It is a tough challenge out there on the SERP turf, with the newbies in a constant battle to unsettle the old guards holding on to their hard-earned high ranks. Search engines have become the default source of information for anyone looking for details on the Internet. Businesses, entrepreneurs and even hobbyists are vying for that steady stream of visitor traffic, which may translate into serious business deals or revenue sources. The natural way for websites to gain the attention of the Internet users is to figure prominently on the search results that are fetched in response to a user query. These resultant websites and their order of display on the search engine result pages (SERP) are determined by the search engine algorithms or spiders that constantly scan the Internet for content and index it under different categories or keywords. Search engine spiders rank content based on several factors or parameters, and by simply adhering to the basic requirements of the index algorithms, websites stand a good chance of a good rank on the search results.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an online marketing technique that works on factors that influence SERP ranking to make the website search-engine friendly, forcing them to recognize the website as a relevant source of information. SEO addresses several aspects of a given website including the structure and underlying code of the site, as well as the content and links to boost the site into prominence. SEO can be taken up either as an in-house process or addressed with professional help. Click here to know more about professional SEO services.
How to draw the attention of search spiders using SEO?
• Search engines are tuned to recognize and punish plagiarism or copied content – webmasters should focus on putting up clear and concise content that is both original and relevant to domain or industry specific to the website. A regular update of content not only prompts search engines to scan content and re-rank the page, but also keeps visitors coming back to check out for latest information posted on the sites. Needless to say that one needs to keep tab on the aesthetics to make the read enjoyable for the visitor.
• Keywords are the lifeline of any website or blog being searched on the Internet – it is important to constantly watch for popular subject or industry-specific keywords relevant to the site, and optimize the existing content or create fresh content to incorporate these keywords in a natural manner. If done properly, the content and the website would surface on the SERP in response to the keyword used in the search query.
• Building quality inbound links from other authoritative – reputed and popular websites works to get noticed by users who frequently visit them. Similarly, posting content on blogs and social networks also serve to build inbound links. Anchor texts for these links, however, should contain relevant keywords, and be captivating enough for users to navigate to the website. Take care not to repeat the same anchor text for multiple links, as this may work against the SERP rank. Visitor traffic gained from inbound links not only improves business prospects but is also considered for SERP ranking purposes.
• Website structure is another crucial factor with hidden benefits – Site structure ensures that visitors can easily traverse through the website to locate the information needed. A well-designed site encourages visitors to come back to the site often. However, if the site structure is not user-friendly, visitors may leave the page almost immediately. Search engines can detect such abrupt departures and use this information for ranking the website.
Doing away with other common problems related to invalid links, blank pages and slowly loading pages make the site both user-friendly and SE-friendly, influencing the ranking eventually.
The author is an expert writer specializing in Internet marketing and SEO. Her work is published on several online and offline publications. Besides writing for websites, she has also authored a few books on search engine rankings and SERP.
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Pete_81
February 11, 2013 at 12:29 pm
A great blog post with some top tips on getting those coveted top positions in the search results.
The trick is experimenting until you find what works for you. Observe what your competitors are doing and aim to replicate if they are achieving top results.
There are a great many posts with many varied opinions on what works best. This isn’t helped by the vague insights that representatives of the search engine companies offer to web masters. This creates confusion at the best of times and for any individual or business just getting into SEO it can seem that SEO is hard graft for little reward if the techniques they use don’t produce quick results, which is what every client I have worked with expects.
SEO should form a part of a wider strategy now. Make sure it’s aligned with social media, ppc, video, and PR campaigns. If you use all of these tools in your belt then you will surely see better results over 2013 onwards. For anyone that doubts the strength of SEO, this really needs to be considered carefully.
There’s a great post on how SEO can produce better results if incorporated with other communications channels here: toplinecomms .com/blog/2013/01/seo-results-uncertain-what-are-you-thinking
Hope you find it interesting!
Ram Shengale
February 12, 2013 at 12:11 pm
Nice post Clara. The points that you mentioned in this post are the most important ascpects of on-page SEO. But I think to get high rankings on SERPs its important to know both off page and on page SEO. What do you say?
Ram
Yasir Khan
May 31, 2013 at 1:02 am
In order to be on top of the of the Google ranking , you must do SEO website optimization with consistency and determination. It helps you create quality links and traffic that is needed to be in search engine rankings.