What are the best ways to get a website to appear on the first page of a search?

Question

Does anyone have any good ideas as to how we can maximise the potential of our website? Is it based on how many visitors go to the site, or how we set up the website, or what? Is it to do with key words, and if so, how do we put those keywords into the system? Confused!!

Answer 1

Hope this helps you:

Google does not accept payment for inclusion in their main index – so anyone that’s at the top is there through hard work and perseverance, or through paying a company such as [my company name removed so I don't flout advertising guidelines!] to do the hard work for you.

Below I show you 7 great ways to increase your chances of a Google ranking.

The Basics
Ensure that your website has a clear navigation system – and by that I mean that the reader of your website can get to every main page of your website, from every other page. There’s nothing more annoying as a user of a website than finding yourself lost in the middle of a site with no way to find other information other than using the back button. A search engine spider (the program that the search engine uses to index your site) doesn’t have a back button so will just give up.

Check the links in your site – broken links will also stop a spider in its tracks.

Try not to use text contained in graphics or images – spiders can’t read these either.

Don’t use the front page of your website to automatically redirect the viewer to another page. The spider sees this as spam, and in Google this can get your site banned!

Content Is King
It’s said all the time, but it’s true. Think of the phrases you would like people to type into the search engines to find your site and include them in the copy of the site. At heart, a search engine is just a database and works quite logically – make it easy for the spider to know what your site is about. (However, beware of repeating phrases too often on your page – this is seen as spam and will be detrimental to your listing. Aim for no more than 3 times on a 100 word page)

Headlines
Once you have a list of phrases you would like to use to promote your site, use them as titles on each page of your site. Inside Business Northampton might have pages titled in ways such as ‘Business Promotion Northampton – Inside Business’ and ‘Advertising Northants – Inside Business’.

Choose two or more word phrases to increase your chances of good listings – the less people you’re competing against, the more chance you have in a short amount of time.

The Links Effect
Google is quite unique in that it sees sites with lots of links back to them as quite important. The more links you have from well-trafficked sites, the higher ‘PR’ level it gives you. Although this isn’t the be all and end all of getting high listings, it is helpful.

If you’re a printing company, approach other related businesses (such as companies offering corporate gifts) with websites and ask them to link to you, making the text for your link one of your key phrases (e.g. printers in Northampton)

If you can get links to your site from sites that are already in Google listings, then you have more chance of being indexed quickly.

Directories
Submit your website to the Yahoo Directory and the Open Directory Project – both of these sites directly filter their results into Google and increase your chances of getting into Google listings. For an article on submitting to the Open Directory Project, please click here.

Submission
Don’t forget to submit your site to Google directly! It’s amazing how many people forget this simple thing.

It’s true that Google is great at picking up sites without them being submitted, by following links from other sites, trawling the web, etc, but the sure fire way of making sure that they know about your site is by visiting the Add URL page on Google Itself.

Patience is a Virtue
Results don’t happen overnight. Google can take between 6 and 18 weeks to even LIST your site, and then longer to move it up the listings for the phrases you want.

It’s time consuming and can be hit and miss when you’re learning – but ANYONE can learn to get a site to the top of Google – don’t listen to those that tell you it’s impossible.

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I'd also add to this - sign up for Google Sitemaps http://sitemaps.google.com - I must get around to writing more about it!

Answer 2

Actually your company's website will be first in line (that is, if a person(s) search criteria is met by results on yout page. It's hard to explain, but 99% of webhost are registered with all main search engines, so meta-tags are submitted automatically (over time) and your page will appear when items or specific material is searched for. hard to explain =\ also you can pay to have your site on the ads and the top but it's probably in the ball park of 100+/monthly. Ill check for you if interested (or question was not answered)

Answer 3

Key words in the home page text are searched, as are words in the 'meta-text' section in the page code. There's a site somewhere that lists the most searched-for words.
A big factor is how many hits your site gets (I know, this makes it sound impossible) and how many links to your site exist and are used on other websites.
You'll get a lot of invitations from companies that claim to boost your rating on various search engines - most of which no-one has ever heard of. In my opinion, they're a waste of time, put spam in your inbox and a risk of ad-ware or viruses.

Answer 4

This may seem crazy but you should never submit your site to a search engine using their form IF you want to be included in their search engine without having to wait 6 -8 weeks.

The best way to get included in a search engine in DAYS is to get a high ranking site say a PR5 (page rank 5) site to link to yours. Google's spiders crawl these sites regularly sometimes daily.

So how do you get a PR5 site to link to yours? Many article sites eg. Ezinearticles.com are high PR sites. All you have to do is write one article on the topic of your site and submit it to them with a link to your site at the bottom. Google's spiders will crawl their site and find your link and follow it to your site.

When they do this you will be included in their search engine in a matter of days and you will also have a backlink which will help to boost the relevance of your site.

To know a sites PR you have to download Google's toolbar and install it on your computer.

Answer 5

Having something unique on your site works well. I write book reviews and if I am the first to review a book it will rmeain top of the search lists of gooogle for ages if I am the one hundredth then it will not be anywhere near. Original content is the key!

Answer 6

All of these. I'd suggest getting everyone you know to run regular searches and click on your link, that way it will move up the listings.

Or you can pay to be a sponsored link - but that costs for every click as well as set up fees.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Denise,
Here is a great resource for you:

http://www.seo-web-consulting.com/

The blog has good info to get you started.