How To Strengthen Your Base For High Rankings

If you do it right, search engine optimization is not difficult. Do the right things in the right order and your website will get the rankings it deserves. Unfortunately, many webmasters try to run before they can walk.

First things first

Social media can have a positive influence on your rankings. Backlinks are also very important. Both factors, however, won't help your website if your search engine optimization campaign lacks a solid foundation.

The following pyramid shows search engine optimization factors sorted by importance:

1. On-page optimization

Optimizing the content of your web pages is the most important step of each search engine optimization campaign. To show search engines that your website is relevant to a particular topic, optimize as many different pages of your website as possible for as many different keywords as possible.

Search engines must be able to parse your web pages without problems and your keywords should appear in the right places.

Use keywords that are related to your business in your website navigation and link your web pages with meaningful words to make sure that search engines can category your web pages properly.

2. Usability and conversion optimization

High rankings on search engines won't help your website if your website visitors don't convert. Make sure that your web pages are easy to use. Your website visitors should be able to find what they're looking for.

Create user friendly web pages that have a professional and trustworthy design. Add a call to action on all important web pages.

The higher the percentage of website visitors who purchase something on your website, the fewer visitors you need for a successful website.

3. Backlinks

You can start to get backlinks to your website when you're sure that your website has optimized pages and a good conversion rate.

If Google finds several different websites with content that is relevant to a keyword, the web page with the best backlinks will be listed on Google's result page.

Try to get backlinks from related websites. It also helps to include keywords that are related to your business in the links to your site. Quality is much more important than quantity. A few good links from related websites are better than lots of low quality links.

4. Social ranking elements

Social ranking elements such as the number of Facebook Likes, Google +1 clicks or Twitter mentions are the icing on the cake. These elements won't get your website on Google's first result page but they can make the difference between position 1 and 3.

Before you invest your time in social ranking elements, be sure that all other elements are in place.

Different keywords require different SEO tactics

Keywords with little competition require different tactics than keywords with high competition. If you want to get the best possible results for your website, you must use the right tactics with the right keyword.

1. On-page optimization has a higher impact for long keywords

The relative value of on-page web page optimization is very high if you target very long keywords with little competition:

Here's an example: say you want to be listed for the search term "buy blue nike 'the overplay' basketball shoe in Atlanta" then it is enough to optimize one of your web pages for that search term because the competition for that search term is not high. You don't need many inbound links to get high rankings for that keyphrase.
If you target more competitive keywords, you need more backlinks to get high rankings in the search results.

2. Even if you target competitive keywords, it is important to optimize your web page content

The chart above might create the impression that web page optimization is not important to get high rankings for very competitive keywords. That is not the case. Optimizing the contents of a web page is the essential basis for high search engine rankings.

By optimizing a web page for a keyphrase, you tell search engines that the web page is relevant to that keyphrase. If more than one web page has been optimized for that keyphrase (which is usually the case) then the web page with the best inbound links will get the highest position in the search results.

For example, the website www.cnn.com has 46,600 inbound links according to Google. Although CNN.com has so many inbound links, they do not rank for the keyword "buy blue nike 'the overplay' basketball shoe in Atlanta" because the website has not been optimized for that keyphrase.

3. Optimize your web page content, then work on the backlinks

If you want to get high rankings for a keyword, the first step is to optimize one of your web pages for that keyword. Then work on the links that point to the optimized web page to outrank other websites that have been optimized for the same keyword:

4. The more pages you optimize the better

When you optimize your website, optimize different pages of your website for different keyphrases. Start with longer keyword phrases that don't have much competition and then proceed with more competitive keywords.

For example, start with the keywords "buy sneakers in atlanta", "buy cowboy boots in atlanta", "buy pumps in atlanta", "shoe shop atlanta", etc. When you have managed to get high rankings for many of these keyphrases, Google will know that your website is relevant to the topic "shoes".

As soon as Google knows that your website is relevant to the topic, it will be much easier to get high rankings for more competitive keywords such as "buy shoes" or even "shoes".

The more pages of your website you optimize for different but related keywords, the better.

5. It's not necessary to have more links than your competitors

It's not always necessary that you have more links than your competitors. You need better links.

Try to get links to your website that use the targeted keyphrase as the link text (also called anchor text) and that point to the web page on your website that has been optimized for that keyphrase.

Don't focus on quantity, focus on quality. Getting hundreds of links from a link farm won't help your website as much as a few dozen links from relevant web pages with authority.

If your website has both optimized web pages and good inbound links then it will be easy to outrank web pages that only have one factor.

Optimize your internal links to get higher search engine rankings

Optimizing the content of your web pages is important if you want to get high rankings on Google. Most people know that they have to work on web page titles, web page content and links from other sites.
The internal link structure of a website is often overlooked although it has a big impact on the rankings of a website.
Why the internal link structure of your website is important

Internal links do not count as much as links from external websites. Nevertheless, search engines use them as an important signal in their algorithms.
Search engines consider links as votes. By optimizing the link structure on your web pages, you can lead search engines to the important pages of your website and you can show them the keywords for which you want to get high rankings.

1. Start by optimizing the main navigation on your website

The main navigation on your website are the navigational links that are visible on all pages of your site. The main navigation is the most important part of your website navigation.
It usually includes a "Home" link (including a linked company logo image) and links to the main sections on your website.

• Make sure that the links in your main navigation contain your most important keywords.
• Avoid Flash and JavaScript menus. Most search engines won't index your pages then. Use standard HTML and CSS to design your website navigation.

2. Consider breadcrumb navigation for sub-pages

Sub-pages can benefit a lot from breadcrumb navigation (Home > Category > Sub category > Product page). Sub pages usually aren't linked form the main website navigation.
Breadcrumb navigation links can help search engines to put the sub pages into the right context:

• Use breadcrumb navigation links on your web pages to show search engines and website visitors the exact location of a page.
• Use descriptive and keyword rich words in your breadcrumb navigation: Shoe shop > Sports shoes > Buy soccer shoes > Adidas deals

3. Make sure that the first link on the page is the right link

Google seems to consider only the text of the first link on a page. For example, if page A links to page B with the anchor text "further information" on the top of the page and with the anchor text "buy adidas soccer shoes" at the bottom of the page then only the first anchor text will be used by Google.

• If you link more than once to another page, make sure that the first link on the page contains the keywords for which you want to get high rankings.

Are you crawlable?

Creating great content and making your site accessible to web users and search engine spiders goes hand in hand. In order to get as much of your content indexed and linked to as possible, it needs to be highly visible, easily navigated and clearly structured.

There are a number of common ‘build’ obstacles that can affect how easily your site can be crawled. Fixing these hitches is a fundamental part of on-page optimization and can make a real difference to the volume of traffic you receive. Here are a few bug bears:

Images with no alt text: Search engines cannot read images. Your page may look beautiful thanks to the glorious image you’ve included but it will be completely invisible to the search engine’s spiders. Likewise if you have submission forms, diagrams or text box images, none of the important content you’ve created will get its due credit from the likes of Google etc. This is easily remedied with either an alt tag providing a description of the image that the human users can see, or by ensuring your text is not embedded in an image file, but as HTML text.

Flash heavy and framed sites: As with images, spiders don’t deal very well with Flash or Java. While Flash can enhance a user’s experience of a site, as long as it doesn’t slow down the loading time, it hides important content from the spiders. Highly creative sites commonly have their homepage in Flash, which looks great but is detrimental to the site given that most inbound links will point there, yet the spiders can’t see it. Finding ways to secure a balance or at least ensure there is a text option available is crucial to a successful ranking. Similarly, a framed site can cause spidering problems as frames tend to fragment your site. Content from pages within the overall framework can be hidden as the spiders might only read one of the frames on a page. It is best to avoid building your site in frames if possible.

General functionality: Being too clever, including whizzy graphics and such like can sometimes slow down your site. The user experience has to be as smooth and as uninterrupted as possible so avoid over-complicated functions, ensure file sizes are low for downloads etc and invest in some high quality server hosting. Checking your site works in different browsers is prudent and it also pays to check regularly for broken links in order to limit user frustrations and also ensure that all content can be accessed by the spiders at all times. Having a site map helps both user and spider as, if your site’s not vast, it means that most of the content can be accessed in two clicks.

Duplicate content: Search engine spiders like unique content. If they find duplicated versions of the same content, they will take one page as ‘canonical’ and display that single page as the result. This is particularly damaging to your ranking in the search engine results as the strength you have built up through the links to a particular page will be diluted by the additional copies. Commonly this can occur on a site’s homepage when multiple versions of the URL are used e.g. the inclusion and exclusion of the ‘www.’. As most external links tend to point to the homepage, it is important to protect its strength which can be done simply by using a 301 redirect. This ensures you dictate the canonical page to the search engine spiders by pointing all duplicate pages to the primary page.

Design and navigation: The design and navigation of your site can guide a user seamlessly through your content on a path you have pre-ordained. This is the same for the search bots. By creating a clear and logical network of internal links, obvious navigation systems, breadcrumbs, well written anchor text so it is clear what will be returned on the click of a link, and so forth, you not only create a smooth user experience but lead the bots deeper into your site. Search engines look for relevancy so designing your navigation system to act as a funnel; taking them from broader to narrower subject matter within an overall theme, will help them rate your relevancy and suggest there is depth and quality to your site.

These are just a few of the most common adjustments that can help improve your site’s crawlability. Speaking very generically, it stands to reason that the better the experience for the web user, the better it will be for the search engines. The key is to make sure a literal, textual translation is provided at all times for the internet’s creepy crawlies.