Climbing to the Top of Mt. Search Engine

Jill Whalen, www.highrankings.com

Jill Whalen is a search-engine optimization expert and publishes the newsletter High Rankings Advisor. Whalen says, “Top level search engine listings are absolutely critical for the success of your business on the Web. Why? According to most studies, the average user never goes past the third page of search results.” She advises:

Be realistic about your keyword choices. Never expect a high ranking for a single word—there are simply too many sites on the Internet for a one word search to be effective. In addition, it’s practically impossible to create a one word search that is targeted to your specific website.

For example, suppose you sell real estate in Florida. You might assume that using “homes” as your keyword would produce a lot of targeted traffic. Wrong. Just because people search for the word “homes” doesn’t mean they’re looking to buy or sell a home in Florida. However, if you choose “moving to Florida” as your keywords, most of your site visitors will be people actually interested in moving to Florida, and therefore probably needing real estate. This is the beauty of choosing the proper keyword phrases: you get an extremely targeted audience!

Once you do have relevant keyword phrases chosen for your site, you absolutely must write good, professional, keyword rich marketing copy (or hire someone to do so) on every page of your website. Simply being found in the engines isn’t enough. Once found, your site still has to sell its products or services.

I believe that a big reason why our optimized sites end up getting so much new business is because we increase their overall appeal. That is, we write great, professional marketing text, and suggest other changes that may give the site a more professional appearance. These things are just as important to the bottom line as getting a high ranking in the first place.