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Three Steps to Improved Search Engine Rankings
SEO can be a valuable promotional tactic within any Web site
marketing strategy. However, SEO can also become time consuming
because Google, Yahoo, and MSN (the big three) use sophisticated
algorithms to index Web content. All three companies continually
adjust their algorithms to provide users with the best search
results. Therefore, you will need to continually test new
techniques to achieve and maintain high rankings.
The AVS Group has researched and developed an SEO model that
improves search engine rankings. This article highlights three
tactics from our model you can use to improve your own rankings:
1. Select great keywords 2. Convert keywords into
traffic 3. Link building
Tactic #1: Select Great Keywords
Your first priority should be to select great keywords that
describe your organization and the content within your Web site.
It might be tempting to save time by developing a list of
keywords, some specific and others broad, and then applying all
of them on every page throughout your Web site. However, you
will achieve greater results by selecting 10 custom keywords or
phrases for each page of content within your site. For example,
select 10 keywords and use them exclusively on your home page,
followed by 10 different keywords for each subsequent page of
content.
When selecting keywords, avoid words that are broad or vague.
Broad or vague keywords provide little benefit because likely
too many other pages are currently indexed in the search engines
using those keywords. To illustrate, let's use AVSGroup.com as
an example. Open a new browser window and go to Google. Search
on the term "Web Site Design". Look at the upper right corner
where Google displays the number of pages currently indexed for
the keywords. Google has already indexed about 22 million pages
for "Web Site Design".
Instead of competing against 22 million pages for "Web Site
Design", AVS chose to optimize a page of content for "Web
Strategy Development". This phrase precisely describes one of
AVS's Web services, and because fewer pages are indexed, there
is a greater likelihood of achieving a high ranking. To
illustrate, go back to Google. Search on "Web Strategy
Development". Google has indexed 623 pages and AVSGroup.com is
the number one ranked site.
Tactic #2: Convert Keywords into Traffic
Once you have selected great keywords, the keywords must be
incorporated into the right locations within your Web site to
drive more traffic. Some of the best places are within your
site's page title, META description, and META keywords. Google,
Yahoo, and MSN look for keywords in these locations to help
properly index a site's content.
If you are unfamiliar with how to view a page title, open a new
browser window and go to AVSGroup.com. The page title is the
white text that appears inside the bar at the top left of your
browser window.
Next in importance is the META description and META keywords.
Both are used to describe the content found on a particular
page. To locate the METAs, open a new browser window and go back
to AVSGroup.com. Click on the "View" drop down menu within your
Internet Explorer window. You will see several options including
"View Source". Select "View Source". This will display the HTML
used to create the AVSGroup.com home page. At the top of the
page, you will see the META description and META keywords.
You will achieve the greatest success if you develop custom page
titles, META descriptions, and META keywords for each page
within your Web site using the keywords that you selected
earlier.
Tactic #3: Link Building
Link building is an SEO term that means requesting other
Webmasters to add a link to your Web site within their Web site.
This usually takes place in two ways. Webmasters will sometimes
add your link within their own site's content because your Web
site could be a valuable resource to their site visitors. You
can also encourage Webmasters to post your content onto their
Web site provided they include a link to your Web site within
the credits.
For the first example, open a new browser window and go to
www.viroqua-wisconsin.com. Scroll to the bottom of the page and
you will see a link that reads "Web site design and development
by The AVS Group". This link provides AVSGroup.com with
additional traffic if someone were to click the link, but more
importantly, the link helps increase our "Page Rank". More on
Page Rank later.
Next, open a new browser window and go back to Google. Search on
the phrase "e-mail marketing tips". You should see a link that
reads "Learn Successful E-mail Marketing Tips" (it might even be
the number two ranked site). Click on this link and you will
find a Web site that is featuring one of The AVS Group's
Resources articles. This is an example of leveraging your Web
site content by permitting other Webmasters to post it and
provide a link back to your site. Scroll to the bottom of the
article and you will see a link to AVSGroup.com.
Your link building activities increase what is known as, "Page
Rank". Page Rank is a measure that Google uses to evaluate the
relevancy of a Web site's content. If you have hundreds or even
thousands of Web sites linking to your Web site using these two
examples, Google will consider your Web site to be more
relevant. You will earn a higher Page Rank score, resulting in
improved search results for your Web site against sites that
might even be optimized for the same keywords.
In closing, this article shared three key tactics within our SEO
model that you can use to improve your search engine rankings.
Because of the complexity of SEO, please let us know if you
would like to learn more about our full SEO model. Our Web
experts will demonstrate the various tactics within our model
and discuss the results.
About the author:
The AVS Group is a
marketing, training, and communications company. AVS is in La
Crosse, Wisconsin. AVS helps clients communicate and market
effectively. AVS can be found online at http://www.avsgroup.com