5 Tips to Ranking Well at Search Engines
Copyright 2006 strength-training-woman.com

Do you have a product or service that you want to sell on
the Internet?  If so, there are a few fundamental
components that you must know.  Putting your product or
service up for sale is easy.  You can find a cheap hosting
plan and get a 1-5 page site up within a few hours.  But
what happens next?

Unfortunately, most businesses will never sell their
product successfully on the Internet.  Their sites may be
flashy, but they are not receiving visitors.  To receive an
endless supply of free, targeted, leads from the search
engines you should consider a few of the 5 tips below.

Tip #1- Provide High Quality Content

Providing content does more than give out generic
information.  Providing content builds trust between you
and your visitor.  The more content you give, the bigger
the bond.  Your content should focus around very specific
keywords.  Each page on your website should be optimized
and focused on one keyword.

Finding keywords is a task in and of itself.  I will be the
first to admit that hunting down keywords with a high
demand and low supply is not the easiest task in the world.
It can be boring and repetitive.  After awhile the numbers
will blend together and you will feel a bit dazed.  But do
not stop now!  Keywords are the foundation for your content
pages and for your business.

Tip #2- Find Relevant Linking Partners

The days of trading links with any old site are gone.
There was a period in time when search engines counted how
many links in you had to your site.  They factored that and
determined if your site was good or not.  So if your site
had 300 other sites linking to it, search engines would
have probably considered it a better site than one with
only 10 incoming links.

Search engines have wised up since those days.  Now search
engines place more emphasis on relevant links.  Your site
should only link to other sites that are high quality and
relevant.  If your site is about cookies then you should
not be linking to a site about gambling.  It doesn't make
sense for your site visitors, and it doesn't make sense to
the search engines.

When you trade links with a relevant, high quality site be
sure you specify where your link should be placed, for how
long, and what it should say.  I often see people exchange
links and within a few days the linking partner has taken
down the link.  Only do business with trusted webmasters.

Tip #3- Submit Your Site to Site Directories

This is a great way to get high quality and high ranked
sites to link to you.  Think of a link to your site as a
vote of confidence.  Site directories are less popular than
search engines, but their link to you helps you increase in
search engine rankings.  Be wary of any site directory that
makes you pay for submission.  There are plenty of great
directories that allow you to submit your site for free.

Getting as specific as possible with site directories is a
great idea.  If your site is about cookies, you should try
to find a site directory that only deals with desserts or
foods.  General directories are fine, but be sure you
submit your site to the appropriate category.  General
directories tend to have a category for almost any topic.

Some site directories will ask you to link to them first.
This is your choice.  I do not link or pay to get into any
site directory.  There are too many free ones that do not
require a link back.  Remember to place only relevant links
on your site.  Would your cookie site visitors want to
click on a link for a site directory?

Tip #4- Add a Site Map

A site map is a single webpage that contains links to all
the other pages on your site.  Adding a map will help your
visitors find information quickly.  Besides being a helpful
tool for visitors a site map also helps search engines find
pages.  When a search engine spider visits your site it
crawls through a page.  It visits all the links on your
page and it checks for keywords.  This is why keywords and
relevant linking partners are recommended above.

Once the search engine spider finds the site map it will
find all of your other pages.  Search engine spiders do not
like to dig very deep into sites.  They like to search
through 2 or 3 'levels' of information.  So pages that are
hard to find will not rank well or they will take much
longer to rank well.  A site map helps the engines find all
your pages at once.

Tip #5- Be Patient and Find Other Means of Traffic

Waiting for the search engines to scour your site and rank
it could take a bit of time.  I recommend a lot of
patience.  When I post a new content page on my website, it
takes a few weeks to get noticed.  Some search engines are
fast and rank the page immediately.  Others are a bit
slower.

While you wait for your pages to rank well I recommend
finding alternative ways to drive traffic to your site.
You can look into PPC (pay-per-click advertising), article
writing, off-line ads, buying ad space in newsletters,
doing a joint venture with a fellow webmaster or post in
relevant forums.

These 5 tips to ranking well at the search engines are
tried and true methods.  I have built a site using these 5
tips and can personally attest to their sheer power.
Patience is the hardest part.  Keep building relevant
content, link to relevant partners, submit to site
directories, add a site map and then keep going.

Persistence pays off.  Building a web business takes time.
Your business needs to develop and mature.  Using some or
all of the above tips can ensure a big payoff down the road.


About the Author:

Lynn VanDyke builds successful websites. She provides
several options for business owners including a “Jump Start
Your Online Business” CD-ROM. Visit
http://www.LynnVanDyke.com to learn more about her and her
services. Lynn's content website is ranked in all 3 major
search engines and is in the top 1% of all websites
worldwide according to Alexa.