Getting Top Rankings with SEO

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In 2003 when I was researching how websites got to the top of search results pages, a friend of mine asked, "It's only those who pay a lot who get to the top, right?". "Well, no and yes, it depends, define pay?", I replied.

For organic search results it's not based on advertising cost, it's based on building a site correctly, targeting it to the right audience and linking it correctly around the Internet. That's all part of Search Engine Optimization and that's what gets websites at the top of the search engines.

Is there a cost involved? Yes. Somebody has to do the work, so there is at least a human-resource cost. There is also a cost for links from referral sites and directory listings, and submission fees for some engines. But do you directly pay the search engine, like Google, for top placement in natural search? No.

So how does it work? Why do some websites rank high in the search engines? Why might yours be coming up low in the search results? How can your website get on page 1 of Google? It's all about algorithms.

Broadly speaking, the intent of a search engine is to return to a searcher links to information on the Internet that match what the searcher is looking for. The search engine makes an educated "guess" based on the search term the searcher typed into the search box. The more specific the term, the more relevant the search results returned become.

In order to fulfill its purpose to the searcher, the search engine has an application, called a spider or crawler, that walks from page to page through the Web and stores information about every page it finds from one page to the next. It stores all of this information in what is called the search engine's index, which is a huge database of information.

When the searcher visits the search engine, like Google, and runs a search for "vermont ski packages" for instance, Google will search its index and retrieve the most relevant web pages according to its algorithms. Yahoo will do the same. MSN and ASK likewise. You may get different pages in different orders in the search results of each engine because each search engine is following its own proprietary algorithms.

So how do you get to the top of search engine results pages? First it's by understanding what the search engines want and what your options are. The more you understand the algorithms and follow the guidelines and best practices, the more you can tap into how to get the results you want to achieve.

But getting there and being visible is just the beginning. The more important question to ask is, how do you get your customers to buy your products or services? Ultimately, how do you get them to click on that all important link in the search results page? That's an entirely different question. You need to appeal to them, as well as being visible in front pages.

I work on both these fronts. It's the search engine marketing and optimization that brings in the business, that make the sales. You need to not only meet the search engines criteria, but get the attention of your target audience, to make that all important sale or get that lead. Do both and you have won. It starts with being visible, it ends with conversions. Contact me.