Top 5 Search Engine Ranking Factors: Pay Attention!!!

By Michael Fleischner

As someone who makes a living improving search engine rankings, I can tell you that there is a lot of bad information out there about SEO. What if I were to tell you that the road map for achieving top rankings was within your grasp? The holy grail of rankings is not imaginary. As is true with any major success, it leaves clues.

By working with literally hundreds of small and medium sized websites, I have found that top ranked sites have a number of factors in common. What are they? I’m about to share these factors with you and explain what separates those in the top Google positions and those that are never found on page one of search results.

The first search engine ranking factor has to do with the anchor text of all inbound links to your website. Google and other search engines use the anchor text from other sites linking in to determine what your site is about and what it should rank well for. If websites link in only using a URL, and not your keywords in the anchor text, email them and ask them to update your link. The link should always appear with your most important keywords.

The second most important ranking factor is using keywords in your title tag and other meta tags. Meta tags still have an impact on your search rankings. Although the weight of meta tags may be minimal, they are effective in categorizing your page and identifying what search engines should expect to find when they spider web site pages. Make sure your tags are constructed properly and include you keywords.

The third ranking factor to consider for your web site is link popularity. This phrase has been talked about in search engine circles for a while but can be equated with Page Rank. The concept of Page rank or link popularity for that matter take a number of factors into consideration to identify the quality of web pages from an external perspective. The largest factor that influences search engine rankings is the number and quality of links that are pointing to a web site or web page.

The fourth ranking factor is the diversity of domains that link to your web site. For many search engines, it’s not only what links you have to your site but making sure they are from different domains. This represents more popularity associated with you web site and therefore is judged to be a better search result. When link building, try to focus on generating inbound links from different websites.

The final ranking factor is keyword use in root domain. Although it's possible to use subdomain or dedicated pages to get your keywords in a URL, nothing beats having them in your root domain.

All of these factors are important for top search rankings. Don’t overlook any of them if trying to improve your search rankings for particular keywords or keyword phrases. Also, be sure to continually read up on the subject or consider any one of a number of SEO training programs that can show you how to have more impact with your optimization efforts.

Michael Fleischner is an SEO consultant and author of SEO Made Simple, revealing strategies guaranteed to improve search engine rankings. Learn more about Michael's hands-on SEO training program, Internet Marketing Forum, and SEO consulting at MarketingScoop.com or contact him via the Marketing Blog at http://marketing-expert.blogspot.com.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Protect Your Website Ranking (ronmedlin.com)
• Attaining Higher SEO Ranking (ronmedlin.com)
• Link Popularity Service -Save Time & Money (stepbysteptips.com)
• Link Swap: A Good SEO Tool (ronmedlin.com)
• Search Engine Optimisation - Update (ronmedlin.com)
• Building Your Location Independent Online Business: Optimising Your Website For The Search Engines (locationindependent.com)

Related Sites:
Naked Pinay Views, Friendly Remarks , Greeny Fashion, Money Talks , Marc Nand's Blog , Nodding Nanding's Journal, Amusing Disclosure , PC Operatis , Online ShopsterGreen

Sites to visit :
Mizuno, Calvin Klein, Nike, Moschino, Adidas, Puma, Converse, Dickies, Skecher, DKNY, Emerica, Kayland, Miss Sixty, Umi Kids, Tommy, Wee Box, Onex, Olukai, FlyFlot, Fratelli, Gravati, Daniel Green, Jumping Jack, Yellow Box, Nine West, Tatami, Coclico, , Via Spiga, Naturalizer, Ecco Golf

Start Your SEO Campaign With On Page Optimization

SEO Made Simple

By Michael Fleischner

Succeeding with search engine optimization is a function of understanding the basics. Search engine optimization consists of two different disciplines. The

first is called on page optimization, what you do on your web pages to succeed, and off page optimization. By mastering both of these areas of optimization, you can have search engine success.

In order to be successful with your search engine optimization efforts long term, you should always start with on page optimization techniques. On page optimization refers to everything related to your actual web site and web pages from a search engine optimization perspective. This includes factors like web site age, URL, Meta tags, on page links, etc. It's important that you start with on page optimization because it ensures that your pages will be fully recognized by search engines.

The place to start when thinking about on-page optimization is with URLs and the overall structure of your web site. The reason we want to start here is because the URL is one of the most visible aspects of a web site. However, I would caution you about putting too much emphasis on the domain name as that is only part of the on-page optimization game. It definitely helps with Yahoo and MSN but not as much with Google.

A really good manner in which to implement a sub-domain strategy is by evaluating your keywords and identifying a small handful of sub-domains to implement. Select your most important keywords to set up as sub-domains and focus your efforts on a top level domain with direct links to your subdomains. This ensures that your sub-domains are crawled on a regular basis and appear within search results.

While considering the subdomain strategy, you can also implement another URL strategy that is equally as effective. Although it's been debated in search engine optimization circles, I've implemented both a sub-domain strategy as well as the following strategy and they are equally effective. Instead of implementing a subdomain simply create a page that includes your keyword as part of the url. For example: yoursite.com/yourkeyword where your key word is the actual keyword or keyword phrase you are trying to optimize for.

Your website url is only one of may on-page optimization factors you should be paying attention to. When I'm asked which factors are the most important to any search engine optimization effort, I usually emphasis clean code and fast load times. Search engines like Google want to make sure browsers have a good experience. If they started serving up really bad web sites in the number of ranking, you wouldn't be using their search engine. Check your site for coding errors and measure how long it takes for the pages to load.

Once you've covered on page optimization attributes associated with a high ranking web site, you should focus on off page optimization. Off page optimization is really a function of how the search engines see your site and how other web pages link to your own site. Off page optimization is often equated to link building as building external links to your site is at the core of search engine optimization.

Begin your search engine optimization efforts by focusing on on-page optimization. This creates a very strong foundation that you can build on for years to come. After that foundation is set, focus on off-page optimization techniques. These tactics can vary over time but should always include some type of link building effort. As you create more inbound links, your search engine results will continually improve.

Seeking help with your SEO? Discover how to Improve Search Engine Rankings in less than 36 hours with our helpful SEO guide. Also, be sure to check out our latest review of today's leading SEO software by visiting our SEO Elite Software Review.

Related articles

• Google Tries Same Page Anchor Sitelinks (seroundtable.com)
• Search Engine Optimisation - Update (ronmedlin.com)
• Should You Flaunt Your Search Engine Rankings? (seroundtable.com)
• Protect Your Website Ranking (ronmedlin.com)
• Understanding SEO and SEM For Marketing Success (ronmedlin.com)
• A Search Engine Explanation (ronmedlin.com)

Related Sites:
Naked Pinay Views, Friendly Remarks , Greeny Fashion, Money Talks , Marc Nand's Blog , Nodding Nanding's Journal, Amusing Disclosure , PC Operatis , Online Shopster