The Search Engines Win

The Search Engines are in business. Their product is the quality of their search results. Help them make their product better, and they'll love you. How?

A Search Engine uses computer programs called spiders to go out and bring your site back to its home (i.e., the Search Engine's database). Then when someone looks up, say, "lower ab exercise," another program decides whether your site, or another, is more relevant.

You must honestly convince each Search Engine that you are the most relevant site (at least in the Top 20, preferably in the Top 10) for the KEYWORDS that you target. If you trick the engine, your success won't last long, and when it discovers the trick, it will ban you. Why? Because tricks hurt the Search Engine's product.

Help the searcher (i.e., your potential visitor and/or your merchant's potential customer), solve her problem or her quest. Satisfy the whole reason she is doing the search. If you do this, you add value to the Search Engine's product.

If you do this properly, you never have to worry about the Search Engines because they and you become partners in an effort to deliver quality content to searchers...

• No tricks in comment tags or invisible links or anything else that is not natural for a true content site.

• No hoping that the SEs don't change their attitude towards your "tactics."

• No worrying about just the right number of times to repeat a keyword in the META Keyword tag.

• No time-wasting, constantly "staying on the cutting edge" ahead of the engines

• No 8 versions of the same site, one for each major engine. Focus on creating one "best fit" site that scores well with most of the engines for most of your words most of the time. Then spend your time creating more and more content, and then another site. No games.

• No off-target keywords to suck in untargeted customers. ("Hey, this site's not about 'Britney Spears'! What gives?")

• No fretting about whether competitors will complain about your tricky methods.

• No multiple domains, hidden inter-linking, etc. -- since every page is for the customer first and foremost, and since you are simply writing to also satisfy the Search Engine, none of this is necessary.

There's simply nothing to worry about. Sleep well and enjoy solid, stable results by doing it all right the first time.

Keep your focus on creating one "best fit" site that scores well with most of the engines for most of your words most of the time. Write your page for the customer, first and foremost. No games. (More on SEO games later.)

Continue reading here: Yahoo Search Marketing Sponsored Search

Was this article helpful?