Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is defined as the process of adjusting web sites and pages to gain higher placement in search engine results. However, ranking in itself does not guarantee profits, you need the search engine to send targeted prospective visitors to your website for that.. So why are the Search Engines so vital? Well, there are more than 162 million registered websites on the web. There are basically three ways that people can arrive at your site: using search engines, clicking on a link from another website, or by knowing your URL (uniform resource locator) and typing that in web browser. Almost half of all internet users use search engines on a typical day online. A site that does not appear on the first page of search results might as well be invisible. If your site is invisible, you will not get any visitors, nor make any sales.

There are three search engines that you need to be concerned about: Google accounts for about 62% of all searches, Yahoo about 21%, MSN (Bing) about 9%. That said, you would be wise to ignore any messages promising submission to hundreds or thousands of search engines. As you can see the big 3 account for over 90 percent of all searches. Likewise, you shouldn’t give any credence to any ads promising a #1 search engine rankings, because no legitimate company can promise you that. It has been said, that in offline marketing, there is no elevator to success, everyone must take the stairs. The same is true in online marketing. In order to achieve any significant success online, you will have to invest some time, or money, or both. But you will definitely invest something. Despite all of the promises to the contrary, there is no free lunch on the internet.

There are a couple of things you can do to gain higher placement in the search engines. One thing you can do is construct a search engine friendly site that allows the search engine to spider or crawl it easily. This includes having a search-engine friendly URLs constructed with different keywords on different pages. You can also create linkable footers on every page. Also creating a site index will make crawling the site easier for the search engines. But what is really going to matter to search engines is the content of your site.

Specifically, the search engines are concerned about relevancy, link popularity, and unique original content. Google, for one, pays a lot of attention to site relevance in its search results. Relevance is about making your site a useful resource for information instead of “keyword stuffing” and other tricks. So if someone entered a certain search phrase and landed on your site, would they be satisfied with what they found? So relevance tells us if your site does a good job meeting the user’s information needs. Sometimes how relevant a site is can be determined by its link popularity. That is the number of associated sites linking in to your website. And of course, one of the things that’s gonna affect your link popularity is the presence of unique, original content. Because of all of the competition on the web, you should be creating content for your site on a regular basis, some even say daily. If your site is not being updated, the search engines will assume that there is nothing new on your site, so why send somebody there?

There are quite a number of content marketing strategies, like article and video marketing, that you can employ. Likewise, there are severalInbound Link Campaigns that you can use to raise your link popularity. Still you will see a lot of short-cuts out there, like automatic content generators and others. Because people are always looking to beat the system, search engines like Google often change the rules. Sometimes, if Google feels like you are trying to cheat, or if your site lacks relevance they may reduce your Page Rank or take other punitive actions against you and your site. But if you just buckle down and do the work, create unique and relevant content on a consistent basis; then your relationship with the search engines should be a rewarding one.

About the Author

I hope that you enjoyed reading “How to Boost Your Search Engine Rankings“.

Reginald Liggins is an internet marketing trainer and coach. The automated marketing system that Reginald uses to explode his business opportunities as well as generate multiple income streams can be found at “MyLeadSystemPro”

Reginald can be reached at reggie@superbodymagic.com

Photo by lirontockerBuilding branded profiles, engaging prospects and connecting with potential employees and strategic partners are all powerful ways to tap into Facebook and  LinkedIn.

But, for the typical small business, there may actually be some equally important social networks you may not be so familiar with. The big networks get all the press, but small networks, say for instance, like the connectodex found here at OpenForum may prove tremendously valuable for small business folks due to the small size and targeted focus of the membership.

The list below represents some of the more active networks I’ve encountered when it come to small business social networking.

Visit a handful of these sites and choose several that feel right for your business. Once you build a profile, taking full advantage of the opportunity to link to your primary business offer full descriptions of your products and services, spend enough time to go a bit deeper.

Write or republish some articles or blog content, search and identify a dozen or so people to connect with, and give some advice, point to someone’s great content or answer questions from other members.

Don’t try to jump into every new network you can find, but do jump into a few outside of Facebook and LinkedIn and make yourself a bit of a larger fish in these smaller ponds.

In addition to OpenForum check these networks out:

• Biznik – this network for small business folks is blending online and offline by allowing members to collect by city and host and promote local events

• StartUpNation – a wealth of information focused on startups and very active community

• Wall St Journal – community build around subscribers  and geared, as one might suspect to professionals and financial folks

• Small Business Brief – heavy dose of search engine related content but very active small business focus

• Inc magazine – another popular business related magazine with community of entrepreneurs

• StartUp Biz – very fast growing network with lots of tools to promote yourself

• PartnerUp – small business focus and big on helping people find answers and connections for the things they need

• BizSugar – allows you to submit, share and vote for the best business information links on the Internet.. Great place to promote and discover your small business content

• CoFoundr – Programmers and designers use the site to find co-founders, build teams, and get advice.

• Entrepreneur magazine – Entrepreneur magazine’s community site has a lot of activity and content

• Business Week Exchange – Site from Business Week magazine is a great place to promote and find content on the web, tends to be a bit larger business focused

• Naymz – one of the better sites for those focused on building personal brands – highly indexed in the search engines

Image credit: andresmh

John Jantsch is a marketing and digital technology coach, award winning social media publisher and author of Duct Tape Marketing.