Understanding the Search Engines
Understanding the Search Engines
Think of the engines like teachers handing our gold stars (or check marks) for everything that you do well.
Google currently has about 200 factors in their algorithms that determine how your site will rank.
The process they go through is the equivalent of the teacher looking at your site and then looking at their checklist and giving you a gold star for each of the things that you do right.
However, some of the items on the list are more important and you may get multiple gold stars.
No one knows for sure how the algorithm works, but we test and monitor the industry to come up with a technique that works well for getting sites ranked.
You should look at the foundation of the site first (we call this search engine friendliness.)
This includes looking at the HTML that is used to build your site and making sure there are no errors in the code, and looking at how the site is built to make sure there is nothing that will block the spiders.
Then you should look at on-page optimization, which is tweaking the content for keyword density (increasing the usage of keywords on the site), tweaking the Meta tags (they are like a guide to each page that tells the search engines what keywords are on the page and what the page is about, and then use ALT tags, Header tags and various other HTML tweaks.
You should also look at adding new content - as long as it is informative and relevant and not just keyword stuffed text that has no value.
You should do a sitemap, an XML sitemap (this is a technical way of feeding your site to the engines so they spider your content frequently).
You should work on obtaining quality links into your site to boost your link popularity.
All of this is to drive the search engine spiders to your site, so they can review it and hand out the gold stars.
The number of gold stars you achieve will determine how well your site will rank.
There are no shortcuts, there are no tricks (none that are safe to use and won’t result in trouble down the road).
All you can do is make sure your on-page optimization and links are in place and consistently work on growing your site with relevant content.
You really don’t need to submit to the engines these days, especially not multiple times. Your XML sitemap set up and submission will call Google and Yahoo, and the rest will follow.
About the Author:
Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing and co-owner of www.EcomBuffet.com. Jennifer’s vision and concepts are behind all in-house marketing campaigns. Additionally, over the past 8 years Jennifer’s expertise in online marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase revenue and achieve their business goals. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on Search Engine Optimization and has been published in many SEO and marketing publications. Jennifer can be reached at Jennifer@ecombuffet.com.
Understanding the Search Engines - To learn more about this author, visit Jennifer Horowitz's Website.
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Here is a simplified view of how the search engine algorithms work:
Think of the engines like teachers handing our gold stars (or check marks) for everything that you do well.
Google currently has about 200 factors in their algorithms that determine how your site will rank.
The process they go through is the equivalent of the teacher looking at your site and then looking at their checklist and giving you a gold star for each of the things that you do right.
However, some of the items on the list are more important and you may get multiple gold stars.
No one knows for sure how the algorithm works, but we test and monitor the industry to come up with a technique that works well for getting sites ranked.
You should look at the foundation of the site first (we call this search engine friendliness.)
This includes looking at the HTML that is used to build your site and making sure there are no errors in the code, and looking at how the site is built to make sure there is nothing that will block the spiders.
Then you should look at on-page optimization, which is tweaking the content for keyword density (increasing the usage of keywords on the site), tweaking the Meta tags (they are like a guide to each page that tells the search engines what keywords are on the page and what the page is about, and then use ALT tags, Header tags and various other HTML tweaks.
You should also look at adding new content - as long as it is informative and relevant and not just keyword stuffed text that has no value.
You should do a sitemap, an XML sitemap (this is a technical way of feeding your site to the engines so they spider your content frequently).
You should work on obtaining quality links into your site to boost your link popularity.
All of this is to drive the search engine spiders to your site, so they can review it and hand out the gold stars.
The number of gold stars you achieve will determine how well your site will rank.
There are no shortcuts, there are no tricks (none that are safe to use and won’t result in trouble down the road).
All you can do is make sure your on-page optimization and links are in place and consistently work on growing your site with relevant content.
You really don’t need to submit to the engines these days, especially not multiple times. Your XML sitemap set up and submission will call Google and Yahoo, and the rest will follow.
About the Author:
Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing and co-owner of www.EcomBuffet.com. Jennifer’s vision and concepts are behind all in-house marketing campaigns. Additionally, over the past 8 years Jennifer’s expertise in online marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase revenue and achieve their business goals. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on Search Engine Optimization and has been published in many SEO and marketing publications. Jennifer can be reached at Jennifer@ecombuffet.com.
Understanding the Search Engines - To learn more about this author, visit Jennifer Horowitz's Website.
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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