The playing field may be level, but there are an awful lot of players on the field. The best way to compete is to optimize your site. It is not hard, but you need to do it correctly.
I have spent a considerable amount of time in the past few years exchanging links, writing articles, posting to forums and placing ads. It was time well spent, but when I analyze my traffic, I find most people still find my site through the search engines.
There is a great deal of good information you can read about search engines, optimizing, search algorithms, etc. Entire websites (and industries) are devoted to studying them. I must have read hundreds of articles on the subject and have developed my own simple approach. You will need to...
- Create pages with quality content, rich with keywords.
- Optimize your meta tags and links to reflect that content.
The first thing you need to do is visit the Google AdWords Keyword tool. Enter some keywords you think people would use to find your website, and it will show you how often people use them. It will help you find all the keyword phrases that relate to your business or service, many of which you might not have considered.
I like to optimize for three or four word keyword phrases, one phrase per page. For example, put all of your blue doorknobs on one page, and then optimize it for "blue antique doorknobs". The more info about blue antique doorknobs, the better. Add your city name and optimize for "Omaha blue antique doorknobs".
You may want to create some content
for the engines to find. If you specialize in doorknobs,
write an article about doorknobs - their history, their value -
whatever you find fascinating. Incorporate your keyword phrase into the body
of your article as often as you can, while still maintaining logical
readability and flow. Placing your keywords in your opening headline
and first paragraph are important as well.
This will also add to your credibility
as an expert in your niche market. I created these
pages years ago to promote my grandfather's book, and my pages
still rank fairly high for world fair collecting keywords.
If you specialize in more than one area, write several articles about what you know. If your site is in an online mall that doesn't allow you to add content pages, consider getting your own domain. Develop a purely "informational" website and then create links to all your "selling" site or auction.
After you've created your content, it's time to add your meta tags. You will need to determine what words are on your page. You can only optimize what you have. Don't bother using words that aren't in the body of your page.
Use your frequently used keywords to create your meta tags, the html code search engines use to analyze your site. If you look at the source of a web page, here is how they look...
<<HEAD>
<<TITLE>The page title </TITLE>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="A short description
of your page.">
</HEAD>
First comes the page title tag. This one is the most important. Don't just use "Acme Doorknobs Home Page" but instead "Acme Doorknobs - Your premier supplier of antique doorknobs, hardware and doorknob information". Your title should be between 5 and 20 words. Your title tag is what your visitors will see at the top of the page.
Next add your description tag, using your keywords again. Example: "Acme Doorknobs sells antique doorknobs, locks, hinges and related hardware for the doorknob collecting enthusiast." Use plural instead of singular, and don't repeat the same word twice in a row. About 25 words is good.
Google uses the info in these tages to write your link description on the search engine results page. Well written page titles and descriptions can make your listing perform better, even if it is not ranked as high.
Now, on every linked image on your site, insert your keywords in the .alt description. These are the words that appear when your mouse hovers over an image, so make it a complete, understandable sentence. If it is a picture of a doorknob, make your .alt tag read "Acme Doorknobs sells high quality doorknobs .. etc."
You will need to go through the same process for every page. Google doesn't like it when you have the same information in the meta tags of every page
Link popularity is important to search rankings. Seek out quality link partners. Google feels that if others link to you, you must have good information, and give you a higher ranking. A link from the Antique Doorknob Collectors of America will increase your rankings much more than a link from your kid's homepage.
It is also important how people link to you. That is, what words others use to link to you. It is called the "anchor text." For example, you will get much more benefit from the text link quality antique doorknobs than from click here. Try and get your link partners to use your search terms in your incoming links.
You will need to become good friends with Google and make use of all their services, so set up an account. Once you are set up, the first thing you need to do is submit a sitemap. You can find out all about them here. Once your sitemap has been uploaded, you can go in and make sure Google knows about all of your pages.
When you add new pages, you will need to update your sitemap and resubmit it, just to be sure it is included. Google automatically sends a "bot" or something to check out all your pages periodically too. I think most search engines do. There is never a need to pay anyone to submit your website for you.
It is important to create a free business listing on Google Places. You can stand out by adding your link, address, hours of operation, photos and keywords. When people are using Google Maps, they will see your business in little words at your address. Google has a good tutorial here.
Now you need to get set up at Google Analytics. They give you all the info you could ever want about your traffic. All you have to do is add a little code to the bottom of every page. They now give you results in real time.
Finally, you may as well set yourself up at Google+. It's Google's social network. You can set up an account for yourself, and then add a business listing.
You should also set up a page for your website on Facebook. It is an easy way to use your keywords and link to your site. Create links to your site from all the social media websites.
You need to submit your site to directories like Yahoo and The Open Directory Project. There are also local dircetories big and small where you can list your site, like local.com and Yelp. If you search, you can find lots more.
After you've done all you can, you still may not end up on the first page of the results. It's hard. Study your Google Analytics and see what pages are working, and test new keywords. Keep trying.
I've found the easiest way to get first page results is by optimizing for my local area. For instance, it is much easier to do well with the keywords "Omaha Antique Doorknobs" than just "Antique Doorknobs". Go Local.