Lofty goals, with no mention of profit.  Google’s “Florida” algorithm-changes last winter reaffirmed their mission, to the distress of those looking for easy pay-per-click success.  It isn’t going to happen.  Even Google’s “Sponsored links” have moved from the top of the list to a side bar.

     A lot of companies say they can get your site on the first page of search engine results.  Sounds great, doesn’t it?  But think about that for a minute.  How can they get everybody into the top 20 results?

     A well-meaning acquaintance recently suggested that if I built a program to get people in his industry into the top search engine results, I would have hundreds of clients in the San Diego area alone.  See the contradiction in this?  How can I tell hundreds of San Diego realtors that I can get their site in the top 20 results?

     The second thing to understand about search engines is that they are looking for the one, single webpage, that best matches a given keyword phrase.  They don't look at your site as a whole.  That's why frames don't work.  That's why you need to use something like the strategy outlined below to get their attention.

     But even with all the competition and rigorous standards, you can still gain prominence in Google and Yahoo by finding your niche, observing the basics of search engine optimization, focusing on content, and concentrating content on separate pages.

The Basics:

   KEYWORDS  You must come up with a list of keyword phrases, phrases that a potential customer or client would put into a search engine to find your products and services.  Have meetings and brainstorm with your colleagues.  This is the first step of search engine optimization, and there isn’t really anything to talk about until you’ve come up with this list.

     To achieve high search engine relevance, a separate page on your site should be written for each keyword phrase.  This page should have a lot of text including the phrase.  Image names, meta tags, and descriptions should be tailored to repeat these words.  Not only that.  The page needs to actually say something about the keyword concept, and it needs to say it at greater length than your competitors’ webpages.

   DESCRIPTIONS  Page description is the text that comes up with search engine results… 20 to 150 words.  You know it.  You read it to see which site in the results you want to visit.

     Basically, you want to be straightforward and informative when writing a description.  That is, include the facts, and leave out the superlatives.  Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and write a single, complete sentence that lets people know what you have.

     Now, write a separate description for each keyword page.

   FRAMES / NO  Do not use frames.  Period.  I know, they’re so easy, and they look good, but they just confuse search engines.  So, if your goal is high placement, don’t use them.  At least not on your keyword pages.  Give your keyword pages independent navigation buttons.

   SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSIONS  Mostly, direct submissions to search engines just speed things up.  They are a good way to kick start a new or revamped website, and you can start to see the effect you site will have in, say, four weeks rather than three to four months, if you launch a search engine submission campaign.

     There are often good discounts for submitting multiple domains at the same time: like, submit five for the cost of three. If you want to do search engine submissions, see if you can find other web owners to do it with. Ask your webmaster about it.  I try to put together a group submission campaign for my web clients once or twice a year.

   RECIPROCATING LINKS  People at large commercial websites have made careers out of forming reciprocating link alliances.  Links into your site are important.  You’ve got to have a few just to get your site crawled and indexed.  For links to help your search engine results placement, they must be relevant to the keyword page to which they are linked.

     Ask your vendors for reciprocating links to their websites.  Make it part of your purchasing strategy and procedure.  And don't just let them link to your home page.  Have them link directly to your most relevant, product / keyword page.

     Also, imagine having a page so useful that others link to it based on its merit alone.


     To repeat myself from last year’s article on Website Success: If location is the secret to success in brick and mortar business, then content, content, content is the secret to a successful website.  The new algorithms make this truer than ever, as they tighten their focus and demand more specific and relevant information.

     Bottom line:  If you want a top-20 webpage, you’re going to have to build a top-20 webpage.

P.S. This should remind you WHY you want your site in the search engines… from SearchEngineWatch.com

In 2004, there were an estimated 151 million active at home and at work internet users in the US.  Of these, 76 percent used a search engine at least once during the month.  On average, each spent nearly 40 minutes searching.

     That's more than 4.5 billion minutes per month spent using search engines in the US!  And the number is bound to increase for at least the next few years.