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Increase Search Engine Traffic With Quality Content!
By John Dow (c) 2007

Every web site owner wants to increase search engine traffic.
It's free and the visitor is targeted to your subject matter,
product or service. What more could you ask for in search
engine traffic? The downside is that you need to understand
search engine ranking methods and that is quite a challenge for
many.

The number of opinions and "experts" on ways to increase search
engine traffic is overwhelming. And regardless of what anyone
might tell you, they're all guessing. The search engines
themselves don't divulge how their methods work for one simple
reason. As soon as anyone figures out the method, there's a mad
rush to implement changes based on the method.

In a perfect world, where there were no scoundrels, this might
not be a factor. Everyone would organize their web site
information so that a visitor could easily find what they
are looking for, and life would be good. But we certainly don't
live in a perfect world and scoundrels are everywhere.

So we are at the mercy of the search engines to help us sort
through the clutter to find what we want. And that's the value
that the search engines provide, accurate and meaningful search
engine results that are related to the search terms or phrases.
So it goes back to the quality of content, that's the only
common factor in all 3 major search engines' ranking methods.

Each of the big 3 (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) search engines use a
little different method and technology to arrive at any given
web site's ranking under specific search terms. As mentioned
above, no one knows exactly how each method works. But you can
test different strategies and methods to see how they impact
your rank.

And therein lies the only true method of determining what the
search engines might look for when ranking your web page on
specific search terms. I'm sure most of us are aware that most
processes can be expressed in mathematical equations. I'm not
sure if that's the best method for search engine ranking, but
it is the most popular for the search engine ranking process.

And consider the fact that when someone has determined (or
thinks they have determined) one of the factors used in search
engine rankings they beat it to death. Every discovered aspect
in the past few years has been exploited immediately to the
point of the search engines abandoning the tactic. As soon as
the search engines see that someone can beat the system, they
change it.

That's one of the big reasons you see constant change in
ranking methods. Since there is a tremendous amount of revenue
at stake for all concerned, i.e. sales of products and services
for the web site owners, plus the advertising revenue for the
search engines, any advantage is huge.

If you would have tested and tracked all the changes and
methods in search engine rankings for the past few years, one
constant factor would stand out. This is also one of the most
misunderstood and often overlooked elements in search engine
ranking for a specific term.

So what's the one thing that the search engines can't change
about their mathematical algorithms? You got it, CONTENT! The
search engines can play with the process, methods, or means to
judge web site content. But, if web site owners stick to the
basic philosophy of providing meaningful content, in relation
to the search term, the impact of changes are far less, if even
felt.

And that is where many web site owners run afoul of getting
good search engine rankings. Many jump on the bandwagon with
every new revelation in search engine strategies based on the
latest changes. It's the old forest and trees scenario,
Internet style. Even if you get a slight advantage from all
these "new" tactics, it will be short lived. As soon as the
search engines catch on that you are working the system, they
will change the system.

So the best way to increase your rankings for a particular
search term is to provide meaningful information or content
based on that search term. Here a few guidelines I've found
that help:

   - Make sure you focus on the subject matter (don't try to
     satisfy too many terms with one web page).

   - Get inside the searcher's head – figure out what they want
     and give it to them.

   - Be specific and provide details – don't generalize and be
     descriptive.

   - For a sales page use benefits and features to fully explain
     the problem and the solution.

   - Update your information often – setup a schedule to update
     and add more content.

There are many sub factors that can have an impact on how well
the search engine bots can determine the value of the content.
The search engine bots are software programs that go out and
"read" your web page and then provide the information to rank
your web pages on what they discovered.

You'll find many "experts" who will give you a hard list of
items and how to present this information. And I don't disagree
with suggestions to include the search term in your web page in
key areas like title, description, and font designations like
H1. That helps the search engine software bots to determine the
content.

But I've seen web pages with no meta-tags, title, or
description but that had rock solid content and still had high
search engine rankings on a particular search term. So make it
easy for the search engines, but always remember that the
content is the single consistent factor in search engine
rankings.

There are a lot of different aspects to consider when trying to
improve your search engine ranking, and increase search engine
traffic. The keyword and phrase research, interpreting the
search term or phrase to provide the best result, reviewing
other popular web sites with the same intentions, linking to
other like content web sites, and more. How you present the
information and content is also an important issue.

But all those factors come after good content. So if you start
with providing the best content, you can't go wrong. After all,
this is both an art and a science, not to mention a moving
target. If you would like to learn more, please visit our
other article links below.
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