Aplus.net Blog

There’s no arguing that search engines rule online commerce today. Get to the top of Google, and you’ve got a direct pipeline to sales and success.

But as we all know, that’s easier said than done. Search engine domination is made more difficult by the fact that the metrics determining rankings are constantly changing — plus, they’re kept secret by the search engines themselves. Even seasoned online business experts don’t know exactly how Google’s search engine methodology works.

That being understood, there are still several important basic factors that can help get your site perform better in search engines. About.com’s Heather Cross breaks them down into five elements:

1. Target Phrase. When configuring your site for SEO, you “need to determine one phrase that describes what your page is about. This is called your target phrase.” It should be your site’s focus; for example, if your site sells antique guitars, then your target phrase should be “antique guitars”.

2. Know Your Competition. Figure out who you’re competing against, and see how they rank in the search engines. Find out what key phrases are their strong points, and which are their weak points, and you’ll have a good jumping off point when starting your own SEO efforts.

3. Writing. SEO isn’t all about meta tags You also have to make sure your target phrase, and other relevant key words and phrases, are present all throughout your website. Always have the target phrases in mind when writing even basic website copy.

4. Promotion. Use your target phrase when advertising your site, too.

5. Check and Tweak. “If Google or Yahoo don’t crawl your site on a regular basis, then submit your page to them. Wait about a week … and test.” Search engine rankings change daily. Check them often to make sure you’re moving up, and not down, and correct what needs to be corrected to stay on an upward trend.