Search engine optimization has been around almost as long
as search engines have. It probably started about five
minutes after someone realized there was money to be made
on the Web, but only if your site could be found easily
enough.
The reason for optimizing a Web page is the same today as
it was a decade ago but the methods have changed quite a
bit. Actually the methods seem to change every few months
but a lot of this is just hype and fads. The three things
that will get you to number 1 on Google are the same today
as they were in 1998; keywords, content and links. And the
thing that keeps you at the top is constant monitoring.
Keywords are easy to find with the right tool. But please
don't go buying any fancy keyword software just yet. We'll
use Google's free keyword research tool in just a minute
and that's more than good enough to do the trick. Before we
do that though there's one very important thing to
consider; good keywords are only half the battle. We want
to find the best keywords with the least competition.
Part 1: Find 3 Great Keywords
These are the Big 3 considerations in selecting the best
keywords: The most descriptive keyword...With the most
searches performed...And the least competing Web pages is
the one you want.
Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
and type any keyword or phrase you believe your future
visitors are looking for. You can use the three boxes with
blue fill to determine how much that term is searched as
well as its bidding competition. But don't stop there! Once
you find a great keyword go to Goggle and run a search on
it. See how many pages you get for matches by checking the
right hand side of the blue bar on top (Results 1 - 10 of
about 3,300,000 for...)
Now do this twice more so you have a total of three great
keywords and/or phrases. Then write them down and rate them
1 through 3, with 1 being most important.
Part 2: Use the Content Formula
Create your page content by writing ten or more paragraphs.
Each paragraph can be just a few sentences long or longer
if you'd like. Write your page content as close to how you
would speak it in normal conversation as possible. Google
and all the best engines use a natural text algorithm (NTA)
that sees through Spammy text in a heartbeat. Here's the
formula...
Paragraph 1: Make this paragraph one of the longest and use
each of your top three keywords one time. Use your number 1
keyword as close to the first word as possible. Use the
number two keyword somewhere in the second sentence if
possible but no later than the third sentence. Now use your
number 3 keyword anywhere after number 2.
Paragraph 2: Use your number 1 keyword one time within the
first one third of the paragraph text. If your paragraph is
100 words long, make sure the keyword is placed within the
first 33 words, the closer to the beginning the better.
Paragraphs 3 and 4: Do the same as above using your number
2 keyword in paragraph three and number 3 keyword in
paragraph four.
Paragraphs 5 through 9: Now mix things up a bit and use one
or more keywords anywhere in each paragraph. Just do not
use any single keyword more than three times total before
you reach your final paragraph.
Paragraph 10: In your very last paragraph we will do
exactly the same as we did in the first paragraph, but in
reverse. Start it with your least important keyword and end
with your most important.
This formula works extremely well. With the right links you
can dominate Google in no time!
Part 3: Get Great Links
If you want to understand just how important linking is for
Google, it will help you to know that Google itself was
invented by a Ph.D. student as part of his dissertation
project. The idea behind that project was to determine and
rate information on the Web by its link value. Twelve years
and one name change later, this is still Google's main
focus.
There are entire books dedicated to getting good links for
Google rankling so I'm not gong to try to reinvent the
wheel here. I'll just offer a few tips that I wish someone
had offered me when I was learning all of this.
Tip 1: Try to get as many "Authority Links" as possible.
These are links that Google and other important engines
feel are the highest valued. The short definition is these
are the links that come up on top of Google for your
keyword and who link out appropriately (doesn't have too
many outbound links on a gape, don't sell links, etc.)
Tip 2: Constantly monitor the sites you link to and
immediately remove any that get "gray barred" by Google
(meaning banned for doing something wrong.) If you have the
Google Toolbar you will actually see a gray bar replacing
Google Page Rank on banned sites.
Tip 3: Text links work best. Links from banners or images
are typically counted as advertisements and their
credibility as links are discounted by Google and many
other top search engines.
Tip 4: If possible, arrange to have the link to your site
as a text link using keyword anchor text. So if a page's
main keyword phrase is "home construction", this means that
the words "home construction" would be the clickable link
that leads straight to your home page. To the user, the
words "home construction" would likely be marked somehow
such as blue and underlined.
Tip 5: If it makes financial sense, buy software to manage
your linking campaign for you. There are some good ones out
there, so look around and find one you really like. A good
product will save you dozens of hours of initial work and
many hours each month in monitoring. Just be sure it can
identify "Authority Links" so you can target only the best.
If it can also automatically check all of your site
rankings, and your competitors rankings, that's even
better. I've used SEO Elite (www.SEOeliteWeb.com) for years
and would not trade it for a free full time employee.
Part 4: Monitor Your Progress (and that of your
competition!)
You can monitor all of your keywords by simply typing them
in each search engine and then finding your pages. Then
repeat this for your main competitors to see how your site
compares. However, if you find a good combination SEO
software product that does this in addition to linking,
that's even better.
That's it. You know all you need to grab the number one
spot on Google so go and get it - Good luck!
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Mike Small has been an SEO consultant since 1998 and is the
host of popular SEO blog http://www.SEOpartner.com .
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