How To Achieve Top Keyword Rankings
posted in Marketing & Advertising Assets |I have been creating and operating web sites for the past 3 years. I have created a consistent approach to getting the sites I run into the search engines quickly. I then use that same method to help get them to rank well for a small number of keywords, allowing the buoyancy effect to come into play for the rest of the site when one or two keywords ranks very high. This is the foundation of my search engine ranking strategy. In the event you did not know, when one or two keywords rank well within a given site, many secondary keywords enjoy a buoyancy effect and rank higher due to the high rankings of the main keywords. This cost effective keyword marketing has allowed my clients to keep for themselves a large dollar amount in SEO fees over the years while receiving terrific organic rankings.
When preparing a site for launch I will initially review a few characteristics of the site. The first things I look for on the main pages are the existence of the tags known as H1 and H2 surrounding text on the home page. The reason for the tags is that the search engine spiders will instantly look at text contained inside of the tags to determine the overall theme of the web site. When the right tags are used and the right content is available to support them, the search engines have a very easy time determining what the site is about and itcan more easily include or exclude if the site should be included when they encounter users looking for terms that are on your website.
As an additional part of the keyword ranking factors, I look for anchor text being used in the text on the home page. I have gained better rankings for lots of websites by having them remove images where the important message of the site, what it is all about, is embedded in the image. The simple fact is that, while the images may appear to offer a better look and feel for the site, the search engines cannot read images and pull text away from the image, so it is not worthwhile to put the important message of the site in the image. I always suggest that they use an image with less size and that text be in a prominent position so that the user can click and go instantly to the point of interest.
I like to have a page contained in the site for each keyword being used. The search engines enjoy quickly going to unique pages that are called the same as the keyword they are targeting. A page written for a wedding photographer should place some text in anchor text links on the main page for a wedding photographer leading them to a page called www.anysite.com/wedding-photographer.htm. The search engines will be able to process that link in short order and can quickly give it the right theme to work with.
The very next task I undertake it remove all underscores and replace them with dashes. I have heard, seen and witnessed countless examples of pages not being indexed as well because of the use of underscores. I cannot explain why (I do not know) but I am aware that this issue exists and should not be challenged. Two pages called almost the same name, wedding-photographer.htm and wedding_photographer.htm , will not score equally in the search engines, all else remaining equal. It is proven each and every time I test it so please stay away from it.
Do you want to know what the search engines think the theme of your site is? The most consistently proven method of gaining this information is to use the Google Keyword Tool (type that phrase into a search engine). You will be treated with what the search engine believes your site is about when you look at the terms it returns. Many customers that I work with are shocked to gain the knowledge that the search engines do not think the site is even remotely close to what they intended and we go through a process of changing a few key areas of the site to provide a different look from the search engine’s perspective. We do that mostly by putting simple no follow terms into the links and by highlighting keywords with H1 and H2 tags. The situation can quickly be turned around so please do not worry if your site is not what you think.
