I have been building and running web sites for the past 3 years. I have created a consistent approach to getting the sites I run into the search engines quickly. I then use that proven concept to aid in achieving high rankings for a small number of keywords, allowing the buoyancy effect to come into play for the rest of the site when one or two keywords ranks very high. This is the cornerstone of my search engine ranking strategy. In case you were not aware, when one or two keywords rank well within a given site, many secondary keywords enjoy a buoyancy effect and rank higher due to the high rankings of the main keywords. This cost effective keyword marketing has allowed my clients to keep for themselves a large dollar amount in SEO fees over the years while receiving terrific organic rankings.
When getting ready to release a new site I will initially review a few characteristics of the site. The first things I look for on the main pages are the existence of the tags known as H1 and H2 surrounding text on the home page. The reason for the tags is that the search engine spiders will instantly look at text contained inside of the tags to determine the overall theme of the web site. When the correct process is used to highlight the text and tags are used to support them, the search engines have a very easy time determining what the site is about and itmore quickly determine if the site should be included when they encounter users looking for terms that are on your website.
As an additional part of the keyword ranking factors, I lalways like to see the use of anchor text in the text on the home page. I have gained better rankings for lots of websites by having them remove images where the important message of the site, what it is all about, is embedded in the image. The simple fact is that, while it may look more attractive to the user, the search engines cannot read images and pull text away from the image, so it is not worthwhile to put the important message of the site in the image. I recommend using a smaller image and having the text be in a prominent position so that the user can click and go instantly to the point of interest.
I to see the site have a single page for each keyword being used. The search engines enjoy quickly going to unique pages that are called the same as the keyword they are targeting. A page written for a wedding photographer should contain anchor text on the home page for a wedding photographer leading them to a page called www.anysite.com/wedding-photographer.htm. The search engines will know exactly what to do with that link and can quickly give it the right theme to work with.
The next item I look for is the use of dashes and not underscores. I have heard, seen and witnessed countless examples of pages not being indexed as well because of the use of underscores. I cannot explain why (I do not know) but I know that this is an issue and should be avoided. Two pages that have almost identical names, wedding-photographer.htm and wedding_photographer.htm , will not score equally in the search engines, all else remaining equal. It is proven each and every time I test it so please stay away from it.
Do you want to know what the search engines think the theme of your site is? The absolute best way to review this information is to use the Google Keyword Tool (type that phrase into a search engine). You will quickly be granted inside information as to what Google thinks your site is about when you look at the terms it returns. Many clients of mine are surprised to learn that the search engines do not think the site is even remotely close to what they intended and we go through a process of changing a few key areas of the site to provide a different look from the search engine’s perspective. We do that by using links that contain no follow terms built into them and by highlighting keywords with H1 and H2 tags. The situation can quickly be turned around so please do not worry if your site is not what you think.
