evolving. What was good last week may be redundant this week. Why? Because search engine algorithms are constantly changing, and the hierarchy of elemental evaluation within those algorithms is continually shuffled and reprioritized. Keep up to date with the ever-evolving world of SEO strategies by regularly reading such SEO sites as Search Engine Watch.

Although there are hundreds of books, articles, and websites dedicated to the ever-changing, complex world of search engine optimization, common sense, attention to detail, and a basic understanding of the essential rules can provide a good foundation for further detailed knowledge and current SEO requirements.

Emerald websites are designed to be optimized for search engines. Find out more about our websites