Drubby World Wide Web Search

The Two Keys to Top Search Engine Rankings

Yes, the title is correct. When you get down to it, it only takes two things for your site to rank well in the search engines. The problem is most sites only do one or the other correctly. The sites that do these two "magical" things properly enjoy those coveted spots at the top of the rankings.

So what does it take to get to the top? Focus & Popularity

Let's talk briefly about "focus" and it's importance. The search engines do their best to return relevant results to a given query. To decide if a page is relevant to a users query, it has to be able to determine the focus of the page. The more focused the page the more relevant it will generally be seen.

If each of your pages aren't focused on a core phrase, it is likely that you will not be seen as relevant to a users search as you could be.

Unfortunately, relevance alone is no longer enough to obtain those coveted top spots. A site/page also needs popularity. By popularity, I'm referring to link popularity. The search engines look at inbound links to a site as votes of confidence. The more of these votes a site has, the more "popular" it is seen as being. The more popular it is, the more "worthy" of ranking high the site/page is seen as by the search engines.

In many instances, the popularity of the site is more important than the focus. It is not uncommon to find very popular sites ranking for phrases that they are not truly focused on, however, you will almost never see a highly relevant page ranking for a phrase if it has no link popularity.

While the popularity of the site/page tends to be the more important aspect, they are both very important pieces to the puzzle of high rankings. Think of it as similar to cooking. While there may be one primary ingredient, if you don't add all the proper ingredients and cook the meal correctly, it won't turn out as expected.

The same goes for ranking. You need to insure that your site and it's pages has the relevant focus on it's core phrases to be seen as relevant by the engines AND you need to make sure it has the popularity to be seen as worthy of ranking. To little of one or the other and you will end up missing your target, but get the balance right and you will be the one enjoying the feeling of owning the top spots in your industry.

If you find your site is not ranking where you feel it should. Take a look at both factors. Is it possible that your site isn't as tightly focused on your topics as you thought? Are you being beaten by sites that are better focused? Or do you have the proper focus, but you are being beaten by sites that are seen, due to their inbound links, as being more popular than yours and deserving of a higher rank?

Take a look at your competitors and see in which area you can outdo them and go after it.

See You at the Top!

John Buchanan is an Texas SEO specialist with 10 years experience in the field. He does seo consulting and search engine optimization in Texas and for companies throughout the world.

MORE ARTICLES:

FAQ?s Relating to Crohn?s Disease
When a person is first informed that he has Crohn?s Disease, he will have a lot of questions. He will be frightened and he will become depressed. Simply knowing the answers to his questions can help calm him and soothe him.

PPC Search Engine Advertising
Which one is better Natural SEO or PPC advertising?

What one thing do 99% of webmasters NOT do, that could not only create business, but search engine optimization for free too?
I have been online for some years now and have completed a course that I would recommend to all people newbies to experienced alike, called Payit4profits.

Utilizing Your Keyword Search Tools
Far too often, we as webmasters get bogged down with information overload. Im guilty of it, youre guilty of it, and were all guilty of it. Ive been doing business online in the website development sector for close to 10 years now. Ive made a substantial sum of money making websites dedicated to adsense revenue and affiliate marketing, and one thing has held true over the course of time: the tools to make money have only gotten BETTER over time.

High Search Engine Ranking: A Result Of Continuous SEO Process
High search engine rankings are always of prime importance since the day search engines have initiated. Webmasters have tried various SEO techniques to get high search engine rankings in SERPs. In the beginning, the techniques of search engines were quite easy with stuffing of keywords or using invisible text on the pages. However, after the search engines got aware of the practice, the technology of achieving high search engine rankings has changed into more complicated techniques.

Search Engine Strategies for Affiliate Websites
The major search engines are always on the lookout to improve their search results and to weed out websites with duplicate content. They are also weeding out websites that mainly contain affiliate links.

Tactics Used To Get Banned in Search Engines and Losing Your Adsense Account
Google, the undisputable leader in search engines, today, is placing a high importance on the quality and relevancy of its search engines. Most especially now that the company is public property. In order to keep the shareholders and users of its engines happy, the quality of the returned results are given extreme importance.

Zotoz ? Spain?s Largest Comprehensive Business Directory
Zotoz is the largest comprehensive business directory in Spain. The Zotoz business directory has been built for use in both Spanish and English to accommodate the large English market in Spain as well as the Spanish market. Zotoz currently has over three million business listings for Spain making it easily the largest business directory providing the Spanish with a user friendly business directory for all markets.

Top Search Engine Optimization Tips and Strategies For High Rankings
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) done properly can draw significant targeted free traffic to your website It is important to follow ethical seo practices that will not get your site penalized or banned

What Would The Internet Be Without Search Engines?, Part 2
A major impact of search engines has been on internet commerce. Nowadays, internet marketing doesn?t focus on who has the flashiest web site or who has the best prices. Instead, if you are at the top of all of the major search engines (meaning that your site is displayed above the rest when the user searches for a relevant keyword) then you are almost sure to beat out your opponents. So, marketing companies do their best to crack the search algorithms. Every search engine judges sites based on many different factors, each of which is analyzed by their web crawlers. When someone makes a search, the engine displays sites that fulfill more of the factors at the top, where the user is more likely to see them.

HealthPricer Launches Web Services Platform Enabling Partners to Integrate Rich Product Information into their Sites
HealthPricer empowers partners to take control over product information on their sites.

Why We Use Search Engine Optimisation Services In The UK
Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, is one of the new buzz phrases that is being tossed around on the internet. You see more and more web administrators seeking employees who have experience with SEO and know how to implement SEO techniques. So what is SEO? Why do we use Search Engine Optimisation Services in the UK?

Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose 2008 to Feature Wide Range of Conference Speakers From Brand Name Companies : Speakers From Adobe, Cisco, Di
The anticipated crowd of over 7,000 search engine marketers will have access to a wide range of conference speakers from brand name companies at Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose 2008. This includes speakers from Adobe, Ask.com, California Chamber of Commerce, Cisco, Digitas, Discover Financial Services, JR Dunn Jewelers, Fast Company, Forbes, Google, HP, Humana, IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, Monster, Napster, New England Journal of Medicine, The New Republic, The New York Times, Ogilvy, Omnicom Media Group, Omniture, Overstock.com, Procter & Gamble, Santa Clara University, Stanford University, Walt Disney World and Yahoo!, who will be making presentations at the premier search engine conference, which runs August 18-21, 2008, at the San Jo...

Its The Same Deal For Both Search Engines And Real Estate
It's all about location, location, location!In the past..