Everyone wants to be number one. In the world of online marketing, ranking first in the search engines for a highly competitive term is like winning the gold medal. The cash collected from doing it is also a good incentive. For users that are new to web sites and search engines, we will cover the basics for ranking. Keep in mind that there are hundreds of different ways to raise your rank in the search engines. Following the most popular and most powerful methods for ranking will put you on the fast track to your own first place stance.
When it comes to ranking in the search engines, it is important to keep in mind that the major ones all have their own way to rank web sites. For the most part, current internet marketers try to comply with Google’s ranking system, due to them controlling the largest portion of traffic. Yahoo and Bing hold most of the rest of the traffic, but it is around 20% combined. Mainly, you will be targeting Google with the rest of the internet marketing community.
Start by fixing up your on-page SEO. Add your keywords to your title, meta tags, blog posts, page names, alt tags, image tags etc. Try not to spam the exact same phrase over and over again. If your phrase is bug spray, use combinations such as “bug spray – Kill bugs dead on the first spray”. Try to keep your targeted phrase as close to the front as possible. Next go through and sprinkle related terms to add relevance to your page. Basically, after finding the key phrase you target, Google will read the rest of your page and make sure it corresponds. By adding relevant phrases, Google will in turn give your page a higher relevance.
To find these relevant phrases, go to Google and search for a keyword tool. At the top with be Google’s adwords tool. Put in your target key phrase and what follows will be all terms Google finds relevant for your phrase. Simply adding a few of these throughout your page will do wonders for your SEO. Besides this, off page SEO is extremely important. To gain an edge, you have to build up back links from relevant and high authority web sites. Use your key phrase and variations of it as the anchor text of your links. If your phrase is still bug spray, than you will mix up that phrase with things like “ant bug spray”, and “bug spray for roaches”. This till continue to improve relevance while not giving Google the idea you are trying to manipulate the rankings. Read up on link building strategies on our site, if you’re unsure!
There are a variety of places to add your back link. Mixing up where and what kind of links go to your web site is a good way to increase rankings. Use web 2.0 properties such as hubpages.com, squidoo.com, wetpaint.com and livejournal.com. Post up an article that centers around your web page and link back to your website. Bookmark your web site, as well as your web 2.0 properties. Use a pinging service such as pingoat.com to ping both the web 2.0 sites and your main site. Submit articles to article directories with a link back to your main page. Join forums that are related to your niche and post up relevant information with your link in your profile. All these methods will increase search engine ranking, and when you master these you can move on to more elaborate SEO practices.
If you need more information from real professionals – you can contact Search Engine Optimization consultants you find on the web, or hire a SEO Company to actually do the hard work for you.
