Friday, January 23, 2009

How to Control your Search Engine Rankings

By Brent Sweet

Regardless of what is said on the internet there are several different ways to get good search engine rankings. It is also a lot easier that some people would like you to think. It simply amazes me how many sites are ranked that have no clue what they are doing. The ones that are number one, but it is obvious that they aren't really optimizing for that word. The reason I wrote this is to give you some things that you can focus on to get your site ranked well.

The real point here is though there are several factors that can improve your rankings, you have to focus on what you can control. Focusing on things that you do not control is a waste of time. If you have ever heard of six sigma you would be aware of this philosophy.

So what is in your control?

- The title of your page. This is probably the most influencing factor. Pick 5 phrases you want to rank for. Word them in a manner that you don't repeat words but makes sense. Try to use less than 9 words.

- Body text is the next factor. Use all the keywords you want to rank for in your body. I wouldn't say that it is important to have them in bold or header tags. These really are not the difference between not ranking and ranking, these are things you look at when trying to go from position one to position two.

- Your site design " you have to make sure that your site can be indexed. Do not put a bunch of gibberish after your file name, it wont help.

- Your links. The sites that link to you are within your control for the most part. One way is link bait. If you can design something that people will link to then your rankings will improve. The downside is you need to create something nobody else has. I don't do that well. I use article submission, this gives me full control over how people link to me.

There are 4 things that you can control that will improve your rankings, and very quickly if you work hard. - 16069

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