Tips for Boosting Search-Engine Rankings
Every online retailer would love to improve their search-engine rankings. Many disreputable companies are taking advantage of this fact by collecting huge sums while guaranteeing websites consistently high rankings. Unfortunately, the guarantees are as illusive as the companies offering them.
Kyle Brenner learned an expensive lesson when launching his first website. He paid $13,000 in total to two companies that promised to put his website at the top of search-engine listings for searches on popular phrases for his website. Each company guaranteed they could keep his website at the top of the listings. In each case, the website's ranking rose to the top and then, all of a sudden, it was gone. Unfortunately, when you fall off the search engines, you're out of business.
Mr. Brenner was just another victim of disreputable search-engine optimization companies which offer guaranteed rankings on search engines. The companies he hired specialized in search-engine optimization (SEO), the process of helping place a site high in search-engine rankings when Web surfers look for information related to the site. The firms claimed they could “fake out” the search engines. All they really did was “rip-off” Mr. Brenner. The bottom line is this, only search engines have control over the way sites are ranked in search results.
George Miran hired an SEO company that promised to improve her site's rankings and keep them high. The firm achieved this by editing the site's copy to include keywords, writing more search-engine-friendly Web coding, and arranging for related sites to link to hers. This approach isn’t voodoo, it’s just common sense. SEO firms can't guarantee top search-engine rankings because search engines are constantly changing the way they rank Web sites. No SEO firm has inside access to those changes. .
Before hiring an SEO company, ask for references from past clients to learn about their experiences. Reputable firms explain what they do in plain English and they are happy to provide a list of previous clients.
Many website owners believe that they need to submit their Web site to every search engine on the planet. Nothing could be further from the truth. Your website only send to be included in the top few search engines that are used in 99% of all searches. Some search engines will list you more quickly if you submit your website to them. Google, on the other hand, finds sites on their own from links on sites already in their databases. All other factors being equal, the more links a site receives, the higher it will appear in search results. Keep in mind that search engines look for links from complementary sites. It's not just the quantity of links that matters, it's also the quality of the links. You want to be linked to from sites that are relevant to yours.
You can generate links to your site by publishing a separate site as a company blog with entries that include links back to your site. Just make sure the content is relevant to your company and offers information of value to readers rather than serve only as a means for boosting your Web site's search-engine rankings.
Many “experts” advise that repeating keywords will increase a web site's rankings. While search engines are designed to look for the words that users choose, padding your site with popular terms can backfire on a Web-site owner.
Unnecessary repetition of words can turn off customers. Riddling a site with excess keywords runs the risk of confusing customers and driving them away. You should concentrate on producing copy that reads naturally because if we just write for search engines, human beings will not be able to understand it.
Overusing keywords may even lower your rankings. "Search engines have a way of analyzing natural language on a Web page, so when you stuff keywords in your site, it throws things out of natural balance. If you say the same thing over and over, the search engines will catch on and they'll penalize your site. Penalties vary among search-engine providers, but they typically will either bury your site in its rankings or not list it at all.