Hi,
First of all, let me caution you that it might be difficult to get
your page to place high in search engine results before the
gubernatorial election. Once you have submitted your site to Google
(or any other search engine), it can take a couple weeks (sometimes
more) before it is listed.
Also, to be honest, there's probably not much you can do to get a high
placement with the term "California governor." Unless you can pull
off a miracle, the major candidates and news articles about them will
place higher than your page will. However, you have some chance,
perhaps even a good one, with the other terms.
With that in mind, here are some things you can do:
1. Make sure you're you submit your site to Google and the other
search engines as soon as possible so they can check out your site.
You can submit to Google at this address:
Submit Your Site
://www.google.com/addurl.html
Most other search engines also have a page where you can submit your
site. Follow the directions carefully, as some search engines can be
quite picky about user submissions.
2. Similarly, submit your site to the Open Directory. If your site is
placed in the Open Directory, nearly all search spiders will find it.
How to add a site to the Open Directory
http://dmoz.org/add.html
3. Submit your site to the Yahoo directory, as it is extremely
popular. If you pay Yahoo money, they'll even give you prompt
consideration.
How to Suggest Your Site
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/
4. Here is the most important step you can take, especially (but not
only) for Google. ***Get other sites to link to yours.*** Get
webmasters of sites that agree with your position to link to you. Get
your critics to link to you. If a newspaper writes an article about
you, make sure a link to your site appears in the web version of the
article. This step can't be emphasized enough. Search engines,
especially Google, like sites that are linked to.
CAUTION: There are sites known as "link farms" that exist for the sole
purpose of creating links to sites. Avoid these. Some search engines
even ban sites that use link farms.
5. Use the terms "Neil Baker," "chinampa" and "chinampas" more often
in the document (but don't overdo it). Having search terms near the
top of the page or in headlines is also a good idea, as it putting
them in the "alt" tags for photos. You might also consider adding a
few pages. A page devoted to your biography, for example, might rank
well on a search for your name, and a page devoted to chinampas might
to well on a search for that term. Also, it is a good idea to have
search terms you want in the pages title. One possibility: "Neil
Baker, the Man with the Chinampa Plan, for California Governor."
The above steps are the ones that are the likeliest to get you the
results you want the quickest and with the least effort and expense.
There are also other steps you can take improve your rankings even
further. You may find these guides and other resources useful:
SEO 101: A Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization
http://websearch.about.com/library/weekly/bl-seo101.htm
PageRank Information
://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html
Search Engine Watch
http://searchenginewatch.com/
SearchEngines.com
http://www.searchengines.com/
Search Engine Optimization Forum
http://www.highrankings.com/forum/
I hope this helps, and best wishes in your campaign.
Sincerely,
Mvguy-ga
Search strategy: Most of this answer was based on personal knowledge;
I have a site that consistently ranks high in search engine placement
for the relevant terms. I also used the following search:
"search engine optimization" "how to"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22search+engine+optimization%22+%22how+to%22 |