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Making Your Pages Relevant
Algorithm-based search results, like those in Google and Yahoo!, are referred to as free, natural, or organic. This is in contrast to paid-placement or pay-for-position listings displayed on some search result pages.
To get good organic search position, you have to become, or appear to become, one of the most relevant pages on the internet for each specific search term.
To do this, there are three variables you can manipulate:
- Target Keywords - Each unique search produces different results. So the first step is selecting the terms on which you want to rank highly. The words and phrases you select determine the level of competition and therefore the difficulty of achieving a page-one ranking.
- On-Page Attributes - One way the search engines decide how relevant any page is to a particular search is by the words that appear on that page. Each engine weighs the various text elements differently - but generally speaking the page title, various meta tags, headlines, and body copy should reflect the targeted search terms.
- Inbound Links - Another way search engines determine the relevance of your pages is by what others say about you via links to your page. The number of links, the text used in those links, and the source of the links are all factors that impact your ranking for targeted search terms.
Optimizing a web site involves manipulating these three variables to make the pages on the site highly relevant to the target keywords.
In some cases, you can get great results by adjusting the <title> tags on your pages. Other times, it is necessary to more dramatically modify the tags and copy on your pages, and work to build better inbound links to the pages.
Where It Gets Complicated
This simple process gets complicated for three reasons:
- Each search engine has a different way of ranking pages. It's important to rank well in Google, Yahoo, and MSN, plus some of the smaller or more vertically targetted engines. Simultaneously serving these different masters makes the process much more difficult.
- Most businesses need to rank well for many different keywords. Each unique word or phrase associated with your company is its own battle on the search engines. Most businesses quickly find that there are hundreds or even thousands of keywords for which they'd like to rank highly.
- Many keywords are getting competitive. As more businesses learn the benefits of search marketing, its getting harder and harder to win the more popular and generic terms. This impacts both strategy and tactics.
- Web servers and page development can block the search engines. Dynamic web pages, Flash and Java, Frames, and many other common technologies can prevent or limit the ability of the search engines to fully index your site.
Our SEO methods handle these challenges, and many more, by applying design and optimization techniques that make your site highly relevant to both users and the search engines.
To discuss the techniques that would be best for your company, call or write and we'll be pleased to have a personalized no-obligation discussion.
Next Steps
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