Gain Search Engine Traffic Through FOCUS

YOU are a search engine robot, whose primary goal is to categorize each web site that you visit. You have to distinguish what each site's main goal is through a systematic evaluation of the textual content on the pages you find.

You evaluate the pages headlines, text links and content for repetitive words and phrases, with the assumption that the more times something is mentioned, the higher relevance it has to the site you're visiting.

You take note of the pages 'title' tags, and 'description' tags, for use in listing the site, as well as for any further repetitive phrases. You check 'alt' tags for more repetition of the same phrases found throughout the rest of the page.

Then, you follow the links you find, performing the same evaluation on each page, all the while comparing the content you find to the repetitive phrases you found on the very first page of the site you're visiting.

You score each site according to how much content you find that matches the repetitive words and phrases on each page. You then 'score' the site according to your findings. Those sites that seem to have repetitive phrases, with matching and related words throughout, receive a higher score.

(Yes, this is a VERY basic overview of what happens when your site is visited by a search engine robot, but I think you get the idea.)

Because of the way the search engine spiders evaluate your web site, it is important to keep your pages focused on the topic at hand. Sites that cover broad areas of interest risk overloading these robots with various key words that may not be your intended focus.

3 Ways To Ensure "Focus" On Your Web Site:

1) Evaluate your purpose. What is your MAIN goal? While it is possible to have multiple topics covered with your site, what is the overall idea under which they all fall? For example, although you may be dedicated to selling eBooks from your site, what is the main category your books fall under? While you may think that 'ebooks' are your focus, perhaps a more focused view of your product line would reveal that all of your ebooks fall under one main category, such as 'marketing.

In this example, consider this; would you rather have surfers searching the term 'ebook' visit your site, or would you sell more if you received visitors searching the term 'marketing'?

You'll find that you'll sell more to a tightly targeted group of surfers searching the term marketing, because 'ebooks' is too broad a term that may bring people looking for fiction to your site. Changing the textual content of your site to provide repetitive terms dealing with 'marketing' would therefor provide more relevant search results, targeting your visitors before they even see your site!

2) Write for the robots. While a copywriter may tell you that you have to write to your prospects needs, a search engine optimization specialist will tell you to write for the robots. I say, do both! In order to do so, you must evaluate first, what your prospects needs are, and how your site is going to provide for those needs.

After you have an idea of what needs your site is catering to, you must then present your information in a way that conveys that with repetitive phrases throughout your headlines, content, and textual links. These phrases should be the same terms that your prospects are most likely to enter into a search engine. To find out what the most popular search terms are, you can use tools such as:

WordTracker: http://www.wordtracker.com/ Lycos 50: http://50.lycos.com/ Yahoo Buzz Index: http://buzz.yahoo.com/ Google Zeitgeist: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/tools.html Kanoodle Search Spy: http://www.kanoodle.com/spy/ Ask Jeeves: http://sp.ask.com/docs/about/jeevesiq.html

3) Dedicate a page to each 'sub-topic'. One of the easiest ways to confuse your visitors, (including the search engine robots), is to provide TOO much information on one page. After you've evaluated your content, and have chosen your main focus, break down your remaining content into 'sub- topics'.

Dedicate a separate page to each 'sub-topic', and provide repetitive phrases throughout these pages accordingly. Make sure that each of these sub-topic pages are linked TO from your main page, and you'll have provided relevant FOCUSED pages for the robots to index.

-- Resource Box -- This article may be distributed freely on your website, as long as this entire article, including links and this resource box are unchanged. Copyright 2003 Ginger Geracitano All Rights Reserved. The Portal To Success E-Zine http://theportaltosuccess.com Receive Ginger's recommendations that may solve your client's needs: mailto:subscribe@theportaltosuccess.com

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