Custom Search Engine Positioning

Caution: Don't buy search engine positioning from a company that can't define for you how they are going to do it. It is a very complex task, and for your Web site to compete it requires professional skills.

It the search engines are a critical component of your marketing program, your goal is to get on the first page of the search engine results when someone is trying to find you. We use multiple programs to do different aspects of this positioning for you. Since the search engines don't tell you how they do their positioning, these tools we use are developed by reverse engineering the results from the search engines by those who develop the the tools. The results can be conflicting, and the strategies of both the search engines and the tools we use change with time. The tools are used on a subscription basis to insure we always are seeing how the search engines are working at the time we do your analysis.

If you wish us to do a custom search engine positioning for you, here is the general strategy we follow. We're not giving you all the objective components here (that would be giving away the store). You can get an idea, though, of the work involved. We can also use individual components of the strategy if you don't want to do the whole thing.

Phase I - Defining the Keywords and Keyword Phrases.

This is very important, as it not only controls the page design (or how the search engines see your page), how the sites linking to you see your page, and the quality of the incoming links. Generally a specific page is designed for a keyword phrase of 3-5 words. You also have a neighborhood of keywords (1-2 words) that form a relationship for a specific topic that is defined by your keyword phrase. For example, here is a neighborhood of keywords: farm, ranch, for sale, by owner, Portland, lake, forty acres. The keyword phrase may be "Portland farm for sale by owner" The rest of the keywords will be on the page with this. Our objective in this first phrase of our work is to define the keyword phrases and keywords you wish to use for your Web page. Normally, your initial goal at first is to position your home page as high as possible on the results returned from a search on your keyword phrase.

  1. We work with you to define a collection of keywords and from that a few keyword phrases (three to five words each). The goal here is to define popular phrases that are often used in searches that have few competing Web sites and are relevant to your site. We are also thinking problem to solution here, so often the better keyword phrases define a want.
  2. These words are analyzed to find how they are used in existing web sites, with the analysis returning up to 300 additional keywords. The keywords are reported to you.
  3. These words are used to define up to 100 keyword phrases, with a report showing the frequency of these keyword phrases when used in searches during the last few months.
  4. A competitive analysis is done on each keyword phrase using two search engines or directories you choose. The analysis returns the frequency of each keyword phrase used in searching, a projected count of the use of the phrase for the next 24 hours, the number of competing Web sites for the keyword phrase, and the identity of the competing sites for that phrase. The report lists the keyword phrases with this related information in descending order, based on their suggested value for you.
  5. You choose your primary keyword phrase and we identify your competitors.

Phase II - Competitive Analysis - Analyze the Competition

Your objective here is to analyze and see how your competition got their good position. You are not copying their site; but rather trying to understand how they got the high position that they did and to learn from that to help your own position. Sometimes they got there by paying for their position, or perhaps they used one or more tricks, sometimes it is just plain hard work over time. Your objective is to do the best you can with the resources you have, learning how to give the search engines a site that will be valuable to those that search.

To be honest, this can be the most expensive and time-consuming phrase of the task. Your quest is to identify these competitors, find the PageRank and position of each, number of links into their sites and the quality of those links. We use a spreadsheet for this, with your site and each competitor on a separate row and each column one aspect you are analyzing. For each site we define:

We can also define if the incoming link is in a neighborhood that you share. We can see if this is a webring (a trick used by developers to build multiple sites all linked to each other to get a high PageRank).

Some of this competitive site analysis is really valuable in another way. You will, for example, probably find sites that that link to them that are topical dictionaries for your topic. Sending a query to these dictionaries could get you listed, giving you a good link into your site. They link to your competitor, why not have them link to you as well?

Phase III - Analysis of Your Page Design

We also do an intensive analysis of the design of your page and the competing Web pages, showing the quality of the design in terms of how the search engine sees it: keyword prominence, keyword density, use of metatags, body length, and much more.

  1. We define design strategies from improving the PageRank and linking of you home page to improve its positioning. If you have already designed the page, we show you how you can improve it. If you are designing it from scratch, we can show you key aspects you should use in the design to help the search engines position you better. You get an objective analysis of your design as it compares with your competitors with the goal of best search engine positioning.

  2. From this information we also identify problem areas in positioning of your site involving the use of your keyword phrase and make recommendations, often involving some level or redesign on multiple site pages.

  3. The page editing is done - either by us or you. This generally involves multiple pages.

  4. Your home page is analyzed again to see the objective measure of the site's improvement.

  5. Your site is resubmitted.

  6. Your referral and hit statistics are monitored if you are hosted by us. (This is critical step. If not hosted by us be sure your host and do this for you. You need feedback.) Keyword phrase changes and redesign are done as necessary.

Monitoring

At the final stage, you should be constantly monitoring how your site is doing and (if search engine positioning is important) "retuning" as necessary to position yourself higher in the search engines. To "grow" your position, you are in a constant war. You are competing with others for your position; and you are competing with the search engines, which want dollars for your position. You goal is to try to find win-win strategies for growing your position.

All sites we host provide the feedback statistics at no extra charge. If you wish us to analyze this data and help your redo your site with these results, we can do this on a subscription basis or either periodically.

For example, here is a yearly overview of one real site we have worked with showing real sample statistics returned over a year:

This is an ideal type of analysis you wish to see. Notice that in December major work was done to correct a falling hit rate. Notice the increase in hits, pageviews, and sessions after this was done. Notice that the hits and related statistics slowly increased with time, with the hits almost doubling in the year. Most of that increase was in a period of a few months. A slow increase is what you should expect, as search engines get suspicious when they see sudden jumps in a hit rate.

Do you need that search engine position? Let us help you with your web site positioning!


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    © 2004, Oregon Professional Microsystems

    3/24/2004