How
Google Search Engine Connects Sellers and Buyers
Understanding
Search Engines Part One: How Search Engines Connect
Sellers and Buyers
By David Leonhardt
Maggie knows how to find what she wants. She lets
her fingers do the walking - not in the Yellow
Pages, but at Google.com. She wants to learn about
bread baking, and you have just written Bread
Baking Made Simple, and you sell some great baking
tools. The good news is the Google and other search
engines exist for one simple reason: to help Maggie
find your website.
Google will show Maggie 534,000 resources on "bread
baking". Unless she fails to find what she wants
on the first page, or top 10 results, she will
never find your website listed 124th in the results.
(Actually, if she does not find what she wants
in the top twenty or thirty results, she is likely
to refine her search to "easy bread baking" or
"home bread baking").
How do you get into the top 10 results so Maggie
can find your website? You might have heard a
lot about "search engine optimization" and "ranking
analysis" and "algorithms". It all sounds very
complex, but it really works on a simple 1 - 2
- 3 principle.
1. A search engine will show Maggie only resources
(websites) it has on record. So make sure to submit
your site to the key search engines and directories.
You do not need to hire somebody who will charge
you big dollars to do this. Nor should you fall
for any of the auto-submit software or services.
This should be done by hand, and anybody can do
it. You can do it yourself.
2. The search engine will rank highest those websites
it feels are most "important". This means you
have to show that your website is most important.
There are a few simple things you can do. First,
make sure you have content. Text content equals
importance on the Internet. Links, both coming
in and going out, are key. Connectivity equals
importance on the Internet. Get listed in the
major directories (DMOZ.com, Yahoo.com, Zeal.com,
JoeAnt.com, etc.), as this also is a measure of
importance.
3. The search engine will show Maggie the most
"relevant" high- ranking resources. Google might
rank http://TheHappyGuy.com
relatively very high, but it is totally irrelevant
to a search for bread baking. How does a search
engine know which websites are most relevant for
Maggie's search? By the number of times "bread
baking" shows up in text on your web page. By
the variety of ways it shows up on your page.
By number web pages you link to and that link
to you with the words "bread baking" included.
Are you ready to roll? Possibly. Some of this
you can easily do yourself. But there are three
places that are worth spending money to help all
the Maggies out there find your website and your
book.
The first is choosing the right keywords. It might
look simple, but "bread baking" might not even
be the best keyword phrase to focus on. It might
be "easy bread baking" or "home bread baking".
The most searched terms might not be the best,
nor the term with the least competition.
The second is to prepare a link strategy. The
"link exchange" pages that are getting more popular
each day are also becoming less effective each
day. Here are just a few of the linking factors
that will affect whether Maggie discovers your
book:
- The total number of incoming and outgoing links
- The importance of the sites you link to and
from - The relevancy of the sites you link to
and from - Which pages on their sites and on yours
are being linked - What you include in the incoming
and outgoing links - Where on the page the links
are placed - How many links are on those pages
- How many pages are linked to or have outgoing
links - The ratio of links to content on the pages
involved
You can implement the strategy yourself, but it
is worth hiring somebody to put it together for
you. Ask the person what factors he would consider
when building a strategy for you. If he does not
mention several of the above, your money is better
spent elsewhere.
The third place to invest is to have somebody
knowledgeable review your html code. Chances are
that you have missed numerous opportunities to
let the search engines know your website is relevant,
and possibly some opportunities to show it is
important.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR IN PLAIN TEXT:
Discover how to climb the rankings the RIGHT way:
Pick up a copy of Don't Get Banned By The Search
Engines at http://thehappyguy.com/SEO.html
. Or promote your website with a media relations
plan at http://thehappyguy.com/publicity-self-
promotion-report.html or profit from more free
publicity ideas at http://www.thehappyguy.com/publicity-self-promotion-
products.html . To optimize your site: info@thehappyguy.com
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