There can only be ten sites listed in the top ten at any search engine at any given time. HOWEVER, that does not mean that YOU cannot be one of those ten. It takes time and effort but it's not impossible. Is it worth the effort? Sometimes! I personally get as much traffic from links from other sites as I do from search engines. I also get more traffic from Alta Vista than I do from Yahoo! Given that time is often our biggest limitation, I believe in focusing on what produces the greatest results. So....here is how you get a top ten listing.

First of all you need to decide what your website is all about. That's because you need to structure your website so that the search engines realize what you website is really about. This is the first problem I often notice in the websites that I am hired to promote. The site tries to target too many different topics. That causes the search engine to determine your site is about all of those topics but not REALLY about any of them. So you show up in the listings for all of the topics, but on page 200!

It's really a 3 step process:

1. Decided what your site is about.

2. Choose some good keyword phrases that describe this theme.

3. Structure your pages so that the search engines know that this is what your site is about.

Then you submit your site to the search engines. If you do not get the listing that you desire you make minor modifications to your pages to try and improve your ranking. Study the pages that did better than your and read about how the search engines work. Based upon what you observe, make changes.

That's all there is to it - no trickery, no spamming the search engines, no keyword stuffing. As Bob Massa (whom is consider the top search engine placement specialist) points out in his popular column in many ezines - you really want to just help the search engines return you page during relevant searches. Using trickery to get your pages to show up under search terms that really have nothing to do with your site only irritates the surfer. It can also get you banned from the search engines.

First you have to decide what your site is about. For example my site is about internet marketing, but lately I have focused on promoting other sites and helping promote other ezines. Internet marketing is a very broad topic. So is website promotion or ezine promotion. Still, this is what I decided my site was about.

Secondly - choose good keyword phrases. Most people do not search using a single keyword. They use phrases to get a more focused search. For example, continuing with the theme I chose above, my keyword phrases would be "ezine promotion," "expert website promotion," "expert site promotion," and "electronic newsletter promotion." In this example, I focus on just these few keyword phrases. If you stuff too many keyword phrases in your metatags, you can dilute the relevancy of each of the keywords. Instead of doing that -narrow your focus. If you want to focus on many, many keyword phrases, make each page focus on just a few!

Finally, you want to structure you pages so that the search engines know what your pages are about. To me that means that your page title, your description and your keywords metatag should contain your keyword phrases. In addition, your keyword phrases must appear on the page a number of times. When you submit a page structured appropriately the search engines have no problem determining what your pages is about and listing it with a high return during a keyword search. Since each search engine works differently though, you also have to decide what search engine you are targeting. That's where the concept of doorway pages (different pages designed for different engines) come into play.

Since I believe in examples, let's look at my homepage at http://www.williecrawford.com It is "structured" to place well at Alta Vista. It is also structured to place well under the keyword phrases "expert website promotion," "expert site promotion," and "ezine promotion." What do I mean by it is structured to do well with this engine and for these phrases? Well - why not surf over and take a look at the page structure? Using your browser just select view source, or something like that, depending upon how your browser works, and you will be able to see my html coding. You will see that I used no tricker, no keyword stuffing, no hidden text the same color as the background - nothing questionable. Using questionable tactics only work until your competition reports you for spamming.

Does this work? This page is currently ranked number 1 at Alta Vista for all of the phrases it targets. Yes, it works. It is also the first page at Yahoo if you are searching for "electronic newsletter promotion." It's well ranked at a number of search engines for specific keyword. Other pages rank well at other engines for other keywords. The SECRET here is that you sort of need to design pages based upon which search engines you are targeting. You need to study other pages that do well with these search engines and figure out why. As I said earlier, that does take time and effort. However, given the increased traffic it generates, it may very well be worth the effort. If you find that you don't have the time or knowhow you have two options.

You can hire one of the thousands of promotion gurus, or you can devote a little time each day to learning more about how search engines really work. Both can, but are not guaranteed to, give you a top ten listing. You see - it CAN be done. But guess what - it doesn't last. The search engines change their formulas for determining ranking from time to time, and new websites are built every day, so staying at the top IS a real battle.

--------------------------------

Willie Crawford is a well-know internet marketing consultant and writer. His website is filled with articles designed to help you succeed. Visit http://www.williecrawford.com today! This article may be freely used in your ezine or on your website as long as it is reproduced in it's entirety, to include this footnote and it is not altered. * Copyright © 1999 Willie Crawford All Rights Reserved *

To PromoteZone2000