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Increase Your Rankings on Google

This page focuses on search engine optimization principles for Google - the Goliath of search engines. Google presents its own challenges for webmasters who want to achieve better rankings. They're famous for their PageRank system of counting links between websites, but since late 2003 they have been adding new methods of linguistic analysis and other tools to differentiate between the good, the bad, and the ugly among the several billion webpages in their index.

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When Your Car Is Broken,
You Call A Mechanic

If your website is "broken" in the search engine results, and you can't tell how to fix it yourself, you should call in a specialist because he's trained for the job. He knows what's wrong and how to fix it. Doing it yourself is not always the wisest choice. You can end up wasting time and losing sales by taking weeks or months trying to learn what I already know about search engines. Be smart and start getting more targeted traffic now by ordering my Search Engine Optimization Service today! You can also request my FREE Search Engine Evaluation. I'll tell you what you're doing right, what you're doing wrong, and how I can help your site get its fair share of search engine traffic.


Higher Google Rankings For Your Website

Since 2002, I have been working hard on search engine ranking for the websites I supervise for myself and my clients. I've had some amazingly good results by just doing the simple things the search engines beg you to do. No sneaky tricks and no secrets... well, maybe a couple of secrets. Mostly, it's just the basics and a lot of hard work. Google's ever-improving methods of search engine ranking means you have to keep working in order to keep your fair share of the search engine traffic, but the foundation of their ranking algorithm remains the same.

Since about 70% of all searches are done on Google, you cannot afford to overlook their methods. Fortunately, search engine optimization techniques that work well on Google also have a positive effect on your ranking in other search engines. The difference is often simply a case on one search engine giving more weight in its ranking algorithm to one factor over another. Each search engine uses its own formula for ranking web pages. I've come up with a list of 8 basic principles I think every webmaster needs to focus on in order to get good results with all search engines, but especially Google, based on what I've learned:

 
  1. Get other relevant websites to link to you. A link that includes your keywords within the <a>nchor tags is much better for Google ranking than simply the URL or the name of the web site. Note that you should be prepared to reciprocate by installing a links page on your own website. There is no substitute for quality links. You simply have to have incoming links in order to get high rankings in search engines for any search terms that are not unique to your website. Links are the sine qua non of search engine rankings. Period. Finito. End of story. In addition to their classic PageRank system, Google is becoming increasingly aware of the content of the page where a link originates. This is related to the patented Hilltop techniques by which links are analyzed for the anchor text (ie. the text between the <a> and </a> that users click on) and the overall content of the page on which the link resides. So, it is very important to emphasize links from pages with relevant content if you want to do well in Google. Simple unfettered link exchanges are no longer enough to win the battle in the more competitive areas. In addition, posting links on your web site to other relevant sites, regardless of whether or not they link back to you, seems to have a positive effect on rankings in Google.

  2. Make sure the <title> tag on each page emphasizes the keywords for that page. The page title is the most valuable real estate on the page. Not only is it a vital component of the rankings for the page, it is the text that the user will see in the search engine results pages (SERPs). In terms of priority here, keywords come first, and your company/website name is a distant second.

  3. Include ample amounts of keyword-rich text on your main page with text links that contain the appropriate keywords within the <a>nchor tags to key pages within your website. Google judges the relevancy of a webpage to the terms in a user's search query, in part, by the proximity of the keywords to each other on the page, and the order in which they appear on the page. This especially includes the <title> tag and headlines tags (ie. <h1>, etc.).

  4. Submit your website to quality web site directories like The Open Directory Project (ODP). A listing in The Open Directory Project will get you a listing in Google and most other search engines because so many websites incorportate The Open Directory Project's listings on their pages that the link itself will present your site to the search engines. The Open Directory Project is owned by America Online through its Netscape subsidiary, but it is operated by volunteer editors. You need to follow their submission rules to the letter in order to be approved, so be sure to read their instructions. Getting a site listed in the ODP can take many months, but it does pay off. Other directories like JoeAnt and GoGuides are also valuable listings.

  5. Add fresh, original content to your web site as often as you can. All search engines, and Google in particular, like to see new pages and updated content on existing pages.

  6. Install a proper robots.txt file in your root directory. See http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/robots.html for information on creating a proper robots.txt file. It keeps robots out of your private or content-free directories and shows an awareness of the search engines that can only help you. If nothing else, it will enhance your control of which directories get crawled. For example, you may not want your graphics files listed on the search engines devoted to their listings. The robots.txt file can keep the spiders out of your images directory. The Google Webmaster Tools console provides an excellent tool for creating and testing your robots.txt file.

  7. Avoid schemes to try to fool search engines (particularly Google) into giving your website an undeservedly high ranking such as keyword stuffing, invisible text, link farms, automated link directories, doorway pages, three-way linking schemes, throwaway domains, and so on, which can get you penalized for a very long time or banished entirely from the search engines.

  8. When in doubt, see Rule #1. Links are the mother's milk of search engine rankings. Make a habit of soliciting new links from other well-ranked sites whose main topic is related to yours on a regular basis.


Google likes well-structured web sites and considers internal links to contribute to a heirarchical structure that enhances usability. This information and much more is available in the Google Information for Webmasters.


If you want your site to rank higher in the search engines, my Search Engine Optimization Services can give your website what it needs to get your fair share of search engine traffic quickly, without disturbing your design, and without breaking your budget.

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Call Richard L. Trethewey in Minneapolis today at 612-408-4057 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central time to get started on your new website design package or search engine optimization program today!


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