I love this topic because it is hotly debated in every webmaster forum and blog on the planet. There are many different ideas as to what will or will not work and what works on one website does not necessarily work on all websites.
In this article I will go over some of the debated ideas and those that are widely agreed on as well.
First of all I want to point out that Google PageRank and search engine results are not the same thing. You can have a high PageRank and be doing terribly in the search engines for your keywords and phrases. You can be doing well in the search engines, yet have a 0 PageRank.
This is probably the most confusing thing that new webmasters have to learn. It seems that many believe that a high PageRank will get them good results in the search engines.
It is widely agreed that PageRank is part of the algorithm Google uses to rank web pages. However, I believe it isn’t the biggest or most important factor in achieving good results in the Google search engine.
So why does almost everyone chase PageRank and how do you get a high PageRank?
That’s the question everyone seems to be focused on when they should be focused on doing well in the search engines for their keywords and phrases instead. I will go into PageRank first though to answer that question.
Different people chase PageRank for different reasons. Some do it because other webmasters will buy links from them if their PageRank is high. Why would you buy a link on a webpage that has a high PageRank? Because, according to Google watchers and even Google itself, a link to your web page from another web page is like a vote for your page. The more votes you have, the more popularity you have.
Many webmasters take this to mean they need to run out and gather as many links to their page as possible no matter where they come from or how they get them. What you need to realize is that all links do not help you that much. Links from a game website to a real estate website help you very little even if the game website has a high PageRank. Not many gamers out there are hunting for real estate, so the traffic you get would not be relevant either.
Links from a web page that displays news about real estate would be relevant to your topic so you would want a link or “vote” from it. If that real estate news website also had a high PageRank and a lot of traffic you would benefit even more. The web page that links to you transfers a small percentage of its own PageRank to your web page through linking to it. So the higher the PageRank the more it has to transfer to your page.
Another factor that determines how important the link or “vote” is to your web page is the number of outbound links are on the page which links to you.
In other words, if the real estate news web page had a PageRank of 8, but linked out to 100 other web pages, it might not help you as much as a web page that had a PageRank of 7 that links out to 50 other pages. A PageRank 6 that links out only to your page and no one else would probably even benefit you more than the other two pages that link to you.
It takes a lot of links to get any PageRank value. There is no set number because of all of the factors involved. No one can tell you that if you have X number of links from web pages with a PageRank of Y that you will have a PageRank of N. If there was a formula like that, then Google would just change it tomorrow. So don’t run out and buy some guru’s ebook because they say they have uncovered the secret or broken the code.
Providing good content is a great way to get a lot of relevant backlinks. Google’s system is designed for natural growth. Having too many links suddenly pop up leading to your website overnight will not help you. You might find a way to temporarily boost your web pages’s popularity, but Google will slam it back down to nothing as soon as it finds the mistake.
The way to get on top and stay on top is through organic SEO and natural growth. Providing good content means other webmasters who have websites with related topics will link to you without being asked. Providing tools people can use, videos, pictures, well-written articles and text, forums, blogs and other “sticky” material on your web pages will encourage that natural growth. Your PageRank will rise every time Google updates and there won’t be penalties down the road. It takes more time, but good content will help you more than anything else you do.
Now on to more important things like where you get your traffic.
Everyone seems to be so focused on Google that they don’t realize we are on the Internet, not the Googlenet.
1. Google is not the only search engine even though it is the largest by far.
2. Not everyone has to go to a search engine to find you if you promote your website properly.
3. Studies show that for most products, MSN, Yahoo!, and AOL traffic converts to sales at a higher ratio than Google traffic.
4. If everyone else focuses on Google, they leave the door open at the other search engines for you to laugh all the way to the bank on.
This article is about PageRank and ranking high in search engines, not about Google. So think outside the box with me here and actually consider that you can go ahead and rank high in other search engines and directories and make sales without offending the Google gods.
You do not have to build a different website for each search engine as some people suggest. Some actually do this and its okay to do, but there isn’t really a need to do so. The web pages that are optimized the best actually have top 10 results in several search engines including what people term the big three, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.
There are several things that make your results better.
Any one of them done separately does not amount to much. However, if you do all of the basics, you can do well in all of the search engines.
1. Does your domain name contain some of the keywords or a phrase that you are targeting? If not, consider getting a new one.
2. Does each page of your website have the same title? If so, give each page a new unique title. Do not just use a bunch of words in the title. Make each page’s title reflect the major key phrase you are targeting with that page. Narrow the focus a little.
3. Do you have a unique description meta for each page? If not, I have just one question. Is every page in your website exactly the same? If it is, there isn’t much hope for you anyway. If it isn’t, then create a description tag for each page that actually describes the content of that page and one that targets the two or three key phrases you will be targeting on that page.
4. Search engines crawl web pages, not websites.
5. Do you have the same keywords meta tag in every page? Again, each page is unique. Use keywords that are actually used and found on that page. The keywords meta tag was never designed for you to stuff it with all the phrases you would like to be found for. It was designed to reflect keywords that are actually in the content of that page. Keyword meta tags may not mean much to Google any more, but they may to smaller search engines.
6. Saying you care only about ranking well in Google is like me offering you a dollar and you saying, “No thanks. I already have a dollar.”
7. Write good relevant text on each of your web pages. Target two or three key phrases per page. Optimize the text for both your visitors and the search engines. There is no set percentage. Just add them wherever you can keeping in mind the words need to also make sense to your visitors or potential customers. Getting a lot of traffic and making no sales is much worse than getting a little traffic and making some sales. Your potential customers come first. The search engines come second.
8. Don’t bother submitting your website to Google or Bing. They will find you. Yahoo! will also, but submitting there once won’t hurt you. Use a tool like submitexpress.com for the rest of the smaller search engines, then submit to DMOZ and DogPile. As you run across directories that are relevant to your topic, you can always submit to those then.
9. Join forums related to your topic. Actually sign up and participate in the forums. Become a member of the community. Be helpful. Answer questions. Discuss your topic. The links in your profile or signature line at the forum are visible, so there’s no need to spam people saying, “Come see my site! I have . . . etc., etc.” If you do, you’ll lose those links because you will just get banned. Follow forum rules and you’ll find those links will bring you a little traffic directly and the links will help you. Also forums get crawled often and search engine spiders will follow links and also crawl your website.
10. Set up a blog. Post to it often. That adds fresh content to your website often. Search engines like websites that are updated regularly. Add other content to your website often as well. New pictures, videos, articles, etc.
If you do just the things I mentioned there on that list, your search engine results will improve over time.
Some of those things may improve your PageRank and search engine results right away. There is no magic pill, no hidden secret in an ebook somewhere, no guru who broke the code that can send you a CD to make you rich overnight. There are only good standard practices that will hold up to the test of time. You will never get rich on the web by taking the “I don’t want to have to work at it” approach.
When people come and ask me, “Why isn’t my website ranking higher in the search engines?” or “Why isn’t Google giving me a higher PageRank?”, I like to ask them, “What have you done to improve your results?”
Nine times out of 10, they haven’t done much. What will be your answer to my question if I ask you that?