Making The Web

Get higher ranks for your web pages

Among the most often asked questions that I ever get is “Why isn’t my site showing up in searches?” I’m going to give you a very simple formula.

KEYWORD COMPETITION. Choose a keyword you know you can rank for. (Hint: it’s probably not the first one you think of). Here’s how to know if you have a chance. Look at the top ten sites that rank for a given keyword and specifically for each site check the following indications to see if they are optimizing for that keyword. You can determine most of these by viewing the source code from your browser (view: source).

1. Are the keywords in the URL? 2. Are the keywords in the Title? 3. Are the keywords in the Meta-tags (Description) 4. Are the keywords formatted with H1 header tags in the page

If most of the sites are in fact optimizing for the keyword of choice, I’d recommend trying another keyword. If you get past this test, the next couple of things you should check are page rank for each of the top ten and back links to the page. You can see the PageRank by simply installing the Google Toolbar and enabling that feature. To see how many links are going to a site, you can enter this into a Google search: “link: http://www.site.com” (removing the quote and replacing the www.site.com with the site in question). You should also know that if you try variations like link:http://www.site.com (no space) vs. link: http://www.site.com vs. link: www.site.com, you may see different results. As you check, keep track of these results (perhaps in a spreadsheet). Check the same things for your web page.

WEBSITE PARITY – If your web page is similar in Page Rank (within a point or 2) and also has a similar number of back-links the it looks like you have a chance at beating those other guys for the keyword you chose. There is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to rank on the first page of Google for that keyword. Here’s what you should do.

1. Either build a new page on your site or optimize an existing page so that your page is a positive for the 4 parameters listed above. Put your keywords in the URL, the Title, the Description and in H1 Header tags. Write your content using your keyword and variations (plurals, singulars and even synonyms). Don’t overdo it, you’re writing for people, not robots.

2. Create an article and submit it to reputable article directories (like ezine.com). But get on board. This is extremely important. Your article should be related to your keyword but doesn’t have to be specifically about it.

3. At the bottom of your article, you create what is known as a resource box. Most people put their bio here. In the resource box, you will include a link; specifically a hyperlink linking the keyword you chose.

That’s it! I have done this hundreds if not thousands of times for my sites and my clients and it just works. Whenever it doesn’t, typically your keywords are a little more competitive then you thought. It can be tough finding your sweet spot. Don’t give up though. You might just need to submit another article for the same keywords to give it a boost.

This may sound complicated and might even look like too much work to bother with. What I’ve learned over the years is that websites don’t just work. It takes work. Hopefully this has removed some of the confusion.

About the Author

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