Your Content is Kingstop wasting time with search engines
Search engine optimization used to be fairly simple. The algorithms the engines used were clearly based on strategically placed keywords, and the strategy in the early days was to beat the engines. How? By loading each page with hundreds of keywords, made invisible by making the words the same color as the page background.
The search engines have become a lot smarter since the old days, and figuring out their complex formulas has become a losers game. Yet the goals of both sides need not be mutually exclusive.
The search engine optimizers just want to rank their pages higher.
The search engines are only trying to reflect the most accurate and quality results for their customers. Algorithms are kept secret only because people will do anything to rank higher, regardless of the value of their content.
When you enter a search term, youre taken to a page of results, and advertisements related to your search words. Here are some of the things the search engine tracks:
-What sites you click onbased on their title and description. This is why key words are still important. Theyre the front gate to a site.
-How long before you come back to that results page. If you come back immediately, thats an indication the site wasnt relevant for you, and the engine failed.
-Incoming links to that site, and their relevancy. This is a tough thing for a computer to gauge, and its why investing in artificial intelligence now might be a good idea. Computers get smarter all the time.
There are about 100 more factors that go into a sites evaluation. But the bottom line is that to rank high, you need to provide valuable, relevant content consistently.
If actual people like your site, the engines will also.
So, whats your next step?
You need to provide valuable, relevant contentconsistently.
In building and developing your site (a continual process, as Ive said before), dont obsess over key words and search engine optimization. And please dont hire one of the experts who knows how to beat the engines. If they were that smart they truly would not be available for hire.
Focus instead on providing relevant, interesting, benefit-oriented content for your readers. Continue to update your website. Get feedback on what works. Look at your statistics to see where people are leaving and when. Design your site to address the needs of your audiencenot to pound on your chest.
As many of you know, Im a big believer in giving away great information. The web allows us to do that. I get a lot of resistance from prospects and new clients about this. A holistic practitioner told me earlier this week that the universe wasnt ready for him to give things away yet. I think it was actually he that wasnt ready, which is a lot more manageable than the universe.
Share your information. The more you give, the more you get. If youre afraid of giving away everything, then simply learnand listen–more.
Copyright 2005 Stacey Morris
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About The Author Stacey Morris, Focus Coach Download “12 Steps to a Profitable Website” at http://www.ServiceBusinessCoaching.com staceymorris@focuscoach.netThe Rush: A Newbie’s Internet Marketing Journey (Part 1)Stephen Robertson This article is part 1 of an ongoing series following the adventures of an unemployed slob with a dream. The trek into the world of internet marketing can be a bit daunting. I know because as I write this, I’ve just taken one of my first steps into this foray. I assume I’ve done all of the typical things most newbies do on the road in. I also assume that my reason for doing these things is somewhat textbook. I was laid off a few months ago from a dot-com for the second time in 3 years and just couldn’t stand the thought of going through the whole thing again. So I entertained all kinds of thoughts of what I “should” do for work. Ideas whizzed into my mind as quickly as they raced out: “I should just bite the bullet and get a tech job”, “Maybe I should do construction”, “I’ll hit the lottery”, “Interior Design?”, “How about writing a book?”, “Maybe I can get by as a consultant”, “McDonald’s?”. One day as I finished my breakfast of all the job and classified websites I could eat, I angrily pounded on my keyboard, “MAKE MONEY”. I laughed when I realized that my cursor was in the Google search box. I hit enter. My first thought was, “Look at all of these scams!” Then for some reason which I don’t recall, I clicked one. Then another. After about page 10 in Google’s results pages, I realized it was all very interesting to me. It wasn’t that I was actually buying it, I mean, I wasn’t a sucker. It was the fact that beyond the obvious scams, there was actually a story. I read the testimonials of hundreds of people. “I made $50,000 my first month!”, “I’ll retire in 4 years!”, “If my grandmother can do it, you can!” They were as endless as the over-the-top enthusiasm. It provided me with the same literary satisfaction as a Reader’s Digest short story. But there was something more. I couldn’t help but wonder, “Is there even a tiny bit of truth in here?” I imagine this must be what it felt like for pioneers that pondered the journey west to search for gold. Sure they heard grand stories but what are the chances? Armed with the amazing knowledge that only 25 minutes of reading Google results can give you I considered myself much better equipped than the average joe. I went off to find the one goldmine that had yet been unpicked. A week passed and I’d read thousands of testimonials, ideas, free ebooks, and forums. The forums were particularly interesting to me because here were people that all seemed to have a general interest in helping one another to achieve financial freedom. Being a competitive person in business, sports, and life in general, I wondered what the point of that was. “Why tip your hand?”, I thought. As I continued to read threads in the forum, it hit me, relationships. All good businesses have one thing in common, great relationships. Whether it’s with a landlord, the mailman, a client, or an employee, successful businesses thrive on good relationships. I was now addicted to this thought.
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