Hi there,
How to improve search result ranking
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The two key factors that determine Google search results are the text
that appears on web pages and the sites that link to web pages.
Keywords
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For a web page to appear in search results, the keywords searched for
must appear in either:
- the visible text on the page (this does not include images of text
such as your menu on the left)
- the alt tag of images appearing on the page
- the text used in and around links pointing to the page
Text on the page counts the most, and extra weight is given to text in
the title and heading tags. When someone searches for multiple
keywords, a page will rank much higher if those words appear next to
each other, in the same order as the search query.
Keep the above in mind and look at the following search query and Google results:
apple brick nj
://www.google.com/search?q=apple+brick+nj
Your site occupies the #1 position because:
- "Brick, NJ" appears in the title of the page
- "Apple" appears in the text of the page
The reasons why your site ranks poorly for "apple service" new jersey are:
- only one page on your site actually contains the word "jersey":
http://www.calljdr.com/directions.html
- the phrase "apple service" does not appear anywhere on your site
The remedies are as follows:
1. Use alt tags for your images. Not only does this give search
engines extra, relevant text to index, it also enables people who are
visually handicapped to navigate your site. Basically all you need to
do is describe each image as precisely and succinctly as possible.
More info:
http://www.keywordmarketingsuperstar.com/keyword-optimization/alt-tags.htm
2. Target a different set of search keywords for each page of your
site. For each page, make sure the keywords appear in the title and at
least once in the general text of the page.
3. Render you address as text rather than as an image on at least some
of the pages. One of the problems with search engine optimization is
deciding whether to make your site look great or rank well - often you
can have one or the other, but not both.
4. Create a site map. This is simply a page that contains text links
to every other page of your site. Make sure it is linked to from your
home page. When you have created it, submit the URL of the site map to
Google:
://www.google.com/addurl.html
Example:
For your Brother page, I would change the title to:
JDR Computer Solutions - Brother Sales, Service, & Repair - New Jersey
Add image alt tags to the equipment images, like:
ALT="Brother copiers"
ALT="Brother Fax machines"
Have your contact details appear as plain text at the bottom of the page.
Link to the page from your site map with the words Brother Service
Center, and add an alt tag saying the same thing to each instance of
the menu image that reads Brother Service Center.
To rank well for any search query containing "brother service", make
sure that exact phrase appears somewhere in the text of the page.
Links
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To determine ranking Google also looks at how popular a web page is.
It looks at how many other pages link to it, and how popular the
linking pages are themselves. To rank higher you should:
1. Get as many other websites as possible to link to your site. Those
which have a higher PageRank are better to have links from. The
PageRank of a site can be seen by installing the Google Toolbar:
http://toolbar.google.com/
2. Links from the biggest directories are worth having. Submitting to
Open Directory is free:
http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/New_Jersey/Business_and_Economy/Computers/
(click on Suggest URL)
Yahoo costs $299 per year:
http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/U_S__States/New_Jersey/Cities/Brick/Business_and_Shopping/Shopping_and_Services/Computers/
(click on Suggest a Site)
3. Make sure that any links that were pointing to your old sites (
www.jdrinfo.com + www.jdrcsi.com ) have been updated. I found these:
http://towndata.com/tc/company.cfm?ID=135
http://www.mcetech.com/resellers.html#NJ
Also you should ask this site to change the links from email links to web links:
http://www.triltech.com/Offline%20reviewstation.htm
And inform this site of your URL:
http://www.digigram.com/partners/getinfo.htm?o=full&partner_key=384
Sponsored Links
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Google also offers sponsored links, known as Google Adwords. Getting
an ad up-and-running isn't too difficult. All you need to do is think
of a three-line ad that will inspire people to click on it, and work
out how much you are willing to pay per visitor - Google Adwords works
on a pay-per-click basis.
All the information can be found at Google. It is well written and
easy to follow, so I won't attempt to rewrite any of what they say
here, but feel free to ask me any questions about it:
http://adwords.google.com
You can choose exactly which search keywords (i.e. HP) that your ad
will appear for.
Google have a number of rules regarding what you can and cannot say in
your ads, so it is quite important to read their ad guidelines:
http://adwords.google.com/select/guidelines.html
Alternatively you could use similar services that appear in the search
results of other search engines:
Overture
http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/ps.jhtml
FindWhat
http://www.findwhat.com/content/advertiser/index.asp
If you need extra advice or information on any of the above, just ask
for a clarification and I'll get back to you.
Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga |
