Top 10
Ranking
in Search Engine Listings
The success of any web site depends upon how much traffic looks at the site. Even more important is the type of viewers that look at your site since a web surfer looking to buy a car will have little interest in pork bellies. The primary source of viewers is through the search engines like Alta Vista or Yahoo. Therefore it stands to reason that you want to be on good terms with the people at the search engines and be among the top 10 sites they recommend.
All search engines have different unpublished rules and each has their own way of screening web sites. A good experienced Web Master will have developed an understanding of what it takes to obtain good rankings. An inexperienced Web Master runs the risk of getting a web site rejected or even banned.
Many web sites are banned from the search engines. You would understand being banned for promoting illegal activity such as drug sales, or child pornography. But it is also possible to be banned for using a keyword too many times. Each search engine works differently and usually will have different algorithms or code for determining what will be included in their data base. Many search engines count how many times each word is used, and then determine position within their data base to determine relevancy. Therefore, a web that uses the word "car" 100 times may be determined to be more relevant to a web surfer than a web page that only uses the word 1 time. In many cases, the search engine may list the 100 car page before those using the word 99 times. And a page using the word "car" 98 times is next in line.
Knowing how the search engines work encouraged many Web designers to use the keyword too many times. Even to the point of hiding the keyword in the background color and invisible to the web surfer. Only the search engine reading the HTML code could find the word. This ultimately became an issue of the web designers exploiting the system and the search engines changed their algorithms to ban those that exploited the system. Of coarse the search engines did not tell anyone, and the web sites that were exploiting the system stopped getting viewers and they were left explaining why their pages did not generate sales.
Today we try to limit the use of keywords only 6 times and spend more effort on choosing better keywords or phrases. We could use the keyword "car" and be 500th on the list because there are 500 web sites using the keyword "car". The goal is to be in the top 10 web sites the search engines recognizes. If we change the keyword to 57 Chevy's, we may be in the top 30 web pages recognized by the search engine which is not bad. However, if we change the keyword to "restoring 57 Chevy's" or "parts for 57 Chevy's" we stand a good chance of being in the top 10 positions the search engine recommends.
It can be argued that we will not get as many web surfers with a phrase "restoring 57 chevy's" as we would "cars". However, if we are 500th on the list we probably have odds of 1 in a 10,000 of getting hit when we are 500th on the list. Not that many web surfers are going to page thru 50 pages to find our web site in the 500th position. However the 10 or 20 web surfers we do get are more interested in restoring 57 chevy's, than buying a new car.
Once we reach the top 10 position, we run the risk of having another web page coming online and ranking ahead of our 10th position and move us down to 11th and onto the second page. At this point sales drop and we start searching for answers. How can we get you back in the top 10 positions.
The system is very dynamic and what works today may not work tomorrow. Also every search engine uses different techniques and algorithms that can change frequently. To live with a dynamic system we employ software that searches the search engines regularly and reports how our web sites rank for every keyword we use. Based upon these reports we change the "meta" tags in the html code and use a trial and error system to see what works best.
It can take 1 minute to search 1 search engine for every keyword used. When you multiply that by 20 keywords and 10 search engines, it involves a considerable amount of time (3.5 hours). When you are on 900 search engines and use 50 keywords, it is a full time job.
This is time consuming and expensive work. However, it can make a difference between the web site generating 5% or 50% of your sales. In addition, this effort is needed for every product and every web site you have online.
Along these lines, it is important to use a Web Design Service that has the ability to monitor and understand how search engines work; and employ the software to monitor the search engines regularly. HE Web Design has this capability and monitors all the search engines on a regular basis.
Remember the goal is to be in the Top 10 and stay there. It can make a significant difference in your sales and is as important your telephone system.
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