Web Hosting Tips for Webmasters -
Chasing the Search Engines' Algorithms... Should you or Shouldn't you?
Chasing the Search Engines' Algorithms... Should you or Shouldn't you?
By Robin Nobles (c) 2005
It's a common occurrence. SEOs often spend countless hours trying
to 'break" a search engine's algorithm.
"If I could just crack Google's algo, my pages would soar to the
top of the rankings!"
Let's look at some flaws in this way of thinking.
1. Picture the Google engineers and tech folks turning the algo
dial as soon as you "think" you have "cracked" the algo. Your
rankings may fall, and you would have to figure out what's
working with the engine right now. In other words, your rankings
may never be long term.
2. Instead of spending all of this time trying to impress a
search engine with a perfect page, why not impress your true
target audience... your customers. Has Google, MSN, or Yahoo!
Search ever bought anything from you? They're not your target
audience. Your customers are your target audience. Write your
pages and content for them.
3. When you expend so much of your energy chasing algorithms, you
often focus on only a few elements that influence ranking – those
elements that are working right now and that you hope will give
your pages the best chance for success. It is said that Google
has over 100 ranking elements that influence ranking and
relevancy. Some are more important than others. But focusing on
just one or two "main" elements and discounting the rest can
prove disastrous to a Web site.
A different approach . . .
Wouldn't you rather achieve top rankings and keep them there,
and have those rankings equate to sales and money in your back
pocket?
After all, isn't it ultimately the sales you're after, as opposed
to just the rankings? If those rankings don't equate to traffic
that equates to sales, you lose, any way you look at it.
Five Basic Steps for Achieving Top Rankings without Chasing
Algorithms
1. Forget about the search engines. Yes, you heard me correctly.
The search engines aren't and never will be your "ideal target
audience." They don't buy your goods and services. They're not
who you should be trying to please with your Web pages and site.
Instead, write your Web page content for your target audience.
2. Don't ever forget the basics. No matter what's happening in
the algorithms, continue using your main keyword phrase
prominently in your title tag, META description and keyword tags,
link text, body, heading tags, and so forth. That way, when the
algo dial is turned, you won't have to make changes to all of
your pages. You'll always be ready.
3. Focus your keyword-containing tags and body text on one
keyword phrase only. Each page should be focused on one keyword
phrase, and each page should have its own unique tags.
4. Write well-crafted content for your Web pages, and add new
content on a regular basis. If content is king, context is queen.
Focus on your keyword phrase, synonyms and related words, and
surrounding text. Use a program like ThemeMaster
(http://www.thememaster.com) if you need help determining those
supporting words.
5. Remember that both on-page and off-page factors are important.
Don't sacrifice one for the other. On-page factors are your tags,
body text, prominence, relevance, etc. Off-page factors are link
popularity (quality and number of your inbound links) and link
reputation (what those inbound links "say" about your Web page
when they link to you).
What about search engine research? Isn't it important?
It's crucial.
Let me give you an example. At the beginning of this year, pages
began falling out of Google's index. The forums were alive with
speculation and what to do about it.
Through research, we determined this was a compliancy issue. By
having compliant code, the search engine spiders are more easily
able to spider the content.
The solution? Make sure you use a DOCTYPE tag and an ISO
Character Set Statement at the top of every Web page.
For example:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.1 Transitional//EN">
<META HTTP-EQUIV=content-type CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
If you didn't know about the compliancy issues, you could have
made changes to your Web pages that didn't need to be made,
wasted countless hours trying this or that, all to come up dry.
Research helps to make sure you remain on top of what's happening
in the search engine industry. It's what sets you apart from
other SEOs. You make your decisions based on research and facts,
versus speculation and theory.
In Conclusion...
"Take it from someone who has been in this business for nine
years and studies the algorithms closely - don't chase the
algorithms. You say that you have a #2 ranking for a certain
keyword phrase that alone is bringing your site 550 visitors per
day? Great. In the time that you have spent gaining that ranking,
I have written 285 pages of unique content, obtained 821 links,
etc., and collectively I am getting over 1,300 visitors per day,"
says Jerry West of WebMarketingNow
(http://www.webmarketingnow.com).
In other words, by focusing on more than just chasing algorithms,
you have the potential of having a much more successful Web site.
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Robin Nobles conducts live SEO workshops
(http://www.searchengineworkshops.com) in locations across North
America. She also teaches online SEO training
(http://www.onlinewebtraining.com) and offers the Workshop
Resource Center (http://www.sew-wrc.com), a networking community
for SEOs. Localized SEO training is now being offered through the
Search Engine Academy. (http://www.searchengineacademy.com)
Copyright 2005 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.
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