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Introduction Here you will find 10
truths about getting better rankings in
Google that I personally have found to
be true after years of research.
1. The Quick Fix First the bad news,
unfortunately there are no quick fixes
in creating higher rankings in Google.
You have to have a lot of patience in
the search engine optimization game. It
will take months for your efforts to
come to fruition. That's why it's
important to get things right from the
start and plan out your strategy.
2. Keywords Keywords are the most
important part of search engine
optimization. You must do your keyword
research before starting your website if
you can, because this will form the
basis of all your search engine
optimization.
There is no point going for broad
keywords such as "website design" since
there is too much competition for those
keywords and you will find it very
difficult, if not impossible, to reach
the top spot in Google. You are better
off using long tail niche keywords. They
will have a smaller search volume, but
it will be easier to obtain top
position. People are more likely to find
what they are looking for with long tail
keywords. For example, if someone needs
a website, they may type "web design"
into Google and visit a few websites.
They may then discover they also need
hostíng and a domain name and do another
search for "website design hostíng and
domain name services" and this may be
your niche keyword or key phrase.
How do you find keywords that people are
searching for? Well a good free tool can
be found at SeoBook or, if you want
something more professional, you can use
wordtracker an excellent service for
finding niche keywords. You should try
and get at least 10 keyword phrases.
Once you have found your keywords, do a
search with them on Google. First of all
look at how many results there are. If
it's in the millíons, then maybe your
keywords are not that good and would be
too competitive.
If you can find keywords with results at
about 50,000, then you could be onto a
wínner. You should also chëck out your
competition. Clíck on the top result for
your keyword in the SERPS (search engine
results pages) and chëck out their
pagerank. This will give you a rough
idea of what you need to achieve to get
top placement. Also, you should chëck to
see how many links they have pointing to
their website as this will give you a
rough idea of how many links you will
need to get to the top position. To do
this, in the search box type link:
www.thedomain.com and you will get a
líst of websites that link to that
domain, but it's a good idea to do this
in the Yahoo search engine because it
provides a more extensive líst of back
links. Google will only show you a
percentage of their links, usually
pagerank 3 or higher.
Remember, these are only rough estimates
because every website is different and
less, more relevant links will achieve
better results.
3. Title Tag Google sees the title tag
as the most important and relevant part
of the webpage it retrieves. This is one
of the few things you have any control
over in Google's search results. The
title tag is the underlined header for
your result in the SERPS. It also
appears at top of your browser window.
Keep this descriptive and readable but
at the same time include your newly
found niche keywords. Google will also
highlight the keywords in your title
that were included in the search query.
4. Description Tag The description tag
is the description of the webpage which
resides under the title tag in the
results. Again use your keywords in
here, maybe some of the lesser ones you
discovered. This is the only other part
of the results you have any control
over. Google will also highlight the
keywords in here that match the search
query. Again remember to keep it
descriptive and readable.
5. Domain Names If you can, try and
include your main keywords in your
domain name. Google will highlight them
when they match the search query. This
can give your ranking a little boost
bcause it will show that your website is
relevant to the search query.
6. Content Content is very important. If
you have ever changing fresh, unique
content on your website relating to your
topic, Google will love you for it and
other websites will link to you. In
return, this will íncrease your
rankings, but you should really be doing
this anyway. A website with no changing
content is a dead website. Your content
should contain your keywords, but don't
sp@m your content with your keywords.
Use them at the start and end of your
webpage and sprinkle them in-between.
Also use them in your header text and
even bold a few as this shows Google
that these words bear more importance.
7. Pagerank Why are people so obsessed
with that little green bar on the Google
tool bar? Well I'm here to tell you that
you can stop obsessing about it right
now.
The thing about the pagerank bar is it
can be at least 3 months out of date as
Google only updates it in roughly a
3-month cycle. Only Google knows your
true pagerank which changes all the
time. Google regularly spiders your
website and scans for new content and
links to show the most relevant content
in its results. Therefore pagerank is
pretty inaccurate.
The other thing people get confused
about is that it's called pagerank not
siterank. What I have determined is that
your website will get assigned a
pagerank figure and then it will be
distributed through your indexed pages,
for example if your website gets a
figure of 5, then your home page may get
a pagerank of 3 and your other pages get
a 2 or maybe a 1 and so on. If these
other pages also have links to them,
this will íncrease their own individual
pagerank.
The only advantage of that green bar
that I can see is for exchanging links.
You can get a rough idea of what a
website's ranking is and you can decide
whether or not to exchange links.
8. Linking One-way links are better than
2 way links, but one-way links can be
harder to obtain. Why should someone put
your link on their website; what's in it
for them? You can do this by writing
articles like this one and submitting
them to article websites, social media
websites or on your own blog, but
remember to add an author's bio which
includes some links to your website.
Reciprocal links are easier to come by,
but in the early stages, when you don't
have a good pagerank will be more
difficult to obtain. Once your pagerank
increases you can be more selective of
the pagerank you exchange with.
Don't forget about the guys starting out
when your green bar starts to íncrease.
If they have a website with good quality
content, then you should consider
linking with them. Remember we all need
to start somewhere and today's page rank
of 1 is tomorrow's pagerank 5. Try to
link with relevant websites because
Google likes this, and you will receive
quality traffíc from these websites for
years to come.
Also, I have found a great little tool
which checks potential link partners to
see if they are linking to bad
neighbourhoods. A link exchange with a
penalized website could also result in a
Google penalty for your site. The tool
can be found at:
http://www.bad-neighborhood.com/text-link-tool.htm
Editor's Note: The page at the above URL
might not be visible in all web browsers
but is visible in Internet Explorer.
9. The Open Directory (DMOZ) You should
always submit your website to DMOZ since
it can take an age to get listed there
and Google uses these results in its
organic results sometimes. I recently
wrote an article discussing this topic
and some people commented on this and
said that they haven't submitted to DMOZ
and their rankings are fine. This may be
true, but one thing you should remember
is that lots of directory websites use
DMOZ results, which in turn will get you
more one-way links.
10. Blogs Blogs are loved by Google
because they have lots of text and are
constantly getting updated; so start
your own blog on your website. Include
articles, stories and anything that's
related to your website. If you give
people something of interest, they will
come back for more and link to you.
That's all for now, take care and good
luck! And remember, you only get out of
something what you put in to it.
The Google PageRank Toolbar in SEO
circles is a hotly debated item, as are
most issues dealing with Google. Some
say it's useless, others say it gives
you a general overview of your site's
standing in Google. Regardless of who is
right, this Toolbar shouldn't be ignored
nor worshipped, just closely watched.
The Google PR Toolbar is a simple tool
you can download and place on your
browser. When you surf the web, this
toolbar will give you Google's PR or
Page Rank for that particular site or
page. Google ranks all web pages from a
scale of 0 to 10. This Toolbar is more
like the Richter scale than an ordinary
scale, there's a big difference in the
rankings as you go up and they are not
proportional.
You must also realize each of these
ranking points are further divided and
only Google knows the exact placement of
your site or page within your shown PR
number. For example, if you have a PR6
site your site could be at low end of
the PR6 scale (closer to PR5) or at the
top end which would make it more of a
PR7 site. Big difference.
PageRank Confusion
Many suggest Google is not giving us the
real value of the page in the first
place and this toolbar is often out of
date and more of a smokescreen than real
information about a site. There could be
some truth in this as Google never gives
up all its secrets. Does any company?
Certainly not the company that holds the
keys to the most powerful economic force
on the planet: the Internet.
Complicating matters even further are
webmasters and marketers who try to
manipulate their own PageRank by buying
or exchanging links with other high PR
sites. Many are now doing Three-Way
linking to try to influence their site's
rankings in Google.
A whole SEO industry has been built up
around PageRank for the simple reason
the stakes are extremely high. If you
can deliver first place rankings for
your client's targeted keywords in
Google it means free organic traffic or
visitors delivered directly to your
site.
Many SEO experts believe Google has a
whole list of ranking factors which
determine how well your page is ranked.
Among others, these ranking factors
include Google's PageRank algorithm
(voting system) and Hypertext-Matching
Analysis (analyzing page content).
Google's Position
If you check out Google's own corporate
site for an explanation you will find
that Google clearly states its patented
PageRank™ algorithm is the heart of
their web ranking system which was
founded by Larry Page & Sergey Brin in
1998. You will also find that Google
says it uses numerous factors including
PageRank to examine the whole web and
find the most relevant and important
pages to match a specific search.
PageRank takes into consideration over
"500 million variables and 2 billion
terms" when finding the most important
pages. Google makes it clear that each
page casts a vote for another page and
this is reflected in the PageRank. Votes
from particular sites or pages might
have greater value than others.
"Important pages receive a higher
PageRank and appear at the top of the
search results."
The question still remains, is the
Google PR Toolbar a valid marketing
tool? Should you use it?
One can only speak from experience, I
have always used the Google PR Toolbar
and find it helpful in assessing what
Google thinks of a site or page. I
rarely link out to sites anymore but if
I do I always check any potential
linking partners to see their PR. Any
site with PR5 or over I will link to it
if that site is related and has high
rankings for my site's own targeted
keyword phrases. I also check out the
number of outbound links on that page,
lower is better because the amount of PR
passed along is divided equally with the
other links.
Sometimes I will link to a lower PR3 or
PR4 site if I find the content on that
site is extremely good and I know it is
only a matter of time before Google
upgrades that site to a PR5 or higher.
You must be very careful not to link out
to any type of 'link-farms' as Google
will penalize you for it.
In my opinion, many SEO experts worry
too much over the exact PageRank or
Value Google is giving to a page.
Whether or not we can really know the
true value of any page? Well, the true
value of any web page is staring you in
the face in Google's SERPs for if over
time a page consistently holds the #1
spot then that is Google's true PageRank
and Value for that page for a particular
keyword or keyword phrase. If your page
is consistently in the 1000th spot, then
Google doesn't think your page has much
value for that keyword.
Your site's overall value or PageRank
within the Google ranking system may be
a little harder to figure out if you
dismiss the PR Toolbar as a good
indicator of your site's overall worth
within Google. Maybe Google has put into
place filters and blinders to discourage
the online marketers and SEOs who try to
abuse and manipulate PageRank.
Let Your Own Experiences Rule Your
Judgement
Again, one can only speak from
experience, I believe the Toolbar is
very helpful in showing what Google
thinks of your pages. Over the years, I
have experienced my main website at a
PR1 level and I have experienced it at a
PR6 level. Believe me, the PR6 is much
better. Can't imagine what a PR8 site
would be like to run or the kind of
lifestyle it would provide.
For higher PR means better rankings for
your site and your keyword phrases. It
simply means more traffic and more
sales. If you're optimizing for Google,
you should do everything you can to get
the highest PR you can possibly get.
More importantly, you should be doing
everything you can to increase the PR of
the pages where you have your long-tail
keyword phrases as organic traffic from
these pages will usually turn out to be
your site's main revenue source.
I have found one of the quickest ways to
raise your Google PR is to get one-way
links from high PR6, PR7 and PR8 sites
(Think Article Marketing). Google
considers these links as votes for your
site and ranks your site or page
accordingly. Consistently get enough of
these incoming one-way links over the
long haul and your PR will go up if you
have high quality unique content pages
that are well optimized with good
navigation and formatting.
Where To Get The PR Toolbar
If you're not using the Google Toolbar -
use it! You can download it here:
http://toolbar.google.com
Another great way to see PR in action is
to use the Visual PageRank tool here:
http://www.iwebtool.com/visual_pagerank
It will show you the PageRank of all
internal and external links on a webpage
at once. Extremely helpful when you're
checking out any site or page for at a
glance you can see the current Google
PageRank of all these links.
Google's PageRank system, including the
PR Toolbar, is something every webmaster
and online marketer should be aware of
in their struggle for higher rankings.
Don't become obsessed with it, instead
use this system to your advantage to
build better pages and sites. For
despite all the misconceptions and
intricacies of such a complex system, no
webmaster can deny if you conquer the
Google PagePank system, it will deliver
the goods.
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