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by Bob Mortensen | Share +
Everyone wants, and sometimes expects, page 1 rankings when they hire a web design firm to produce their company’s website. These goals can be accomplished but can never be guaranteed. Be wary of any company that guarantees page 1 rankings. Search engines are designed specifically to prevent any one person or group from understanding exactly how they work, thus preventing the monopolization of the system. The good news is, there are techniques available to give us the best chance of the highest possible search engine rankings. All techniques revolve around the use of relevant keywords and how we expose the internet to those keywords.
Search engine ranking techniques are broken down into 2 main categories, Internal keyword optimization (SEO) and External link building (SEM).
Internal SEO (search engine optimization)
These techniques are used to define and optimize the content of your web site for search engines to index.
- Use relevant keywords to define Web Page Titles. Page titles appear at the top of each web page below the url. Page titles are one of the first items search engine robots scan on a given website.
- Use relevant keywords to define Web Page Names. Page names are usually the domain name of each web page i.e. www.yourdomainname.com/pagetitle.com.
- Use relevant keywords throughout the copy describing your company, products and services. Good copy writing will benefit your company by accurately describing your products and services in a way the will engage the reader. For websites copywriting must also be filled with keywords, relevant to your users search criteria.
- Use relevant keywords to name your images. Search engine robots can't read images, only text. So name your images using keywords so search engines can index those keywords. Don't forget the alt tag.
- Use relevant keywords in a site map. Another place to add relevant keywords is your site map. Not only will the site map allow your users to navigate your website they can also be a great place to fortify your keyword density.
- Use relevant keywords in hyperlinks, linking your site to other sites and visa versa. Search eingine robots place a higher importance on links. So use keywords in your page links, if possible
External Link Building (SEM)
These techniques are used outside your web site after it is built by linking other web sites to your web site. This linking method is called ‘Inbound’ or ‘Incoming’ links.
The Top 5 Places To Get Incoming Links To Your Website
- Social bookmarking sites. Post up your social bookmarks at popular sites like Digg, reddit and Stumble Upon. This is a great way to get high Page Rank backlinks to your site quickly and easily.
- Blogs. You can create several blogs on Wordpress and Blogger and have some links pointing back to your site. Blogs have an instant high Page Rank which you can leverage on. The more blogs which link to your website, the higher your website will rank, especially if the blogs are relevant to your website. Another way you can utilize this tactic is to contact other blog owners and have them link to your site, and vice-versa.
- Classified Ads. You can also use the search engine optimization power of classified ads sites like US Free Ads to get some quality backlinks. Simply write up a short ad and include a link to your site.
- Articles. Write articles and submit them to article directories, and have your URL in the resource box. This is an amazing way to get your links viral.
- Forums. Good forums are often ranked highly on the search engines because of the amount of new content they generate daily. Search for some forums in your niche and make posts, while including your link in your signature file..
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