How to rank well in the search engines

How to rank well in the search engines.

By Clare Lawrence 30th May 2004

I get this question all the time!.

Everyone wants to be listed on the first few pages of the search engines.

Here is what I tell my customers:-

a) Firstly do your research, being at the top may not be all the helpful! I have sites listed at No1 or 2 for less popular phrases and they only get a couple of visits a week.

b) To get to the top, you need good content, that means using the phrases your looking for in the title tags, and on the page at the right density.

c) Use of links. Anchor text links are very important particularly for Google, the leading search engine. But links are not enough on their own. Links need to come from pages that are also related to the same theme and are also highly ranked.

d) Directories, a small number of directories have a strong effect on the SERP ( Search Engine Results Placement ) of a site. These are :

i) Dmoz

ii) Yahoo

iii) Gimpsy

iv) Business.com

v) Joeant

vi) Allthebizz

e) Its all relative to the popularity of your choosen keyphrase and the strength of the competition. The better your content and the more links your site has the sooner it will reach the top.

f) Be Patient - rankings are not built in a day, it takes most sites 6 months to reach their potential.

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