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 10, 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 take a few seconds and
add a fresh meta tag to any new page you create. 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 the tags in five seconds with
the Make A Living Online Meta Tag Creator. Each
time I create a new web page I simply add an appropriate title and meta tag according to
the content of the new page. You can and should be using this method too. Every time you
create a new page, adjust the title and keywords for the content on that page.
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.
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! |
