Getting Top Ranking on the Search Engines…

Getting Top Ranking on the Search Engines…
by Brooke Long

Ranking high on the search engines is a difficult task to accomplish - and it doesn't assure you qualified leads. But if it is really important to your company to generate leads from the search engines there are a few things that you need to know.

A good web site
You have to have a good - no - great web site. Once people come to your site then you have to be able to pull them in. Relevant, informative content and a great design help to assure that once they enter your site they will stick around. There is no benefit to you to receive a lot of unique visitors, only to have the visitor leave as soon as they get there. But let's not focus on that. We will talk about what you can do to your site to help with search engine ranking. There are many considerations in creating a great web site - but for the search engines rankings, consider:

Text - Considerable planning needs to go into the content you will put in your web site. Not only does your content serve the purpose of informing your visitors about your product or service. You will want to use keywords and phrases that are targeted to your audience. Some search engines scan the content of your site and match the relevance of your content to the search string that was queried.
Alt tags - Search engines cannot see graphics and pictures. So, behind each graphic is an alt tag that provides a description of what the graphic or picture shows. You want to use text that is descriptive about your graphic that also incorporates some of your keywords. These descriptions are read by search engines and can add to the relevance of your site as it relates to a visitor's search request.
Meta - tags - there are all kinds of tags that go into the back end, or coding, of your site; keywords, comments, descriptions, title, meta and more. The meta-tags use words or phrases that are imbedded into your site - visitors don't see them, but search engines do. You want will want to use certain keywords or key phrases throughout all of your meta-tags. Many search engines will compare your keywords to the search request made by the visitor. How closely your keywords match the search request will impact your ranking. So, again you want to target the words and phrases that are likely to be used by someone looking for sites offering your products and services.

So how do you create great keywords? Research. Perform some searches looking for products and services like those that you offer. What search words and phrases did you use? Ask your friends and colleagues what how they would search for a site like yours. Then, look at how many results there are. If there are 5,000,000 pages returned your chances of being ranked high, are slim. Keep in mind that 100 visitors looking for the specific products and services you offer is more valuable than 1,000 visitors looking for other sites that stumble onto yours. Find the keywords where there are only 100 results. Then you have got some great words that you can use, that are refined to attract your target market.

Cross marketing
"So, that's all there is to it and I will be ranked #1?" I wish it were that simple! However, there is still more to do to effectively market your site. I suggest that you do some cross marketing. Add your domain name to your business cards, letterhead, and everything else that comes out of your office. Participate in online forums - ask and answer questions. The idea is to get your name out there and generate interest - many people will visit your site to gather information on your company prior to contacting you or when they've seen a brochure or have received your business card.

Doing all of these things won't guarantee top placement with the search engines. But, you will have a more productive, visitor friendly, site that should have more search engine success with your target market!

Good luck!