Many website owners ask me, “How do I get my website to the top of the search engines for my keywords?” The answer is not quite as easy as it may seem. If you’ve asked me this question, then you’ve heard me ramble on about all of the factors that go into search engine rankings. The truth is, there is not an easy step-by-step process that will absolutely bump you up to #1 in Google. (Or, trust me, I would have unveiled that secret to you all a long time ago). In a cyber-world where there are millions and millions of websites, Google, Yahoo and the other search engines have developed a top secret algorithm to best rank websites in order of importance for any given keyword.
What makes answering the question so difficult is that these search engines don’t publish what their algorithm is. It makes sense… if people knew the algorithm, they could make their website appear at the top for any search term they chose. Inevitably, the system would be abused and irrelevant information would appear in your searches. It is because the search engines deliver relevant information that we continue to use them as a resource when we want to find something.
There are a few parts to the puzzle that we know play a role in how the search engines determine if your website is relevant for any given keywords. How much of a roll? This is what the search engines won’t tell us. And to make it more complicated, they constantly change this formula so that people don’t catch on. Some of these factors include:
• Quality content on your website
• Links from other websites to your website
• Links from your website to other relevant websites
• Amount of traffic on your website
• Metatags, title tags, and alt text
• Listing in prominent online directories
• Choosing the right keywords
• Domain name and its age
• Organization and layout of content
• Variety and percentage of document changes
• Website size
If you do a Google search for keywords that pertain to your business, you may find over a million results. If you think about millions websites out there all vying for that first page position, you start to understand the complexity of search engine optimization.
For more information about search engine optimization, contact Sanderson Marketing.
