Is My Search Engine Optimization Working?
|
You've just built a website and can't wait to start popping up in the top listings of search engines. After all, you've paid this company even more money to create "optimized, search engine friendly pages, start building links and add lots of fresh content." If it takes weeks and months for the search engines to notice me, do I have to wait that long to see if the money was worth it?
No! It's true that it takes time?weeks, even months to build up your web presence, but there are ways to follow your progress. It's important to note that if you already have an established Internet presence and wish to further optimize your site, it usually happens much faster than a site that is brand new with a brand new domain.
If you are already listed in various directories and your existing website has been up and running long enough the search engines have probably already indexed your site and those linking to it. (to see if your site is indexed with a particular engine, in the search field type "site:www.yourdomain.com"). As you modify your pages and add new content the process of moving up in search rank is much swifter than starting from a brand new, un-indexed site. ?
The ranking process has an inherent unchangeable variable of time. Sponsored search listings are one of a few ways around this hurdle to get you to the top instantly while the search spiders dig through your new site. But for the long haul, while you wait for that big chuck of cash you just paid your SEO to start returning, here are some ways to tell if he or she did you justice.
Ways to keep tabs on your progress:
Monitor Search Engine Positions
If you're a brand new domain name the first step is to watch for yourself to be indexed. Chances are that your optimizer submitted your site to the most prominent search engines at the very least. While the search crawlers will ultimately find you on their own, there is some merit in submitting your site manually. It may take some weeks before a check of site:www.yourdomain.com reveals any activity though. Take care not to be over anxious and resubmit your site. That will only hurt your efforts.
Once you find yourself being listed by particular keywords in a search engine, monitor how your rank moves every week or so. (Frequently, the more you add fresh content, the sooner the crawlers will return to your site.) Change the preference settings in search engines to speed up your research efforts.
Google will display up to 100 results per page, MSN up to 50 in "advanced search." This makes it much easier to find yourself if your down in the 300th position. Don't be discouraged though! Being listed even at 300 is an accomplishment. And as you optimize you will see your listing move up in the ranks.
Visitor Tracking
The best, and easiest way to see who is reaching your site by search engine and particular keyword phrase is to implement some sort visitor tracking system. These are not complicated and can cost only a few dollars a month. Take a look at a company like www.webstat.com for example.
A small piece of code is placed on each page you want to track. When you log into the online service, you can tell the exact word and phrase someone used to reach you and from what search engine... not to mention scores of other useful data about your site traffic. This quickly gives you a snapshot of which keyword phrases are most successful and in which engines. This data is invaluable to further optimize your pages.
Are your top search engine rankings on par with the industry percentages?
Again using visitor tracking you can see if the people reaching you by Google are close to the percentage of people that use Google compared to MSN or AOL. If the industry shows that overall 25% of searchers are using MSN and 5% Lycos, your results should be similar. If they're not, it's a sign that some modifications might be in order.
Monitoring these processes will show you that there's actually quite a lot of activity. And there's nothing more exciting than watching that 300th position search climb to the first page!
As the owner and creative director of theMouseworks.ca I've found the best way to help people with internet marketing is to first help them understand internet marketing!
Watch for an upcoming SEO article to show you how to check your search rankings up to 1,000 results deep in Google in one step! Read more articles on the insights and secrets of website development and search engine optimization in easy, non-technical, up front English!
|
|
|
Make Quality Content Your #1 Priority
It is by now a proven fact that content is the most important element for getting better pagerank and, consequently, more traffic.Furthermore, the best ranking websites have content that is better written than most other sites.A common mistake is to think that Google spiders just consider keywords and layout in order to establish pagerank.If you look at the top ranking pages for the most searched for keywords, you will see that the quality of the content has been essential for getting them better pagerank, not to mention the enormous amount of traffic that Google sends them as a consequence.Let's look at some of the key areas that we have to keep in mind wh...(related: Seo)
History Of World / Regional Search Engines And Directories
Computers have become a way of life for people around the world. They are used to research term papers, check weather forecasts, track military progress, exchange ideas (blogs and chat) and to find the cheapest price on items etc. It is no surprise that as the computer age takes hold computer usage has increased. The number of websites that are being developed on the World Wide Web is growing at an ever increasing exponential amount. And because we live in a quick-fix society, with limited time on our hands, we need something to make surfing the web a lot easier, something that will sort out all this influx of information i...(related: Seo)
Good Content: The Key To Search Engine Ranking
Good Content: The Key To Search Engine RankingWhat drives visitors to your website and keeps them there? Good content.Content is KeyGood co...(related: Seo)
An Introduction To Google Sitemaps
... and why I 'm dying to get finally in the Google SERPHave you also experienced that getting indexed on Google, despite the Google crawler visits each day your site, is getting tougher and tougher, not to say it's apparently almost impossible in short term?! Between us, in the corridors of Google, they're talking about the notorious 'Google Sandbox' theory. According this theory, a new website is first 'sandboxed' and doesn't get a ranking when the keywords of that website are not incredibly competitive. The Google Sandbox is in fact a filter placed in March of 2004 which new websites prevents from having immediately success in the Google search engine result pages. This filter "is only intended to reduce search engine spam". The ...(related: Seo)
Ten Critical Website And Search Engine Promotion Mistakes
When it comes to promoting your website, you might think that anything you can do to get people to your website is worthwhile. However, you should think again because some shady practices will actually hurt you. Also, other SEO tactics could reduce the amount of potential visitors simply because you do not have a clear understanding of how the Internet and search engines work. Read the following tips on what not to do when promoting your website and if you are doing some of these things stop immediately and learn how to effectively promote your site.1. Too M...(related: Seo)
Emarketing Sabotage - Top 10 Steps To Kill Your Search Engine Marketing Practices
We at America Web Works find ourselves amazed at the amountof effort people spend trying to fool or manipulate theirpositioning in search engines. People seem to focus on theshortcuts to success and NOT on their Web site or the truevalue their content provides to their prospects.In the spirit of educating marketers about best practices,we present this list of ten things you can do to sabotageyour search engine marketing project in a "New Y...(related: Seo)
Stop Writing For Search Engines
Back when I was starting out with my first internet venture, I did a crazy thing. I subscribed to a Search Engine Optimization newsletter. These guys send a weekl...(related: Seo)
How To Develop A Successful Roi For Your Website
Are You Really Measuring for Return on Investment (ROI) with Search Engine Optimization?Puzzling studies and reports suggest that businesses are missing out when it comes to ROI, including a whole host of metrics that should confirm or shape search engine marketing strategies.You can't accomplish much if you're not even implementing SEO the right way. We've seen web si...(related: Seo)
Meta Tags - What Are They And Which Search Engines Use Them?
Defining Meta Tags is much easier than explaining how they are used, and by which engines. The rea...(related: Seo)
How You Can Easily Compile A Gigantic Keyword List
It doesn't matter what kind of marketing you are involved in.Having the most keywords for your m...(related: Seo)
How To Improve Your Search Engine Positioning And Increase Traffic Today
Every website has times when traffic is higher than others. However, in the downtimes you need to figure out why your traffic is lower and what you can you about it. The following suggestions have been proven to increase website traffic and will be effective in getting you more customers. However, before implementing these tips into your website promotion ...(related: Seo)
New Site And Sandbox: How To Get Rid Of It
You have put lot of sweat in making your site. Now you want it to engender revenues and only source of traffic is search engines. You have completed your seo optimization well but there is no precursor of any traffic. Yes Google places new sites in "Sandbox" and this means that your site would not rank well for high traffic keywords for a certain period. This phenomenon is called as "Sandbox". What if your site is in "Sandbox" or on hold? Should you hang around or is there any way out. Lets look at few of them:Have a slow and sturdy link campaign (taking Google new patent into consideratio...(related: Seo)
site-map - Copyright © 2006 | You can send your articles and get links. Contact Webmaster | All Rights Reserved.
| Seo