How to get listed on top in search engines?

How to get listed on top in search engines?

Everyone (me included) wants their website to move to the top in search engine ranking. Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the buzzword these days used by those who know, and those who don't know to discuss anything and everything about getting listed in search engines.
We all started our website and blogs and the likes to fulfill some objective or goals. No matter what these objectives are for you, it may be personal, official, financial or business need, we all want our website to show up on top whenever any internet user is searching for something.

So what are the things required to move to the top in search engine rankings? There are loads of softwares and websites selling the tricks of the trade, there are genuine folks out there who analyze your content and modify / restructure what has been written in your web pages and then recommend changes, there are softwares that compare the keyword density in your website vis-a-vi your nearest competitor and give you inputs. These are just a few options that I have listed, in real life there is no end to available options (and advices)

In my experience what I have found (I am not the first one to find this though... it is all there on world wide web :)) in order to move your website to the top you must do the following basic things

a. Generate visitors / Get eyeballs!!!
b. Satisfy eyes to make them stay on your pages for long
c. Convert them into buyers (of your products or services)

Easy !!! Though the steps are easy, to execute them is requires patience, time and perseverance (when it is needed the most)

So how would YOU generate vistors and get the hits to your web pages or your website?
1. Identify a suitable place for your target audience.
If I want to sell boats, I should not do so in a desert, unless my boat is named CAMEL. There is old adage, birds of same feather flock together - and I totally agree, so should you!!! I don't want you to agree because I ask you to, but because that is common sense. If you want to sell one kind of service, you should do so where there is already a ready audience available. It makes your task rather easy when you enter a room and you know that everyone in that room is looking for the same thing that you are selling. Imagine going to a mall and you don't know who needs what and you would have to spend hours to even connect with one person who is really keen on stuff that you provide. So - use search engine, locate a forum / community / place where people gather and discuss things that you provide.

2. Go ahead and create a name for self
We all like to know from others what they feel about something. Free advice - though is not valued, but it does allow you to create a name for your self. Start responding to questions (genuinely), give your suggestions or feedback. It is not difficult to review a website for someone who has asked users to review his / her website? Go ahead, give him your view point and not only would you get a thank you, search engines would also register you and the conversation, should any keyword catch search engines attention!!!

3. Start talking about your domain / service / site that you wish to promote.
Create your own thread in forums or communities and allow others to come to your post and give you inputs, discuss issues that you need addressed. Start a web log where you may write informative articles and post your views for the world (and search engines) to pick up.

4. Give links in your discussions that point to your website.
I often create web pages for simple how to whenever I find that I can't do justice to the query in rather restricted forum features. Then I simply point a link to my webpage where user gets to see details on HOWTo do something from the forum and they find more things out there!!! Even after 6 months, people from forums come to my site to fix their os-commerce bug which got introduce due to MySQQL5 upgrade and this page often gets more hits than my website home page!! Incidentally only one link was posted in oscommerce forum, but it has served its purpose well.

5. Invite others to review your website / content.
Ask others to do what you think would help your site to get some traffic, and some good advice. Even a color theme may make a difference to the overall look and feel. Also when you create something, I know it looks oh so beautiful, however you are often blind to things that others may see and let you know. So please, do get feedback and reviews from others and act on them if you are convinced that the person who commented has provided valuable inputs and is not there just to promote his viagra brand medicine using links in his post.

6. Include link to your website in your signature.
Each response you give on any website, if allowed, put a link to your site. This helps search engines to associate keywords on a page with the available links and you never know when someone would like to know more about you and go to your website because you have made a post / comment which they like. Similarly your email must carry a link in your signature to create a brand for your website.


Satisfy eyes to make them stay on your pages for long? Is that possible?
Recent studies indicate that most of the web-surfers close or move away from the site just based on presentation and amount of advertisements on a page, or the time it takes for a website to load. I have seen websites that have good information, however there is an overkill and 3 google ads really don't help to make it dear to me. You want to read something, and the pop-up makes an entry just as were about to read the first line!!! So you close the advertisement, and I don't know about you, but I generally close the site as well. Make money with the ads, but please when I am looking for information, I don't want to be reminded that I can earn $$$$ or win a car or I am the lucky 9999999th visitor to the site that entitles me to do whatever I wish to do. I generally close the windows. I am sure you would do the same if you get 5 ads for each sentence on a page. If you wish to promote your site, initially DO NOT populate the website with advertisements. Fill the site with relevant content, information that is crisp and short and it should all be wrapped in a pleasing format. Use colors that are friendly to eyes, an overall structure that is easy to navigate and content that is easy to understand and available in shortest clicks. Trust me, you would get opportunity to make money using ads and banners and adwords. However when you are building your website, you should not wrap content around ads.

If you have done the first bit to get good amount of eyeballs to your site and second bit to retain them on your site for a considerable length of time, next stage is to convert regular visitors into buyers (of your products or services). You have freedom to place ads, and start negotiating with companies that would like to advertise on your website. You have the hits to show how frequently folks flock to your site and now you can start doing what you would like your website to do. Incidentally by the time you reach here, you would also notice that search engines would rank you better. Increase in hits is a genuine indication that your website has been listed in search results, and you can run a counter and use analytics to identify where does the traffic come from, and what needs your attention to sustain the hits / traffic to your website.

I am fully aware that information provided here has been on the internet for ages, but often we miss out on basics for creating a decent site and generate traffic on our own before search engines start to rate us and point to our site. Until we can get good eyeballs, search engines won't!!!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post, please feel free to give your feedback and review to me. I would certainly love to hear from you.

Regards,
GS
Free hosting web master