The Quick and Easy Search Engine Formula

By Terry Dean

You can create high ranking pages for the search engines without having to keep up with the latest developments in the search engine world or drive your web designer crazy with changes to your web site.

The search engines are a highly competitive field and everyone wants to know the latest trick or secret to getting a top ranking.

Well, I am going to let you in on the secret to success with the search engines today. The secret is that there is no secret.

The search engines want content, not tricks. If you can provide them with good quality content in a subject, then you will be able to get a good listing. If you try to find a way around the rules or trick the search engines, then you are much more likely to be banned than to get listed.

Are there companies out there which focus on tricking the search engines? There sure are, but they have a hard road to follow. They have to constantly stay on their toes, change their pages every month, and basically give 110% of their promotional time to just trying to keep a top position.

There is a much easier way that still produces good results.

You can give yourself good search engine positions by focusing on writing short articles which contain the content that the search engines want. In other words, don't try to "beat" them. Help them.

If you make it a consistent process to come up with short articles to provide for search engine listings, then you will slowly build up your traffic machine for years to come. If you become a content provider instead of a "traffic thief" from the search engines, then you will find it is much easier to relax and keep the positions you have earned.

Plus, you won't have to constantly research what is working. This strategy worked last year. It works this year. It will work next year. Learn it once and then follow it forever.

Step One: Find Keywords

You first need to look and see which keywords are hot in your industry. What are people searching for at the major search engines?

You can use the keyword suggestion tool from Goto to constantly research top keywords in your market: http://inventory.go2.com/inventory/Search_Suggestion.jhtml

Step Two: Research and Write Down Focused Content.

Let's say you start with 5 different keyword phrases for the search engines. Now, do searches for those keywords and take notes on the sites you visit. Take notes and study the subject.

Step Three: Write 300 to 500 word articles.

Keep the articles short as most of the search engines don't scan a long page anyway. Think in your mind about designing "Quick Bites" of information.

You may want to separate your article up into specific steps (just as this article is done). If you separate a 500 word article up into 5 steps, then you only have to think about writing 100 words at a time. That is a pretty short piece of information.

Step Four: Use the keyword in the title of your article.

Make the title of your article larger and in bold print. Use your main keyword phrase near the beginning of the title. Many of the search engines give a higher rating to keywords which appear in a heading font such as this title would be. In HTML a heading is shown by <H1>, <H3>, and other tags with H and a number.

Step Five: Use the keyword phrase 3 to 7 times throughout the article.

Once you have finished writing your article and are getting ready to publish it to the web, read through it and make sure your keyword phrase appears at least three times and usually no more than seven times throughout the body of the article text.