Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Search Engine Strategies & Rich Content. by Jose L. Gonzalez



We have all heard about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). As for 2005 Search Engines, specially Google have developed outstanding systems and algorithims to test, rate and rank
sites... and avoid being tricked by low value sites that want to beat the system.

As for today tricks or just meta tags or even great linking strategies, although crucial,won't give you
top rankings by themselves.

Most important of all, and keep this always in mind: You need good content and you need a good distribution and use of your keywords to be at the top.

In the end, the Internet is all about information. Create good pages loaded with useful information and good distributed keywords and half of the job is done.

Now, just for a moment sit back, get yourself a coffee and visualize your webpage. Would you trust the person who wrote those words?

Is your website neat enough to read smoothly every sentence? This is a very important part for your Web. A neat design and good copy is indeed a great ally for SEO.

You should write a neat copy first, with good info. Then proceed to tune it up to make it 'content rich' for Search Engines. There is a simple fact...

Provide quality web pages and engines will index you higher. This is how their creators make a living. they provide the user with listings of quality pages to make them come back. These users then have more chances to see their ads or subscribe to their services.

If you are in a hurry, think about posting other people's articles and resources. A good plpace to go is goarticles.com

Straight forward enough.

*** What is 'keyword saturation'? ***

The times a certain word appears in your page in relation of the total number of words in it.

When indexing a site, Search Engines will look for keywords relevant to a certain topic and how any times and where that keyword appear in your page.

Theory is simple. Drop in some 'sport shoes' phrases and the Search Engine will decide that your page is about sport shoes, and thus it will index your site for people writing
'sport shoes' in their dialog box.

However, writing a word 1000 times will not give you a high ranking.

Search engines will decide that you are trying to trick them. And they hate web sites trying to trick their robots.

Each Engine has its own preference for keyword saturation indexes. For most of them, however, being around 7% will be ok. Over 15% will be considered SPAM. On the other hand under a 3-5% may be too low.

As a general rule, keep this in mind:

1. Use your main keywords in the top 1/3 of your page.
2. Use synonyms of your keywords while keeping a natural flow in your copy.
3. Dont repeat exact keyword phrases more than four or fivetimes. Or even less!

Googles Search Engine Algorithm is penalizing keyword overuse!

Dont forget about the rest of your text ! Althoug most search engines give a higher weight to the first 1/3 of your page, they will also check the rest of it. Try to include your main keywords at least once at your opening
paragraph, once or twice in the middle of your text and at least once in your closing paragraph.

If the copy doesn't read well... rewrite it and delete keywords if you must. The main point is to be fluent and 'nice'.

The process really looks forward to making ends meet. If a site is good for visitors, then sooner or later it will be good for search engines.

About the Author
Jose L. Gonzalez has a Journalism degree in Spain, a career that he still works now and then mostly for fun. After months of hard research, finally making a living online with several websites on different niches. He is editor of Premier Marketing Ezine and author of The Marketing Master Course.
http://www.marketing-master-vourse.com