Search Engine Optimization

How do I get my website on the 1st page of search results ?

Probably the most frequently asked question among new, and even established, website or business entrepreneurs, is “how do I get my website on the 1st page of Google ?” For most of those individuals that question seems reasonable, not realizing what an incredibly broad and general question it really is. And, there are no easy answers to that question either. For, if it were truly such an easy question to answer, everyone would have a 1st page result, which of course, is not possible.

There are so many so called SEO companies on the Internet that claim they can get your site on the 1st page, that many mistakenly believe it's just that easy, and all you need to do is find the right company, with the right secrets, and your website will rocket to the top of results. It's very similar to the snake oil salesman, promising miracles, but delivering disappointment instead.

Consider, for a moment, as a web searcher yourself, what and how you search for things on the Internet. Every time you search, you use a keyword combination of some kind, to find what you're looking for. But, what you don't know, and what Google, Bing, and Yahoo, don't tell you, is they are helping you find the result you're looking for, based on a number of factors, beyond just the keyword you enter.

Factors such as your own geographic location, and even your own previous searches, can have an impact on what order the results are displayed, which makes the idea of PR, or page rank, impossible to determine with any certainty, considering the broad scope of variables involved for each individual searcher.

Of course, what is most relevant about an individuals web search ? Well, only the searcher themselves can truly answer that question, but engineers at Google and Microsoft attempt to address it as best they can. In fact Google's algorithm is so complex, using over 500 million variables and over 2 billion terms, it requires some, if not the, most computer power ever seen.

Quality vs Quantity

Unfortunately, there have been too many websites that have fallen prey to the idea that 1st page search results are so easy, that not only do they not receive the desired result ( first page search result ), that their websites are often stuffed with unnecessary keywords, linked to poor quality websites, and contain both a skewed, and mismanaged marketing message, despite the appealing and creative website designs that, all circumstances being equal, should produce sales leads and conversions.

Too many website entrepreneurs become too engaged in the process of how often keywords appear, diluting the quality of a sales pitch, and, in fact, the keyword itself.

Every marketable business has some kind of slogan, mission statement, or stated purpose which is advertised in both printed and video media. And, of course, there are many factors in which each business is unique, or distinct, from one another - like location, services and products offered, business hours, not to mention brand names, trademarks, and private or public trade names.

Consider reading a brochure, or watching a television commercial, and examine for yourself, what message stands out, or what impacts your decision on whether to believe what you're seeing and reading, or not ? If you'll notice, it's almost never the repeated, as most people tune-out the repetitive and focus on the unusual or unique. A search engine attempts to consider that theory when crawling web pages, and determines how words and phrases relate to each page, and the website as a whole.

And, these robots ( algorithms ) are sophisticated enough to filter out the repetitive, and instead focus on the unique, and the quality of that uniqueness. Considerations are made for every instance of a word found on the page, such as how it's used, where it's used, how often it's used, and the conditions or circumstances in which it's used. For instance, a crawler sees much more value in a word, presented in a domain name, the name of a web page, in the title of a web page, in a heading, or anchored text, as opposed to the same word scattered throughout, in various paragraphs and pages, countless times.

A considerably relevant result for any keyword is a result where the follow conditions exist.

However, the keyword relevance is processed along with other data, to generate a page rank, for a particular search result. In other words, it's a factor in page rank, but not the only one. The number of factors are many, and can't possibly be itemized here, but the number of quality, authoritative backlinks - popularity, as well as domain origin, country origin of searcher, and whether the search query was broad, phrased, or exactly matched, to name just a few.

Focus Your Marketing Message

With all of the above, in mind, developing a website strategy can be a difficult, concentrated, and time-consuming effort, but well worth the rewards to be gained in both, the short, and long term.

The first action taken, to develop and implement a website strategy, should be to find a domain name that closely ( hopefully exactly ) matches your business name, which establishes a permanent anchor to your name across the Internet.

Domain name relevance is a primary factor in ranking search results. And, of course, the name of the business, when searched for, usually appears in the number one position, which is a valuable commodity when used in combination with advertising campaigns that specifically target brand or company name recognition.

Once you have your domain name established, the next most significant action you can take, is to establish what your going to promote, at what cost, and to whom you plan to sell to. If all of this sounds like Marketing 101, or resembling something similar, it's because it is, and the importance of combining the strategy, with how and what your website will produce, is considerable. Consider the questions below.

Why Target Audience Matters

Every good, successful, website has a well orchestrated presentation, suited or tailored to a target audience. Considerations are made for the wording, the color scheme, and what is emphasized on any given page. What those considerations result in, are a more relevant website visitor, who is considered more likely to result in a sales conversion.

Every possible aspect should at least be considered, when defining your target audience, so as to make the design process of the site easier. If you're loosely throwing together relevant and unique content, dispersing it widely, chances are that content will not be seen or understood, and it's overall impact on your visitor will be small, resulting in fewer sales conversions.

If you know who your visitors are, you can lead them to where you want them to go - the sales conversion page. Right from the home page, you want to eventually lead your visitors to the sales conversion page. And, there are many different strategies to employ. The most common is, avoiding the “dead end” page.

Avoiding Dead End's

Many websites are not properly navigated by a visitor, although this is certainly not through any fault of their own. Designers assume just by throwing up links at the top and bottom of the page, that they will be used. Often, they are used as a last resort, to get back to where they were before they stumbled across the dead end page.

The dead end page, of course, is a page without link guidance, or for those of you in sales, suggestive or up-selling. Your website needs to tell a story, of sorts, not just with words, but with color, pictures, and animation, and every story needs an ending. And, that ending, should always lead to the sales conversion page.

The idea is to get your visitors interested early, and encourage them to know more, by leading them in the direction you want to take them. This is done by properly linking your storyline/sales pitch throughout your website pages, keeping your visitor focused and interested in what they're seeing, and reading. Website navigation and menus are primarily helpful to search engines and crawlers, but web page navigation requires that as people read or see your message, or sales pitch, there are corresponding links to other, related information, that eventually lead to the sales conversion page.

When visitors reach a web page with no direction, or link guidance, leading them to the “next step”, your message, or sales pitch, can get lost, and the visitor may wander back to a page they've already seen and read, via your website navigation or menus, which could cause frustration or boredom. Never assume, any visitor that browses your website, will care to take the time, to see and read everything you have to offer.

Each page needs to have a defined purpose, with specific goals in mind for use, that work in tandum, or concert, with other pages, to direct visitors to the sales page. A common practice used, is to create a flowchart to visually detail a map, linking pages together, using straight lines, with the map leading, and following every line, from top ( visitor enters site ) to the bottom ( visitor has reached the sales conversion page ).

Most content writers believe that littering text-readable pages with hyper-links can be distracting to read, which can be true. However, “balance” and “discretion” is needed, along with some common sense. Stick to only linking relevant words to content that matters to your visitors, and you won't need to be concerned with: “ Are there too many or not enough ? ”

In most cases, the outcome of the page is largely determined by how aggressive you are, in trying to emphasize the content you value. Too strong is usually a turn off. Common sense dictates that it's probably a better idea to slant your decision in favor of fewest possible, which can provide a better, overall emphasis on what's really valued.

Your Website Foundation is Set

Starting with a solid foundation is key, in preparing your site for success. Search engines, and your visitors, appreciate the ease in which one can navigate through your website pages. However, the search engine robot only really rates potential, by what, and how, they crawl and index content and pages.

Ultimately your website page rank is largely determined by your visitors, who are going to propel your site to the top of search results, by virtue of linking to your site, searching for your site, and by receiving value or purchasing your product/service, which will lead to reviews, comments in web forums, posts on social pages and community boards, which leads to one of the most defining aspects of page rank - website popularity or backlinks.

Find the right kind of backlinks for your website.