In order to fully understand what you need to do in order to rank high on Google and other search engines, you must obviously know how search engines rank queries. Now, only the people that are behind the ranking algorithms will fully understand what is involved in rankings. However, we can all make assumptions, and some of us can do so based on previous experiences. Below is a list in no particular order of many qualifications your site will need in order to provide you with your desired results.
1) Keyword Density, and Frequency
This is one of the most basic, and fundamental factors. It would make sense that if your site contains none of your given keywords you should not expect to show up for that keyword. Trellian.com is a great site for keyword suggestion. Don’t overdo your keywords on any given page. A generally good amount is 7% of your content should contain your target keywords.
2) Keyword Location
There are a few places on your page that you want to make sure you are properly using your keywords.
- Headings, bold, and italic text
- Beginning of paragraphs
- Page titles
- Description
For most search engines this will play a deciding factor on whether or not your page is relevant to your target keywords. It also is a good practice when creating a solid structure for your site.
Keywords that appear in the beginning part of your page are important while creating SEO friendly content. Also, use alt, and title tags on all photos that are on your page. This is helpful for overall accessibility on your site.
This may be the most important place to have your keywords. This is what will apear in the search results, and is also shown on the top of the browser.
Just another place that doesn’t hurt to have your keywords. This is probably the least important of all of the factors, however some search engines will still display your description if it is thought to have the most importance.
3) Link Popularity
In a perfect world and sometimes in the MSN world, keywords alone can result in a higher ranking. However to do well on Google, and Yahoo, you will need to drive a decent amount of topic related links. Don’t bother getting completely irrelevant links, even if they are in the thousands because as far as Google is concerned they have no meaning. In fact purchasing a large amount of links can raise a flag and result in a penalty in some situations. As stated in an earlier post it is also important to have your keywords used in the anchor text of your inbound links.
Good luck everyone,
