How to boost a site's ranking with the search engines.

Posted by Torre DeVito on: 2006-03-22 18:03:51

Self SEO > Search Engine Optimization Articles

Before one can begin to boost a web site's ranking with the search engine it is important to understand how those rankings are determined in the first place. Four things will determine how a site is ranked: Location and frequency of keywords, links to and from the site, actual click-through to the site from the search engines, and paying for inclusion to the search engine. When one understands what determines the ranking, one can employ a variety of legitimate strategies to improve the site's chances of appearing high in the ranks.

A closer examination of the four determining factors:
o Keyword location and frequency - All the major web crawlers employ ranking algorithms which use the location and frequency of keywords on a web page as their major criteria for ranking a web page. Keywords do not mean the meta keyword tag. keywords may be found int text, the title, alt text, and the meta description tag. Location is where the keyword appears on the page. Keywords score points if they are near the top of a web page, in the title, in a headline or in the first few paragraphs of text. These algorithms assume that any page relevant to the topic will mention keywords up front. Frequency is another major factor in how search engines rank a page. By analyzing how often keywords appear in relation to other words in a web page the algorithm can determine if the keyword is relevant to the topic of the page. Keywords with a higher frequency are usually more relevant to the page than those with lower frequencies.

o Link analysis - A search engine can determine what a page is about and whether a page it is deserving of a ranking boost by analyzing how it is linked to from and how it links to other pages. Sophisticated techniques are used to screen out attempts by webmasters to build bogus links designed to boost rankings.

o Hit measurement - Most search engines keep track of which links are actually visited from a list of results from a search. The algorithm drops the ranking for pages that aren't attracting clicks, and promotes the ranking of pages that pull in visitors. Strategies are used to compensate for artificial clicks generated by robots and other less-than-honest methods.

o Paid inclusion - Most search engine offer a program where you can pay to be included in the index, though not paid placement, it does seem to move pages up the ranking a bit.

Once one understands how a site is ranked, one may begin to employ strategies to improve the ranking. The very first step is imperative, however: BE WORTH FINDING. What good is served if one can find a site if there is nothing on that site that he or she needs or wants to find? Here then are the Pagecandy rules of boosting rankings with the search engines:

To boost a site's ranking with the search engines one should:

o Build a site worth finding - A site should use relevant keywords and have unique and interesting information, be entertaining, and if the point of the site is e-commerce, offer goods and services that the customer will want at a price that they can afford, and the product or service should relate to how the customer found the site in the first place.

o Use a good descriptive title - One can use a whole sentence in the tag using lots of relevant keywords. <br /> <br /> o Use the meta description tag - One should use as many keywords as possible. One can use the meta keywords tag if desired, but the description tag is the stuff. <br /> <br /> o Use descriptive Alt information on images. If the site is about surfing and features a picture of Joe on his board the alt text should not just say Joe, or even Joe surfing, something like "Kahuna Joe riding the curl on his surf board" would contain more keywords. <br /> <br /> o Get to the point. This gets the relative words up front. <br /> <br /> o Link to other sites of a similar topic. One should also contact the owners of those sites to see if they will reciprocate. <br /> <br /> o Write free articles on the site topic which link back to the site. One can post them as free content where other sites can use them. <br /> <br /> o Put free stuff on the site and make it available to other sites with a click-back. If it relates to the site's main topic, one can offer the following free stuff from the website: scripts, reports and white papers, forms that generate code or text, virtual calculators, recipes, or links to open source, freeware, or shareware downloads. For instance, a mortgage company could offer a free mortgage calculator, and an employment agency could link to free resume software. Better yet, one could create free resume software, and give it away on freeware and shareware distribution sites that would provide a link-back to ones site. <br /> <br /> o Post links to one's site in discussion forums - One should be certain that the forum is somehow related to the purpose of one's web site. Posting the link along with the correct answer to someones question is a good way to justify providing the link. It is also a good idea to pick forums that can be found near the top of searches on a variety of topics that match keywords that one would use to find one's own site. <br /> <br /> o Consider paying for inclusions to search sites and directory listings - One may wish to consider paying for inclusions, but only if the goods or service is likely to bring in the kind of return that would make such an expense worthwhile. <br /> <br /> o Employ the services of a web design company such as <a href='http://www.pagecandy.com'><b>www.<font face='Arial' color='red'> page</font><font face="Arial" color='blue'>candy</font>.com</b></a> - A good web design company should be able to boost your ranking and your overall hit count (number of visitors) through these and other strategies. <br><br><br>  <script type="text/javascript"> addthis_url = location.href; addthis_title = document.title; addthis_pub = 'selfseo'; </script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/addthis_widget.php?v=12" ></script>  <br><br><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <br><img src=print.gif align=middle> <a href=print-story-11367.php rel="nofollow">Print this article</a> <img src=pm-new.gif align=middle> <a href=email-11367.php rel="nofollow">Tell a friend</a> <br></div><br>  <table width="100%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td width=20><img src=articles.gif></td><td background=blueback.gif class=topblue> Related Articles</td></tr></table> <div class=offset><br>  <img src=dot.gif><a href="story-18564.php" class=list>How To Benchmark For SEO</a><br>  <img src=dot.gif><a href="story-12185.php" class=list>How To Become An SEO Ninja</a><br>  <img src=dot.gif><a href="story-5724.php" class=list>SEO and how to be #1 in Google and MSN!</a><br>  <img src=dot.gif><a href="story-5057.php" class=list>How To Become an SEO Expert - 5 Secrets That Will Allow You to Outperform 95% of All Webmasters</a><br>  <img src=dot.gif><a href="story-174.php" class=list>How to Build a Website Around Keywords</a><br>  </div><br>  <script language="JavaScript">  </script> <table width="100%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td width=20><img src=comment.gif></td><td background=blueback.gif class=topblue> Post New Comment</td></tr></table> <div class=offset> <br>This site does not allow anonymous comments. Registered members can <a href=login.php>login</a> to participate. <a href=register.php>Registration</a> is free and takes only a few seconds </div><br> <script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> _uacct = "UA-652216-2"; urchinTracker(); </script>  </td></table> <br><div class=footer>  <center>Powered by <a href="http://www.esselbach.com" target="_blank">Esselbach Storyteller CMS System</a> Version 1.7-Free</center>  </div><br><br>