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In the last issue of Sharing Ideas we reviewed a variety of ways to obtain top placement on search engines using pay per click methodologies. This can be a great way to get immediate results without making significant changes to your website, however it can get expensive. Many clients elect to supplement this methodology by using organic search engine placement techniques. Organic listing are the non-sponsored (ie: non-paid) results that show up on the major search engines based upon the actual content of the website. A search engine's primary goal is to deliver the most relevant results for any given keyword query so that users will continue to frequent that search engine. If two speakers have websites that target the same keywords, how do the search engines determine which one should rank higher? Many of the search engines rank websites based on proprietary algorithms which are comprised of a wide variety of variables. None of them publish their ranking methods which change frequently. Many experts believe that the major search engines factor in dozens of variables including: meta information; page content; page layout; keyword density; heading tags; keyword proximity; link popularity; keyword relevance; server response time; ip address; domain name selection, page names, etc. A recent search for "motivational speaker" yielded over 500,000 results. The goal is to create a website scenario that is better than your competition. The following techniques outline some of the criteria used by the search engines to determine website rankings: Domain Name - Many search engines will give higher ranking to sites whose domain name contains important keywords. For example if the domain name were http://www.medicalmalpractice.com/ the search engine ranking for the keyword motivational speaker may be increased significantly. Often clients will purchase multiple keyword rich domain names to enhance their marketing efforts. Recently I spoke with one site owner who has registered over 3,000 domains which all point to specialty websites. Your objective is to plant as many relevant seeds as possible and then harvest the results. Page Title - This is the text that appears in the top left corner of your browser window. Many search engines use this information as an indicator of page content. This information is user definable and should relate to the content of the individual web page displayed. It is also the text that is displayed when a visitor bookmarks your site or adds it to their favorites. Meta Tag Overview - Meta tags are codes that are contained within the source code of your html text and are not readily visible by visitors to your site. Some search engines use this data as part of their ranking process. Although there are a variety of tags, the primary components are the keywords and description. Many people believe that these tags are of key importance in the optimization process; however search engines have begun to utilize more sophisticated algorithms in recent years and the importance of meta tags has diminished. You can view a website's source code in Internet Explorer, by selecting "source" from the view menu option at the top of the page. Meta Keyword Tag - Often search engines use keywords (which are not displayed on the webpage) to rank the related page. List your keyword phrases in order of importance. Be careful not to spam the search engines by repeating the same words numerous times. Each search engine has their own threshold for determining abuse. Meta Description - This information is displayed by some search engines as summary information on their results pages. It should contain compelling content and be limited to 100 to 250 characters as each search engine has their own limits and may truncate excess information. Headings and bold print items - Many search engines add ranking points for keywords that are included in headings or are more prominent on the page. The feeling is that there is probably a higher relevancy for words used in this context. Use H1 tags or other heading tags to emphasize important keyword phrases. Content text - Search engines usually add ranking points for keywords that are found within the body of the page. A higher prominence is given to words that are displayed in the first half of a sentence. Additionally, weight is often given to keyword phrases that appear in the first 200 words of the page. Note: Remember that search engines cannot read text that is displayed as a graphic. Try to use text as much as possible and use Alt tags for pictures as outlined below. Keyword Density Ratios - Often a search engine will use ratios as part of the ranking process. If there are one hundred words on the page and the keyword appears 5 times, the ratio is 5%. The same number of keywords on a larger page will yield a lower percentage and potentially a lower ranking. This may lead one to think that keywords should be repeated as often as possible. Search engines have gotten wise to tricks used by unscrupulous site owners who abuse this practice. For example, placing keywords in white text on a white background to fool the search engines causes severe ranking penalties. This is known as search engine spamming and is not recommended. Search engines often place unpublished thresholds on the number of times that a keyword can be repeated without being designated as spam. Word Proximity - If the words "motivational" and "speaker" are grouped together they will yield a higher rating than if they were separated throughout the document. In addition, if "corporate" and "motivational speaker" appear in close proximity of each other, then many of the search engines will weigh those items better as a collective search term. Alt Tags - These are the words that are used to describe the pictures on a page. They appear when you place your mouse over the picture or when graphics are turned off within the client's browser preferences. They can be used to help the search engines understand your graphic content. Use Keywords in Hyperlinks - Often people will create a link that says click here. The search engines have no idea what this link pertains to. It is far better to say "learn how to motivate your staff by hiring a professional motivational speaker". Link Popularity - Some search engines (especially Google) add ranking points based on the number of other websites that reference the subject site. If your site is more popular than a competitor's site, then the search engines will often give it higher relevance. Realize however that this is not strictly a numbers game. A link from CNN carries much stronger weight than many links from smaller sites. As such, try to obtain the best quality links available. Since each search engine has a different set of changing criteria, it is challenging to obtain high placement for a number of keywords on a consistent basis. It is easier (and often more effective) to achieve higher rankings for specific keyword phrases rather than for generic ones. For example it would be difficult to achieve a high ranking for the keyword "speaker" especially since the term also applies to stereo components, and other non-related topics. It may be easier to achieve quality results for "motivational speaker New York". Fewer people will enter this combination, however the ones that do will have a significantly higher probability of needing your services. The goal is not just to get a lot of hits, but to lead qualified clients to your door. In order to maintain desirable positioning, constant review and resubmission is necessary. Effective search engine placement can increase website traffic significantly; however it is only one ingredient of a successful online marketing campaign. Next issue we'll explore more ways to help you Climb to the Top! Dave Larner is a best selling author, speaker and online marketing consultant with over 24 years of industry experience. A recent audit showed that he has helped his clients obtain thousands of top ten keyword positions on the major search engines. In addition, he has created hundreds of professionally designed websites including speakandgrowrich.com. If you have an interesting technique for search engine placement, I'd really like to hear about it. Please contact me c/o: David Larner
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