The Search Engine Strategy Experts Don't Want You to Know

The Search Engine Strategy That The Experts Don?t Want You to Know You know you need to have your site listed in Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines---and by now, you?ve probably been able to find an ad or two for a company that can do it for $49. or $99 or at least for $199. I?ll share with you later how this is just a scam and you?re really getting ripped off if you pay for this. Anyway, this article doesn?t go too deep (we?ll do that later) but it is meant to help you lay a foundation that you can build on when you acquire more knowledge about this very important subject. What Does YOUR Search Engine Do For You? To know how to design your website to get listed as high as possible in the search engines, it is best to think about why they exist and why they are so important to all of us. Studies from various sources say that consumers that are interested in a product are likely to start by using a search engine 60 of the time. You and I can?t remember all those site names and that long batch of letters and numbers after the http:// , so being able to just type in a few words that are relevant to what we are looking for is quite handy. You can bet the farm that your potential customers are using search engines daily to find what they want. Why People Use Search Engines A moment of silence please---so you can slow down your thoughts and reading in order to really think about this next question. Why does everyone use the search engines? Why do people consult search engines 80% of the time when they are looking for something? ?Cause its fun? Nope. Why then? I?m hoping that the answer that I wrote in italics below is exactly what you realized?if not, you need to think long and hard about my answer. ?People use the search engines because it is the best way to find relevant websites based on the phrase or keyword they believe best describes their need?. Duh! Sure, this is not rocket science and you might be thinking, when?s he gonna tell me just how to fix my web site so the consumer will find me when they search. I just did?.but first some background. How Search Engines Get Their Listings When people like you (or any other consumer) use a search engine you will get millions of listings of websites when you use it to find something. In fact, these days, if the search engine doesn?t have over a billion pages all neatly indexed and sorted out for you, then it is just wimpy and you?ll probably not use it again. So how do they get all these website listings? Most came from a computer program with a name like bot, crawler or spider. Regardless of the name of the program, it works a lot like your browser. When you type in a page name like nationalgift.com, you?ll end up viewing a webpage within the browser A computer program can store this page and then read the code behind the page and store not only what was visible on the top of the page like the words and images but also what is underneath in the page code. After the page is stored, the computer program can read things like the title of the page, the text on the page, and where the links on the page will take you if you click them. It is these links that make the crawler so busy. When it hits a page like this one, it stores all of the important information and then it goes on to the next steps: 1.) it looks for the next link, 2.) it goes to the next link just like a browser will if you click on it or type it into the address bar and 3.) it repeats the process of storing the page and extracting the links?.then it follows another link. How Do Search Engines Rank A Website The search engines store the information about each website so they can ?sort? it and ?score? it based on its relevance to the phrase the user would use to find a website. They all have slightly different ways of doing it but they have one goal---to give you the most relevant site that matches your key phrase that you entered when you started your search. Note---you?ve heard this before, right? The search engines are just a collection of computers---they use math to determine if a page on a website will be a good match for the term your searched for. For example, if you enter ?chocolate raisin turtles? the search engine will try to list the sites that it has crawled and stored that are the best match for ?chocolate raisin turtles?. They will have sorted all possible pages and considered the words on the webpages, or words in the titles (the blue bar across the top of a webpage) or some other place on the page. The point that I?m getting to is quite simple, ?if you want to have a chance of ranking high in the search engines, you need to make sure that your webpage includes the phrase or phrases that your customer will be searching for?. What do I do now? Now, in case you don?t see it yet, we?ve said twice that the way to get your web pages in the top of the search engine listings is to have words that include the ?phrase? that people are searching for. How do you do this?

Search engine optimization experts will tell you that it is a science and only the smartest and brightest will figure it out---not true. Average Joe?s can do quite well at getting their site to the top 10---just by following this one trick. Lean forward, get ready, ?cause I?m going to divulge the best tactic for newbies to use in order to start moving their site to the top of the search engines. ?Create a site that people will want to come to---and the search engines will rank it higher than others? It really is this simple. By creating the best information, product listings and imagery that relates to ?chocolate raisin turtles?, you have set yourself up to win the search engine ranking game. Your text will be about the subject, the titles in your page will likely be about the subject and your images will be pleasing to the visitor.

If you have agreat site, consumers will tell their friends and even link to you. Links are an important part of how many search engines rank your site. So, if consumers and other companies like your site enough to link to it, you?ll automatically score points with the search engines. Is that it? The Secret Can?t Be THAT Simple! It really is---for now. Search Engines make their money by doing this one thing right---finding relevant websites when we use keywords to describe them. Some search engines have hundreds of highly educated engineers working to modify their programs so you get relevant results when you use them to find something.

So whenever you are writing your titles, sub-titles or the body of any webpage, make sure that the words include the most relevant keywords to that page. Sure this strategy is simple, but it will help you get you site semi-optimized quickly without spending a fortune on an expert. So, don?t wait---make these changes then put your site up and see how you rank after a few weeks. At least if you do go to an expert, they?ll have to really earn their money to move you up further since you?ve already done the ?easy part?.

Suprisingly many search engine firms will now not want to work with your on your site because they'll see that you already know the basics and you won?t be impressed if they tell you to fix your title, your sub-titles, and your site text. Unfortunately many search firms have sprung up that prey on folks that don?t know these basics. Don?t Optimize to Perfection ? It?s a waste of time What I want to leave you with, until next time, is that while there is a way to ?perfectly? optimize a site as of right now---today, there are never any guarantees that the programs that a search engine uses to sort listings won?t change tonight. You can work and work and pay and pay until everything is just right---and then in a week, you can show up 10 pages back just because you were ?so perfectly optimized? for yesterday?s rules. Remember what I?ve told you, add a ?pickup a bottle of champagne? to your grocery list, and just relax because you?ll deserve it.

Just remember to?

?Write words and tell your story as humans will want to read it---write what you need to write in your titles and subheading so it will be compelling to your readers and put enough content on your site so that when visitors think of your product or service in the future that they?ll remember to come back to you or to tell their friends that need what you sell.? Then, submit you pages to the engines and stop worrying about it. It will likely take a few weeks to get your site through the search engine?s ?sand box? (which is just a name for ?waiting in line to be added to their listings) so you'll have to be patient. Search Engine Engineers Are Trying To Find YOUR Site You?ll have the best chance of being ?pulled? up into the top search engine listings because your site actually is relevant to the humans typing in your targeted keywords. Those hundreds of highly educated engineers will be trying to modify their computer programs to weed out the other sites to find your website and the few others that are written for humans to read and enjoy. Remember, the engineers really want to find you---not the webmasters that are using tricks to get in the top rankings just to get traffic. So, get started---revise your pages and enjoy your higher rankings. We?ll provide more specific ways to increase traffic with our free lessons that you can subscribe to at WebSuccessProgram.com.

J. Brent Tuttle is a nationally known Traffic Generation and Optimization Expert. He has been involved in several high-profile web-based businesses and also does optimization consulting for mid and large sized companies. Find out more about his free Internet Marketing lesson series for small business at www.websuccessprogram.com