Search Engine Ranking Confessions
By Jim Daniels
Posted Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Here's a question I get at least once every week...
"Search engine ranking. How important is it really?"
Well, if you can never seem to find your web site through search engines, you may think it could be keeping you from success.
Not true. Today I'd like to make a few confessions about my own search engine ranking efforts and share with you some personal findings on the subject of search engine ranking. You'll learn how to make your web pages search engine friendly and some great ways to improve your traffic from major search engines -- with very little effort.
Confession #1:
There was a time when I felt that ranking high in search engines was very important. I even spent hours every week trying to get those top spots. I mean I tried everything. And lots of the stuff I tried worked. I enjoyed #1 rankings at Infoseek, AltaVista, WebCrawler and more. I was in the top 10 of nearly all the major search engines.
Then a funny thing happened.
I wised up.
You see, I finally realized that there were literally thousands of other folks promoting related products and services. I knew that keeping those high search engine positions would become quite a chore eventually. Hey, I'm just one guy, sitting at my computer. If the few hours a week I was spending on search engine ranking grew into ten, 12 or 15 hours, something else would have to suffer.
Which leads me to confession #2...
I dropped out of the game altogether. That's right, I gave up the battle. And it was the best decision I ever made.
Not only did this decision free up time for more important online marketing strategies, it helped me see the bigger picture.
That big picture is this:
You need more than search engine traffic to make money online. You need business relationships. You form these valuable business relationships by promoting your business in other ways. Regular email contact, newsletter publishing, discussion group participation, offering an associate program - these are the methods that have brought me full-time income on the internet. They are also the methods that will take me further.
I can honestly say that if the search engines all closed up shop tomorrow (or started to rank pages by who pays them the most - which is more likely) my cyberbusiness wouldn't miss a beat. Why? I chose not to rely on search engines for web site traffic.
That's not to say I don't get traffic from search engines. I just don't rely on search engines for *ALL* my traffic. Like any wise internet marketer, I take what I can get - especially when it's free.
Which leads me to Confession #3...
I now enjoy some of my best search engine ranking ever!
"What's that Jim? You gave up the battle and you're winning?..."
Actually, yes. I now receive hundreds of visitors each day through search engines. There's a good chance that's how you originally found my site.
So how does a guy drop out of the search engine battles and come up with top ranking?
Simple. I said I dropped out of the battles, not the war. You see, I still make sure that every web page I create is search engine friendly and optimized for good ranking. I do this by inserting meta tags, using a good title and adding keyword rich content.
I recommend this as a minimum. It's simple. All you have to do is create one good meta-tagged web page, then use it as a template when creating all your other pages. If you want a good example, just view the source code of this page by clicking View then Source in your browser. Notice my title and meta tags. I created this page from my own template. Each time I create a new page I use the template. I simply adjust the title, meta tag and keywords according to the content of the new page.
You can and should be using this method too. Every time you create a new page, start from your template and adjust the title and keywords for the content on that page. If you're not familiar with html at all, here's a program you can use to automate your search engine positioning efforts.
I also recommend you spend a lot of time getting other sites in your industry to link to yours. Link popularity is growing in importance as major search engines strive to show the best search engine results for their users. The more sites you have linking to yours, the better your search engine results will be.
I've learned this first-hand, as I now have over 6500 sites linking to mine. (As reported by linkpopularity.com and AltaVista on 6/2/2000.) My search engine ranking as improved dramatically as a result of these links. Note: Here's the tool that helps me achieve more links on a regular basis.
In closing...
With the "casual" search engine ranking methods mentioned above, you can't help but get better search engine raking. Plus, all the time you save battling for those top spots can be better spent on REAL internet marketing!
So there you have it. Confessions from a once-hooked search engine junkie. Are you caught up in the search engine ranking battles?
Perhaps it's time to surrender some of the battles. Who knows, you may just win the war!
Best regards, Jim Daniels
Owner - bizweb2000.com
About the Author
* Article by Jim Daniels of JDD Publishing. Jim's site has helped 1000's of regular folks profit online. Visit (http://bizweb2000.com) for FREE "how-to" cybermarketing assistance, software, manuals, web services and more. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to their Free, weekly BizWeb E-Gazette: mailto:freegazette@bizweb2000.com
