If you want to get high rankings on Google and other search engines, you must do the right things to succeed. You have to work on many different factors to make sure that your website performs better than the sites of your competitors.
Step 1:
make your web pages accessible
Search engines must be able
to access your web pages.
If search engines cannot parse
your web pages then they will
ignore your site and you won't
get good rankings. Check the following points to make sure that search engines can access your web pages.
- Your web server
must not return an error code
when search engine spiders
visit your web pages. If your
server returns an error code,
search engines won't index
your site.
Your web server should return a "200
OK" code to search engine spiders. You can check the
status code that your web
server returns to search engines
with IBP's search
engine spider simulator.
- You should also check the HTML code of your web
pages. While most HTML errors don't cause problems with search engines, some of them can prevent search engines
from indexing your site.
The fewer HTML errors your web pages have, the better. You can access a HTML validator in the "Tools" section in IBP.
- The content of your web pages
must make sense to search
engines. Don't use images
or Flash to present the main
content of your web pages.
To find out if your web page content contains all the elements that are needed to get a listing in Google's top 10 results, check your web pages with IBP's Top 10 Optimizer.
- Your robots.txt file must allow search engines to index your web pages. If you accidentally blocked all bots or all directories of your website (this can happen with a simply typo in the robots.txt file), search engines won't list your website.
Step 2:
use a meaningful site and information architecture
A good site architecture shows search engines that your website is more than just a collection of random web pages.
Use folders and logical linking to show search engines which pages of your website are related. Search engines should be able to find out that a group of web pages on your site is related to a certain topic.
Step 3:
choose your keywords wisely
Choosing the right keywords
is one of the most important
steps that determines whether
your SEO campaign is a success
or not.
It's best to focus on longer keywords for search
engine optimization. One word
keywords are less likely to
convert to a sale and they
are also much more competitive. Details can be found here.
IBP's keyword
tools help you to find the keywords
that will work best with
your site.
Step 4:
work on your website content
Web sites that only offer
articles and affiliate links
that can be found on dozens
of other web sites will have
a hard time to get good search
engine rankings.
Try to create unique and
trustworthy content that separates
your web site from the others.
Write about things you know.
If you're an expert in a special
field, write as much as possible
about that field to make sure
that your web site becomes
the best resource for that
topic.
Step 5: work on your backlinks
Without good backlinks,
it is impossible to get high
rankings on major search engines. The links that point to your website have a major impact on the position of your web pages in Google's search results.
Try to get
as many links as possible
from related web sites.
The more targeted the link,
the more it will help your
search engine rankings.
Search engine optimization
can be tricky because a small
error in one element can destroy
all of your other efforts.
Take
a look at the checklists in
our free search engine optimization
eBook to find out how your web
site can get top rankings on
Google, Bing, Yahoo and other major
search engines.
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