Search Engine Optimization - Part 6
Article ID: KB101557
The Internet has brought us tremendous opportunities and daunting
challenges. Never has sales competition been so fierce, and never
has business-intelligence data been so accessible. Web sites are a
gold mine of your competition's marketing and merchandising data,
and knowing what your competitors are trying to do on the Internet
can give you the business edge that you need to achieve excellent
search ranking. By analyzing your competitors' HTML code and
studying their page setup and design, you'll gain valuable
information to fine tune your site .
Start with Google
and enter, one at a time, each of your keywords and keyword phrases
into the search box and see what is currently in the Top Ten "hit"
list in each category. Then, click on the first URL at the top of
the list and go to that website. Once the page has loaded try to
determine what caused it to be on top.
Look for keywords, invisible text, etc. and then look at the HTML
code behind the page. In your web browser’s toolbar click on "View,"
then click "Source." You will be in Notepad and can look to see if
the page contains Meta descriptions, Meta keywords and if the site
builder has used <IMG ALT=> tags. Since this page achieved top
ranking in your search, use Notepad to save the "source code" to a
text file. You will want to use it later as a template to build your
own page(s). In fact, every time you find a page that works well
with a search engine, save it in a separate file.
Be sure to keep track of your research as you go. Perhaps the
best way to do this is to open the "source code" file that you saved
and write notes at the top of the HTML document. Keep track of which
search engine you used and what you think caused it to make the top
of the list.
When you have finished with one keyword search, go to another
keyword search with the same search engine and repeat the process.
Next, repeat your keyword and key phrase searches at AltaVista,
Excite, Overture, etc.. Eventually you will see that the same pages
keep appearing in your searches. Those are the pages that are
working well. Consistently high-ranking pages are the ones you
should use as templates. You've discovered the pages to beat and
you've saved the code for the ones that are succeeding. All you have
to do is produce similar pages for submission and you will achieve
similar results.
Keep in mind that achieving consistently high ranked web sites
involves more than just your page tags and formatting. Keyword
density and relevant links from other high-ranking sites also play a
major role in search engine success. To get the latest strategies
and tactics, do yourself a favor and sign up for the Search Engine
Newsletter published by
Planet Ocean Communications – It’s the source we use to keep up
with the latest changes occurring in the industry. When you sign up
as a subscriber you also receive access to download
The Unfair Advantage Book on Winning the Search Engine Wars, an
excellent e-book that takes you step by step through the process of
achieving high search engine ranking at all of the major search
engine sites.
I’ll be back next month with an article on how you can set up
multiple entrances to your Web Site!
Next: Doorway Sites
Contributors
Greg Snow:
Greg is the CEO of Advantrics LLC, which is the parent company
for PixelMill and
Vivid Office. Greg has an
incredible background in FrontPage Development and Research, and
keeps up to date with the latest Search Engine News. He is the
author of the Search Engine article series from the PixelMill
newsletter.
Greg Snow, PixelMill Newsletter, Volume 2 - Issue 6 : 06/01/2002
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