Search Engine Optimization
What's Dead on the Net
How to Become Number One
Do you know the identity of one of the top leadership speakers in the world? It's Certified Speaking Professional, Phillip Van Hooser.
Don't take my word for it, just log onto Google and search for "Professional Leadership Speaker".
What's most impressive about his page one ranking is how easy it was to achieve. I'd say it took more time than money. And it certainly didn't hurt having a dedicated team working on the project. But you can achieve similar results by following the same process. Expect to spend both time and effort. Our ranking took 6 months with an investment of about 10 hours.
Phillip has excellent rankings in all the search engines we value. For this article, we'll focus on our success with Google.com, and how he became number one
Pick Your Target
Select specific keywords and phrases. Search engines optimize their results by deciding which sites match a users request. As a member of the National Speakers Association, I've learned to reduce my list of topics to strengthen my brand. I help independent professionals become the master of their domain. That's all I do.
What do you do? Create a specific key phrase that describes what you bring to the marketplace. Answer the question "What phrases would my prospects use to find my product or service?".
If you're not sure where to start, do what I did, become a Secret Shopper. Visit your competitors sites and jot down their name and any key phrases you see on their home page. Visit Google.com and search using the key information you found on those other sites. Note which sites have the best ranking in your search results.
Learn The Rules
The greatest challenge of Search Engine Optimization is figuring out how to hit a moving target. Each search engine uses their own special blend of rules to determine how relevant your site is to the user. So many folks have broken the rules that they're forced into changing the rules on a frequent basis. Learn the rules before making changes to your site or submitting it to a search engine.
The rules have changed at Google. They've stopped using META tags as a measurement of your site's relevance. So many people cheated on their META tags that Google changed the rules. Instead they look at the following:
Title Tag - The phrase you see at the top of your browser window
Page Text - Danny Sullivan, of SearchEngineWatch.com said it best.
"Google performs a full-text index of the pages it visits. It gathers all visible text. It does not read either the meta keywords or description tags, in the vast majority of cases."
"To make page descriptions…, Google finds the first instance of the search term on a page, then includes the words that appear around this term." Danny Sullivan - SearchEngineWatch.com
Visit Danny's site to learn the rules before you spend time and money on unnecessary work.
Clean House Before Sending Invitations
Have you every had a Realtor call with a request to show your house, in TEN MINUTES! You can reduce SEO stress by cleaning up your site before submitting it to Google. Once you've, learned the rules, work with your designer to craft a home page that provides the right information, in the right place.
Perform the search I suggested at the beginning of this article, then print the page. Next, visit Vanhooser.com and print Phil's home page. Compare them to see how we included "Leadership Speaker" in all the right places.
Focus Your Efforts
Spending money on one of those Internet offers, "GET LISTED IN 300,000 SEARCH ENGINES!" sounds just too good to be true. We didn't think a listing in "The Best of China" would create much value.
There's been a lot of consolidation in the search industry recently. Google now powers other big names including Yahoo (keyword search), Netscape and Earthlink. Between Google and Inktomi we have most of the market covered for a limited investment of time and money.
Once you've performed the steps above, visit the search engines below to submit your site.
Google.com (4-6 weeks for review)
Overture Site Match™, (Express Inclusion within 48 hours)
Keep It Going
Once you've earned a number one listing, you have to invest time to stay in first place. I worked with Susan Van Hooser to create the web site that got Phillip ranked so well.
Susan crafted all of the content and key phrases, I simply assembled the pages in a way that helped Google find the relevant information.
Getting listed with a great search engine ranking requires having a plan, doing your homework, and taking the time to do it right. I'm sure if you follow the steps above, it won't be long before you become, The Master of Your Internet Domain!
Don't have time to Do-It-Yourself?
Learn how you and I can work together to improve the search engine ranking of your web site!
Search Engine Optimization Package
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Until next time,
Jerry Gitchel
Publisher
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