Search Engine Secrets: Get Top Listings on Google and Yahoo!

Did you believe this? If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably seen a million pages and emails just like this claiming they can do miracles for you on every search engine. They claim everything from having inside information or special relationships with Google and all search engines.

The simple truth is this: no one can guarantee top listings on any search engine, in fact, no one can guarantee that you will ever get listed. So beware of big claims and unethical SEO companies as there are plenty out there.

So how do you get ranked high on major search engines? Let me try to answer that in the simplest way possible without completely confusing you. CONTENT: yes, that’s right… content is still king… the more you try to fool the search engines, the more damage you will do to your rankings. Search engines are getting smarter and have seen every trick in the book pulled by every unethical SEO/SEM company and spammer out there. So don’t fall for the hype and false claims.

Here’s the big search engine secret

Related and well-written content, relevant page titles and meta tag descriptions. So there you have it, the secret is out… if anyone tries to tell you otherwise or convince you otherwise, put your checkbook away and run. Yes, there are other things you can do to help your ranking using the 3 items above and more.

How to improve your chances in search engine rankings:

*** Know your top keywords. Use the Yahoo Keyword Tool http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/?mkt=us&lang=en_US or the Goggle Sandbox https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd =KeywordSandbox to find what users actually type into search engines to find sites like yours. Once you have all your main keywords, don’t lose them… you’ll use them over and over again.

*** Use your main keywords in the content of your pages, in the titles of your pages and in the descriptions of your partner tags. I don’t mean using pages that are filled with nothing but keywords, use them in Real Sentences. Pages that are nothing more than keywords will hurt you in search engines, this is called keyword stuffing, and it will hurt your rankings or worse, get your site removed or banned from search engines. Just take your current site content and use your main keywords in the appropriate places where they make sense in actual sentences.

*** Don’t overuse keywords or try to use too many on a single page. Having your main keyword in the title, description, and a couple of times in the page content is usually enough. Do this for each page of your site by optimizing it for the topic of that particular page using the relevant keywords from your research. I see so many sites with the same Title and Meta Descriptions on every page. Make sure yours are different.

*** Get as many high value links as possible. The best way to determine high value links is to install the Google Toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com/ and use Google Page Rank to determine link value. You can also use our public relations tool at http://www.i4market.com/tools/rankcheck.html. The higher the rank, the better. You may have to pay for links on PR7 or higher sites, but don’t pay too much. You can also use Alexa Traffic Rank or its toolbar: http://www.alexa.com/. The more high-value links you have, the better your search engine popularity will be.

*** Install link exchange software… but be selective about which link exchanges you approve.

*** Add relevant value-added content to your site, such as articles, news, blogs or tools related to your business or industry. This will increase your search engine saturation. A site with 100 pages of good quality content has a much better chance of being found than a site with only 10 pages.

*** Use Google XML Site Maps or find a company that will create one for you. http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/about.html

*** Offer a sitemap to your users with links pointing to the important parts of your site. If your sitemap has more than 100 links, split the sitemap into separate pages.

*** Try using text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. Search engines do not recognize text contained in images or flash content. If you must use images, always use the Alt tag to describe the link.

*** Check for broken links and correct HTML.

*** If you choose to use dynamic pages (ie the URL contains a “?” character), please note that not all search engine spiders crawl dynamic pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few. Please do not use “&id=” as a parameter in your URLs, as Google does not include these pages.

*** Keep links on a given page to a reasonable number (less than 100).

*** Use the robots.txt file on your web server. This file tells crawlers which directories can and cannot be crawled. Make sure it’s up to date for your site so you don’t accidentally block spiders from the content you want to include.

*** Understand the difference between a search engine and a directory. A search engine uses crawling technology and will look for new sites on the web. Directories won’t search for you and you’ll have to tell them about your new site manually.

*** Check your keywords periodically. There are thousands of ways to search for the same thing, search patterns change from time to time. You’ll want to keep up with those changes.

***Submit your site to search engines if it has never been submitted or does not appear on that particular engine. Most search engines still have free submission for “Natural Listings”, but they may not be easy to find. You can find the Google ADD URL here http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

*** Submit your site to directories, including Yahoo! and DMOZ. DMOZ http://www.dmoz.org/ is the Open Directory Project and is used to power thousands of other sites and directories. Inclusion in this directory gives you links to thousands of other sites. DMOZ is also the directory that Google uses. http://directory.google.com/

WHAT NOT TO DO.

— Do not use hidden text or links
— Do not use gateways or gateway pages.
— Do not use pages that redirect users to other places.
— Do not use any kind of cloaking technology, no matter how good it sounds. It may work for a short time, but they will catch you.
— Do not use Flash content for important information. Flash is a completely invisible application to most search engines. Flash is good for animations and other page elements, not for an entire site unless it also has an html version.
— Do not use misleading or overly repeated words
— Don’t use bait and switch tactics…they don’t work.
— Do not use duplicate sites or pages
— Stay away from Free For All or Link Farms schemes as these will only hurt you.

There are a lot of things that affect your ranking, other than the content on your pages, so DO NOT get hung up on being #1 – you may never get there no matter what you do. Your time is better spent operating your business in areas over which you have more control.

Following the above guidelines will give you the best results your site will achieve. That’s not to say there isn’t more you can do, but these are the main things that will affect your ranking in the SERPs (search engine result pages). The internet occupies a huge place and technology changes all the time, as do search engines – a site that is #1 today could be #1001 tomorrow.

You can try to do all of this yourself or you can hire a company that specializes in SEO/SEM (Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing), however be warned, there are many out there that will take you out of your money quickly and they will leave you with little to no results. We suggest that you take some advice from Google regarding the selection of an SEO company for your business. http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/seo.html

Above all, remember this, THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES on any type of marketing campaign, whether on the web, in print, on TV or radio. So spend wisely and select your marketing company wisely!