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Keywords, Competition And Being Number One- Uncovering The Algorithm

By: shani



There Is No Magic Pill



Forget any advertisement you see for instänt number one search results or
automated this or that. Most are scams, and the ones that aren't might get you
positioned, but it will be very short lived.

Search engine optimization is an ongoing process. Achieving and maintaining a
high rank, especially on highly competitive keywords, requires constant
maintenance. If you do find a legitïmate SEO firm, it is well worth the monëy to
pay their monthly maintenance fee and let them continue to help you after the
initial project. At least for 6 months or a year as you establish yourself.

In this article we'll look at some of the intricate and complex tasks of
optimizing a page for long term ranking power. You will learn how to read
between the code and the content to find what is necessary to bring you to the
top. Being number one is easy to say, but is quickly overwhelming when you stare
at tens of thousands of pages you want to out rank. So how do you begin?

The starting line on the road to that first page SERP (search engine results
page) ranking is not as blurry as you might think. In fact, you can uncover the
starting line, the route, and all the scenery along the way to the finish line
without knowing the search engine algorithm.

STEP 1- Your Keywords Are The Crowning Achievement Of Gruelling Days Of Work



If you have investments in the stöck market you know how much research and
thought goes into choosing those securities. Nöw take that same effort and
multiply it by three. That's how much planning and revision your keywords should
take.

A simple, broad key phrase like "shoes" could hypothetically bring you up in a
countless stream of different searches. Women's shoes, baby shoes, sneakers,
high heels, etc. If somehow you manage to settle into a good ranking (which
would be difficult) you would have more traffïc on your site than you could
handle. But traffïc is worthless if it doesn't get to it's destination. Chances
are, you weren't that destination.

Your keywords must be focused and precise, specific to what you are selling.
Using a key phrase like "Gucci mens black leather loafer" will bring a targeted
lead to your site. You may not reach as many people as the more generalized
keyword, but the people that do come to you have a much deeper interest in the
specific product you are selling.

Therefore you have much greater chance of converting that targeted lead to a
sale. Your keywords are your magic beans, your winning lotto numbers, your
energizer bunnies, your salës force, whatever you want to call them. They must
be perfect.

STEP 2- Want To Be Number One? Look At Who Already Is



Competition Analysis- no SEO book can give you this information.

Nöw take your keyword list and type them into a search engine. Who comes up in
the first ten results? That company that is number one is because they have most
closely matched what the search engine algorithm says should be number one. You
can learn a great deal from them.

A. Internal Factors



Take that number one page, and the other top 9 pages and study them, look at the
code, break them down. You are looking at the first half of what is needed to
rank in the top 10 pages for your key phrases on that particular search engine.
The list of what to look for is enormous.

Studying the Internal Factors on a page is taking it apart to see how it's put
together. Not how it works, but statistical research into the precise construct
and layout of keywords and phrases in relation to each other within the page.

Start with these areas:



URL address, Page Title, Meta description, Meta Keywords, First sentence on the
page, Body copy, Bold or Emphasized Phrases, H1 or other tags, Alt Tags,
Navigation system

In each of those sections, look at:

Keyword densities- the number of times your phrase and each word in your phrase
appears compared to the text around it

Where, and how many times, the same phrase and words appear in different
sections

The word and character position of each phrase in each section

The total number of characters

The total number of words

Beginning with these comparisons should keep you quite busy for awhile. A
spreadsheet is quite useful. Some commercial products are also available that
can make this daunting task much more feasible. Keep looking for other patterns
and differences. You want to duplicate them in your own page. NOT copy and
steal. You want to mimic the patterns that are bringing that page to the
position it's in. Then move onto to examining the external factors of these
pages.

B. External Factors



External factors of a web page deal with the links to, from and within a web
page, both inside the same site, and out into the web. This analysis usually
takes more time because it involves more dissection of pages beyond the one
you're trying to optimize. In this analysis, as with Internal Factors, you want
to compare and contrast your page versus the top 10 competitors, find
similarities and differences. Below is a list of criteria to get you started.

Number of internal links (to the same site) on that page

Number of external links

Number of links pointing TO that page* (see below for details)

The link/anchor text- which keywords are used and where

Google Page Rank value of incoming links

Alexa Rank of incoming links

* To get a listing of the links that point to a site, type the following into
Google, MSN and Yahoo searches: "link:www.domainname.com". Google tends to only
show a small portion of the links back, but MSN and Yahoo will give you much
more pertinent data.

Nöw you want to compare the content on each of these pages to the one they point
to. Is it of similar theme, in what context does the link back appear and where.
Subject of much debate, the consensus is that Google Page Rank does not mean
what it used to. However, if it is in some fashion a measure of how significant
or "important" a site is, it is worth looking more closely at the sites that
link back that are of high page rank.

Even A Surgeon Uses Tools



Nöw, this is definitely a ton of work to do all by hand. There are software
programs that can help do some of the digging and mathematical computations for
you, figuring out densities and organizing information.

Tools like this are definitely ones a professional SEO will have in their
arsenal. But remember, these are tools, not miracle workers. It takes a human
being to evaluate and realize connections, similarities, draw conclusions and
interpret the data. Then, you have to extrapolate this data.

Remember, you want to do one better than every site you just examined. To do
that you have to draw some conclusions and make some educated guesses and link
to even better sites.

Final Thoughts



You have access to the inner workings of every page that you want to beat. Learn
from them and do one better. This process is not a one-tïme shot. It is ongoing.
Chëck your key phrases every week. Do the same people still rank in the top ten?

Some have probably moved. Remember too that they're going to adapt to maintain
their positions too. If you want the ranks, you have to spend the time, and not
just once, or pay someone to do it for you.

Don't ever believe anyone who says they can guarantëe any kind of results. And
ask them how they will optimize your pages. If they explain to you something
like the above, then you've probably got yourself someone experienced and
honest. Your monëy will be well spent and you'll quickly recover it.

Article Source: http://www.clickarticles.com

Shani - SEO Specialist and Internet Marketing Consultant. www.karachiplus.net

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