SEO Strategies - Part Two

There’s no doubt about it. Optimizing pages to satisfy search engines can be a tedious and demanding task. Not just initially, but throughout the duration of any website being live on the web. Basically, your search engine optimization never ends. You strive for high page rank. That can mean an actual score like the one Google assigns to individual web pages or merely a conceptual rating that provides your website with more search engine recognition and stature than other sites in your area of interest.

Let’s face it. If you land in the top three positions (or even on the first page) of search results, you’ll most likely capture the same amount of traffic that the number one website enjoys. Maybe even more. It all depends on your description. Or should we say, the description that a search engine displays in your listing - since meta description tags are rarely used anymore. If your description more closely matches what a viewer is searching for, they’ll go to your website first. Regardless of what results position you happen to be in. And even if they don’t go there first, they’ll most likely get there eventually. Unless, of course, one of the other websites has totally and completely satisfied their needs and they don’t feel compelled to continue their search. The point is, it’s not entirely about what position you gain in search engine results. It’s about targeting a specific keyword (search term) and then making certain you accomplish these two things… 1. Your website ranks high for that keyword. 2. Your website can deliver viewer expectation for that keyword. Of course, delivering the viewer’s expectation is fairly straightforward. If the search term is “improve golf swing”, it’s a pretty safe bet the viewer is looking for something to improve their golf swing.

Regardless, there are millions of pages that show up in the search results total when a viewer types in “improve golf swing” (approximately 50,000 results if you put quotes around it, which the majority of searchers don‘t include).

You start by analyzing each of those top ranked pages. You sift through their source code, their web content, their design techniques. Whatever it takes to find out exactly what they’re doing that placed them in the top results positions. And then you do the same thing. Only better. And you keep doing it until you reach your ultimate goal. That goal might just be the number one position. Or maybe it’s getting listed in the top three. Or maybe you’re willing to settle for any position on the first page of search results.

They’re free and yet very few webmasters take advantage of the tools that Google has made available. And that includes Google Sitemaps, one of the best methods for getting your pages crawled and subsequently indexed (we’ll talk about that one in depth in the next segment). Listed below you’ll find some of the free SEO tools that you should be using on a regular basis. NOTE: In order to use any of these tools, you’ll need a special key. Just click on “Get a Free Google API Key” or go to http://www.google.com/api and submit the form. The key will then be sent to whatever email address you specify.