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Reviewing top search engine tips.                                                        June 15 2009 By Reg Charie Discussion group on LT forums. Click Here On the site, How do I make a website, there is an article by another site that Ryan featured. How to get a top listing on Google Search Engine fast This article was published on Jan 4th of this year, so it *should be listed in google by now. Let us see what happens when we search for "How to get a top listing on Google Search Engine fast". (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=how+to+get+a+top+rank+on+uk+google+search+engine+fast&hl=en&cr=countryUK|countryGB&num=100&start=0&sa=N) Looking at the results, the article does not show in the top 500. If we check the site (site:imakeawebsite.com) there are some 209 pages listed but not: http://www.imakeawebsite.com/search-engines/seach-engine-optimization/how-to-get-a-top-rank-on-uk-google-search-engine-fast/ I would strongly suggest that putting the page in the /search-engines/seach-engine-optimization/how-to-get-a-top-rank-on-uk-google-search-engine-fast/ as index.html is being seen by Google as a keyword stuffing ploy.  Other factors are the title, <title>    » How to get a top listing on Google Search Engine fast | How Do I Make A Websitetitle> which shows as » How to get a top listing on Google Search Engine fast | How Do I Make A Website is using a symbol at the beginning. This is often interpreted as trying to influence a listing protocol as in non search engine searches, lines starting with a symbol will display first. Both the description and the keywords tags do not repeat the phrase. <meta name="description" content="How Do I Make A Website. We will tell you and give you references to sites you can use." /> <meta name="keywords" content="how do i make a website, webmaster, make a website, make, website, create, help, webmaster, imakeawebsite.com " /> So much for the technical. Let us now look at the content and tips . We start with:

A) Content: Prep work and begin building content. Long before the domain name is settled on, start putting together notes to build at least a 100 page site. That’s just for openers. That’s 100 pages of real content, as opposed to link pages, resource pages, about/copyright/tos…etc eg: fluff pages.

A 100 page site is NOT necessary. What IS necessary is content focused on the keywords used on each page. The structure of the site should lead the reader through the short tail (more general) keyword phrases first then to the longer tailed expansions of the phrase. E.G. Widgets -> Blue widgets -> Blue wooden widgets -> Preserving blue wooden widgets

B) Domain name: Easily brandable. You want “google.com” and not “mykeyword.com”. Keyword domains are out - branding and name recognition are in - big time in. The value of keywords in a domain name have never been less to se’s. Learn the lesson of “goto.com” becomes “Overture.com” and why they did it. It’s one of the most powerful gut check calls I’ve ever seen on the internet. That took serious resolve and nerve to blow away several years of branding. (that is a whole ‘nother article, but learn the lesson as it applies to all of us).

I would like some clarification as to where the information about discarding “mykeyword.com” naming procedures came from. Do a search for just about *anything* and I will bet you will find the keywords in the domain name for most of the top sites. The exception to this is the wikipedia listings as they have unusual authority. You want to put words in the URL that people are going to search for, not some fictional brand that nobody knows. If you were Nike or Coke, or Aspirin, then OK, go for it, otherwise, stick to keywords. As you build your product, your branding will follow.

C) Site Design: The simpler the better to get a top rank. Rule of thumb: text content should out weight the html content. The pages should validate and be usable in everything from Lynx to leading edge browsers. eg: keep it close to html 4.0 if you can. Google Spiders are not to the point they really like eating html 4.1 or above and the mess that it can bring. Stay away from heavy: flash, dom, java, java script. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them - there is little reason to have them that I can see - they will rarely help a site to get a top rank and stand to hurt it greatly due to many factors most people don’t appreciate (Googles distaste for js is just one of them). Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit. You can also go the other route and just throw everything in root which might help you even more to get a top rank (this is rather controversial, but it’s been producing good long term results across many engines). Don’t clutter and don’t spam your site with frivolous links like “best viewed” or other counter like junk. Keep it clean and professional to the best of your ability. Learn the lesson of Google itself - simple is retro cool - simple is what surfers want. Speed isn’t everything, it’s almost the only thing to achieve a top rank. Your site should respond almost instantly to a request. If you get into even 3-4 seconds delay until “something happens” in the browser, you are in long term trouble. That 3-4 seconds response time may vary for site destined to live in other countries than your native one. The site should respond locally within 3-4 seconds (max) to any request. Longer than that, and you’ll lose 10% of your audience for every second and the much desired top rank. That 10% could be the difference between success and not.

>Rule of thumb: text content should out weight the html content. The amount of text to code has nothing to do with listing. Google does not care how much or what kind of code you have as long as it is readable by their bot. As for Flash, avoid it or make certain you alt describe it exactly. If you have Java or JS make certain it is readable by the search engines. Putting the CSS and JS code off page helps a bit in your organization of the page's structure but does not help rankings. >>Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit. This can be interpreted as a ploy to influence the search engines. Remember, the further on in the hierarchy of the site structure, the less "weight" a folder/file has. Speed is important in getting a top rank. Google will penalize a site that loads slowly. The loss of real visitors due to slow loading would be more dependant on the visitor's interest in your site description than in the loading times. I often tab on to another search and come back to the slow loading page.

D) Page Size: The smaller the better. Keep it under 15k if you can to get a top rank. The smaller the better. Keep it under 12k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 10k if you can - I trust you are getting the idea here. Over 5k and under 10k. Ya - that bites - it’s tough to do, but it works. It works for search engines like google, and it works for surfers. Remember, 80% of your surfers will be at 56k or even less.

Google WILL penalize you if you get too big but you will REALLY have to get the page huge. Other considerations, page PR, (Page Rank), authority and content count much more than loading times. I just did a search for "cats" and http://cats.about.com/ is up at the top. A check of page load times shows: The total size of this page is 139,272 bytes, which will load in over 20 seconds on a 56Kbps modem NEW YORK– June 21, 2006– Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, announced today that nearly three-quarters of U.S. active Web users connected at home via broadband in May, growing 15 percentage points over a year ago, when just 57 percent of active Web users relied on broadband connections at home. That was three years ago in 2006.

E) Content: Build one page of content and put online per day at 200-500 words to get to a top rank in google. If you aren’t sure what you need for content, start with the Overture keyword suggester and find the core set of keywords for your topic area. Those are your subject starters.

Ideally this is correct.

F) Density, position, yada… Simple old fashioned seo from the ground up. Use the keyword once in title, once in description tag, once in a heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic, once high on the page, and hit the density between 5 and 20% (don’t fret about it). Use good sentences and spell check it. Spell checking is becoming important as se’s are moving to auto correction during searches to get to that top rank. There is no longer a reason to look like you can’t spell (unless you really are phonetically challenged).

Too many "onces" You are writing for people, not search engines. If you are showing them the keyword in the title, you should reinforce this with a H1 attribute repetition in the site's header, and once on the page in a H2. If you have more in depth material on the subject include the keyword phrase in a link to it.

G) Outbound Links: From every page, link to one or two high ranking sites under that particular keyword. Use your keyword in the link text (this is ultra important for the future to get to that top rank).

OH no!  Outbound links should be used wisely and you should not give too many opportunities for people to leave your site. While it will establish a certain authority, from a business standpoint it is not wise to send your visitors elsewhere.

H) Insite Cross links. (cross links in this context are links WITHIN the same site) Link to on topic quality content across your site t achieve a top rank in google. If a page is about food, then make sure it links it to the apples and veggies page. Specifically with Google, on topic cross linking is very important for sharing your PR (page ranking) value across your site. You do NOT want an “all star” page that out performs the rest of your site. You want 50 pages that produce 1 referral each a day and do NOT want 1 page that produces 50 referrals a day. If you do find one page that drastically out produces the rest of the site with Google, you need to off load some of that PR value to other pages by cross linking heavily. It’s the old share the wealth thing.

Actually you want 50 pages that produce 50 visits a day. If you find one page that drastically out produces the others, build your other pages the same way. DO not "dumb down" the producer. Google's Matt Cutts also says to not "sculpt" page rank within the site. Navigation and linking should follow the site standard.

I) Put it Online. Don’t go with virtual hosting - go with a stand alone ip to get to a top rank. Make sure the site is “crawlable” by a spider. All pages should be linked to more than one other page on your site, and not more than 2 levels deep from root. Link the topic vertically as much as possible back to root. A menu that is present on every page should link to your sites main “topic index” pages (the doorways and logical navigation system down into real content). Don’t put it online before you have a quality site to put online. It’s worse to put a “nothing” site online, than no site at all. You want it flushed out from the start, and get that top rank as soon as possible. Go for a listing in the ODP, that will certainly help you to get that top rank in google. If you have the budget, then submit to Looksmart and Yahoo for better prospects. If you don’t have the budget, then try for a freebie on Yahoo (don’t hold your breath).

Totally un-necessary to get an unique IP.  Google does not care about the type of hosting you have. Internal linking is necessary and should have access to all pages. All pages should have a navigation system that will allow the reader to easily backtrack or to move on to more in-depth content. While you can wait to get it "flushed out from the start," (*fleshed out?), it is better to get some finished content up and then build on it. Just make certain you do not have any *coming soon*  or *under construction* pages. Getting a listing in DMOZ helps, but is not necessary.

J) Submit Submit the root to: Google, Fast, Altavista, WiseNut, (write Teoma), DirectHit, and Hotbot. Now comes the hard part - forget about submissions for the next six months. That’s right - submit and forget and wait for that top rank.

NEVER submit to the major search engines unless you want to be put in their "sandbox". Instead of submitting, let the search engines find an anchor text link to the site on another, preferably high pr, site.

K) Logging and Tracking: Get a quality logger/tracker that can do justice to inbound referrals based on log files (don’t use a lame graphic counter - you need the real deal). If your host doesn’t support referrers, then back up and get a new host. You can’t run a modern site without full referrals available 24×7x365 in real time, otherwise you would never know which keywords are helping you to get that top rank you are after

Wise words. You need metrics to understand what is happening and how people are navigating the site. A good host will provide quality web-stats like AwStats and you can add other stat programs for specific reasons. Extreme Tracking can be found free and as a paid service. Extreme's claim to fame is that it will show you the exact searches that people used to find your site and allow you to go to the search page to see where you place. CrazyEgg.com offers another type of tracker. A heat map of where people click on your pages.

L) Spiderlings: Watch for spiders from se’s. Make sure those that are crawling the full site, can do so easily. If not, double check your linking system (use standard hrefs) to make sure the spider found it’s way throughout the site. Don’t fret if it takes two spiderings to get your whole site done by Google or Fast. Other se’s are pot luck and doubtful that you will be added at all if not within 6 months and getting a top rank could take much longer.

Don't sweat it. Just continue to place links on top PR sites and the list of search engines spidering your site will build.

M) Topic directories. Almost every keyword sector has an authority hub on it’s topic. Go submit within the guidelines to get to that top rank.

Definitely. It is even worth the money to get Yahoo to review your site. (299) for the Directory Submit. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/dirsb/index.php

N) Links Look around your keyword sector in Googles version of the ODP. (this is best done AFTER getting an odp listing - or two). Find sites that have links pages or freely exchange links. Simply request a swap. Put a page of on topic, in context links up your self as a collection spot. Don’t freak if you can’t get people to swap links - move on. Try to swap links with one fresh site a day. A simple personal email is enough. Stay low key about it and don’t worry if site Z won’t link with you - they will - eventually they will once you hav got that top rank.

Reciprocal linking just for the sake of linking has been greatly devalued by Google to the point where it is worthless, UNLESS it is with a site with relevant content. I would also stay away from paid linking schemes.

O) Content. One page of quality content per day to get to the top. Timely, topical articles are always the best. Try to stay away from to much “bloggin” type personal stuff and look more for “article” topics that a general audience will like. Hone your writing skills and read up on the right style of “web speak” that tends to work with the fast and furious web crowd. Lots of text breaks - short sentences - lots of dashes - something that reads quickly and you will get the top rank you always wanted. Most web users don’t actually read, they scan. This is why it is so important to keep low key pages today. People see a huge overblown page by random, and a portion of them will hit the back button before trying to decipher it. They’ve got better things to do that waste 15 seconds (a stretch) at understanding your whiz bang flash menu system. Because some big support site can run flashed out motorhead pages, that is no indication that you can. You don’t have the pull factor they do. Use headers, and bold standout text liberally on your pages as logical separators. I call them scanner stoppers where the eye will logically come to rest on the page.

You do not need one page a day to get top listings.. The AMOUNT of content does not enter into the page's ranking process. Write for the web. 79% of users scan the page instead of reading word-for-word Reading from computer screens is 25% slower than from paper Web content should have 50% of the word count of its paper equivalent Jacob Nielsen http://www.useit.com/jakob/ is well versed in writing for the internet.  A full list of his articles. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ http://www.useit.com/alertbox/content-strategy.html is an excellent sample about length of articles. Writing inverted pyramids. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9606.html http://www.useit.com/eyetracking/ is a number of articles on eyetracking and how users read a webpage. http://internet-biz.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html

Poynter eye tracking study:

P) Gimmicks. Stay far away from any “fades of the day” or anything that appears spammy, unethical, or tricky, these will definitely cause hinderance in your efforts to get the top rank in google. Plant yourself firmly on the high ground in the middle of the road.

Stay out of the middle of the road, that is where the trucks will run you down. Fads are usually ideas to game the search engines. A very good thing to avoid. The middle of the road still includes questionable tactics that *might* or *might not* be frowned on by Google. It is much better that you schootch over to the "purist" or high ethical section. If there is ANY doubt about Google's opinion, DON'T do it . The optimal way to write for Google is to NOT write for Google but to write for real people. After all, if you get right down to it Google's spyder bot is trying it's best to look at each page the way a human would.

Q) Link backs When YOU receive requests for links, check the site out before linking back with them. Check them through Google and their PR value. Look for directory listings. Don’t link back to junk just because they asked. Make sure it is a site similar to yours and on topic so that you get that top rank.

As in section "N". Highly devalued.

R) Rounding out the offerings: Use options such as Email-a-friend, forums, and mailing lists to round out your sites offerings. Hit the top forums in your market and read, read, read until your eyes hurt you read so much. Reading will broaden your thinking capacity and will help you to get a top rank in google. Stay away from “affiliate fades” that insert content on to your site.

eMail, mailing lists will not do anything for your SERPs. Broadening your thinking capacity is good. Be careful what you believe. There is a lot of crap out there.

S) Beware of Flyer and Brochure Syndrome If you have an ecom site or online version of bricks and mortar, be careful not to turn your site into a brochure. These don’t work at all towards getting a top rank. Think about what people want. They aren’t coming to your site to view “your content”, they are coming to your site looking for “their content”. Talk as little about your products and yourself as possible in articles (raise eyebrows…yes, I know).

I have a few "brochure sites" that achieve top rankings in Google. Visitors come to the sites to find out about our products. Developing top ranking sites is not only done by writing articles. It is also done by describing products in more or better detail than your competitors.

T) Build one page of content per day. Head back to the Overture suggestion tool to get ideas for fresh pages.

Not necessary at all.

U) Study those logs. After 30-60 days you will start to see a few referrals from places you’ve gotten listed and gradually your ranking will increase. Look for the keywords people are using. See any bizarre combinations? Why are people using those to find your site? If there is something you have over looked, then build a page around that topic. Retro engineer your site to feed the search engine ( Google ) what it wants. If your site is about “oranges”, but your referrals are all about “orange citrus fruit”, then you can get busy building articles around “citrus” and “fruit” instead of the generic “oranges”. The search engines like Google will tell you exactly what they want to be fed - listen closely, there is gold in referral logs, it’s just a matter of panning for it.

If you see keywords in your metrics it is ONLY because people have used these to find your site. Even the bizarre combinations will be found in your on page copy and perhaps your meta tags. What you need to do is to find out what is NOT being used to find your site and develop for those combinations.

V) Timely Topics Nothing breeds success like success. Stay abreast of developments in your keyword sector. If big site “Z” is coming out with product “A” at the end of six months, then build a page and have it ready in October so that Google gets it by December. eg: go look at all the Xbox and XP sites in Google right now - those are sites that were on the ball last summer.

Good advice if your site is built around new news or ever changing products. Most sites that concentrate on a standard type of product line do not face this challenge.

W) Friends and Family Networking is critical to towards a top rank of the site. This is where all that time you spend in forums will pay off. pssst: Here’s the catch-22 about forums: lurking is almost useless. The value of a forum is in the interaction with your fellow colleagues and cohorts. You learn long term by the interaction - not by just reading. Networking will pay off in link backs, tips, email exchanges, and it will put you “in the loop” of your keyword sector.

The value in a forum is being able to place a link to your site in your signature file. Networking will bring in traffic and make you friends but do not expect a whole bunch of back links.

X) Notes, Notes, Notes If you build one page per day, you will find that brain storm like inspiration will hit you in the head at some magic point. Whether it is in the shower (dry off first), driving down the road (please pull over), or just parked at your desk, write it down! 10 minutes of work later, you will have forgotten all about that great idea you just had. Write it down, and get detailed about what you are thinking. When the inspirational juices are no longer flowing, come back to those content ideas. It sounds simple, but it’s a life saver when the ideas stop coming.

While good advice about work habits, it really has little to do with getting good SERPs.

Y) Submission check at six months Walk back through your submissions and see if you got listed in all the search engines you submitted to after six months and see if you are closer to a top rank. If not, then resubmit and forget again. Try those freebie directories again too.

You can try the directories as these require manual submissions but forget about resubmitting to the major search engines. Your stats will show you if you have been visited by the numerous search engines. If you have, then resubmitting will not get you a better rank. If you haven't then do a search for your keywords using the search engine you wish to target and try to find a site in their listing that will accept one of your links.

Z) Build one page of quality content per day. Starting to see a theme here? Google loves content and this will help you like anything to get a top rank. Making a quality content page takes no longer that an hour a day. Optimising it might take another hour or so, however the effort will get you a reward you have always dreamt off. At the end of a six motnhs time, you should have around 200 pages of content. That will get you good top ranking under a wide range of keywords, generate recip links, and overall position your site to stand on it’s own two feet. Do those 26 things, and I guarantee you that in six months time you will call your site a success and a top rank site. It will be drawing between 500 and 2000 referrals a day from search engines like Google. If you build a good site with an average of 4 to 5 pages per user, you should be in the 10-15k page views per day range in one years time. What you do with that traffic is up to you, but that is more than enough to “do something” with. This excellent article has been chosen to feature on imakeawebsite.com. The article is courtesy of www.uk-wholesaler.co.uk

Again, if you are running a portal type site this is a good tactic. If you are just selling products or are just interested in using your site to bring in clients or sales, then you need not worry about "extra" content. You just need to get the basic content right.

In my SEO world, these are the basic tenants to get top rankings on Google. Write for people. Don't try to trick or write for the search engines. Use Keyword(s) in domain name. Design of meta and title tags. Placement and use of keywords - Write for human consumption Search bot readable navigation Quick loading times. Keep links relevant. Watch who you link to. Do not link to "bad" neighborhoods. If you have a page with links out to affiliate products, or if you expect to make money from the links, use a nofollow attribute on the links.