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Secrets for Top 10 Search Results in Google, Yahoo and
MSN
Here are three simple steps
of the SEO equation to remember:
1. Choose to target search terms
that convert prospects into customers and make sure there is room in the market for you to gain a Top Ten ranking in 90 days or less.
2. Optimize your page content and
HTML code for those terms.
3. Actively seek external, one-way,
incoming links with variations of the targeted key terms as the anchor
text.
Most webmasters make a key mistake in not testing their researched keywords to make sure the visitors targeted actually convert. So, they end up with good traffic but no buyers. Test your keywords through a PPC campaign first before you ever spend time optimizing.
There are a few convenient tools
around for selecting your
search terms. One that I have been using since 1999 is WordTracker.
The most logical page to optimize
is your homepage, but that could be a mistake. Website home pages are generally the worst converting page of the site. There is generally just too much to distract the prospect. Instead, focus on an internal page, or create one.
Your website should include three important
tags in the head. They include title,
meta description, and meta keywords. Stuffing
your head tags with other metas and clutter such as
lengthy javascript can
only harm your search engine results page ranking (SERPs);
<head> clutter
will never improve your ranking.
Many SEO experts stress over the importance of the Title Tag, and some even use the Meta Title Tag as a way of beefing up the ranking. Our tests show no indication of this and while I state the Meta Title tag is optional, I would advise not to use it.
Search engines see tags such as <h1>, <h2>, <h3>,
<strong>, <em>, <u> and <a href>
as prominent indicators
of topic relevancy. Use them with care and purpose.
Now for a list of Don'ts
* Don't bother optimising a page
that redirects. Don't use robots.txt or meta tags to
impede search engine access to your optimized pages.
* Don't use same color text and background. This makes the text look invisible to the visitor and search engines view it as "Spam".
* Don't Spam keywords with immediate
repeats.
* Don't force any text to appear
at 4px or under.
* Don't use frames.
* Don't fill your pages up with internal
scripts. Where possible, use links to external scripts.
Don't trust automatic linking software.
It's far, far too easy to get listed in link-farms and garbage directories
when using automatic submission software. You want to ensure that you have
a certain level of control over who and how your site gets linked. The most valuable
links you can get are from highly respected sites that are theme-related
to your optimised page content.
Directories, directories and more
directories. This is a good place to start.
Many directories will give you a free link without the
need to reciprocate.
Do a Google search for directory + 'your business category'.
Here's a list
of some high ranking directories.
Start at the top and work your way down.
Free Classifieds. Search for sites that allow you to post
free or cheap classifieds
with basic html enabled. Get your key terms in the classified
ad as the
anchor text for the link to your optimised web page.
Discussion Forums. Start hunting
for discussion forums with a solid community with lots of active posts. Avoid those which just have a high Google PageRank but look like a "ghost town".
The forums
must allow for links in your account signature. When
making the sig, be sure
your key terms are the anchor text for the link/s to
your site. Once registered,
start posting your little heart out and be sure to enable
your signature
to be attached to your post. Just make sure you are benefiting the forum community or you may be labeled a Spammer and kicked out.
Press Releases. Do you think you
have something newsworthy to say? Then
write up a news story and be sure to include a link
(don't forget keywords
= anchor text) in the body or by-line. Submit the article
to related sites
in exchange for prominent links. Submit to all the major
web news sites. Each
website that publishes the article is another incoming,
one-way link with
your key terms as the guiding light.
Do backlink searches on your competitors.
Back link searches are search criteria which asks for
sites linking to
a page that do not include the page's domain. For example,
at Google a back
link search for www.acmehosting.com would be link:www.acmehosting.com
-site:acmehosting.com. Duplicate your competitors efforts
and get your site
linked where ever they've managed to. A great tool to use is Brad Callen's SEO Elite.
On a finishing note, there's one
important
thing to realise about Google SERPs, the "Sandbox"
effect. It's theorised that
Google filters new domain names out of all searches
except for their own domain
name for a period of 6-9 months depending on the popularity
of the site's targeted
key-words. Google PR rank and SERPs are inter-related
but are not the same
thing. Your site can enjoy a Google PR of 7 yet still
be sandboxed and appear
nowhere in the results for your targeted key terms.
The only thing you
can do is work on your external linkage and optimise
more pages of your
site. The hard work will pay off on steady incoming
traffic and high
ranks at MSN and Yahoo etc. When Google finally releases
your domain,
then you'll enjoy similar SERPs to the other majors
and reliable, incoming
qualified traffic.
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