There is a so much misinformation about search engines, the secrets, the  black hole, etc.  I am finally going to simply everything you need to know to have a search engine friendly site. Without getting into technical details or programming jargon, a search engine’s functionality can best be compared to the index of a book. With this analogy, you need to consider the entire internet to be the book, and the search engine to be an electronic index that knows the contents of every page it can find. If you’re planning to invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) then your goal is to get your website into that index, and make it as prominent as possible.

Information Gathering and Processing

So then, how does a search engine gather its information? It sends out programs, which are known in the trade as “robots” (because they work automatically) or “spiders” (because they crawl the World Wide Web.) These programs gather all the information on your website that they can find, or that you allow them to see.

Information gathered by a search engine then gets “cached,” or stored, in the search engine’s servers, where the pages of one website are dissected and categorized among results for every other online page that a search engine can find. As an illustration, you can go to Google, do a search on the word “the,” and find billions of results. This is because Google is returning the number of pages on the internet that contain the word “the,” and it has listed them in its perceived order of importance.

SERPs – Search Engine Results Pages

Most search engines will deliver 10 results on a page for any keyword query. Search Engine Results Pages (or SERPs) generally continue into infinity, with each page showing web pages that are (ideally) less relevant as you go down the list. In the past, the user would get a bland list of SERPs in the form of 10 blocks of text, which may have shown the page’s Title, Description, and URL. Over the past couple of years, “universal search” results will now show images, video results, and maps incorporated into the results. Some searches will also serve up definitions, weather forecasts, and movie show times. A Google search on 2+2 will likely give you the answer “4″ without the presentation of any relevant sites with the same content. This information should be in the back of any website owner’s mind, because new ways of presenting information may mean that alternative search engine presentation methods may be necessary, depending on the site owner’s audience.

How Search Engines Figure Things Out
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“If you know the enemy and know yourself,
you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained
you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself,
you will succumb in every battle.
~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War”

Other websites often hold the key to getting more traffic for your own website. Their collection of traffic sources and links is one that you can appropriate for yourself when you are trying to build more traffic and links.

Assuming that there isn’t a huge gap in topics covered and content quality, websites that link to your competitor will generally be willing to link to you as well.

If the competing sites in your niche are older and more established, their backlink profile might just reveal the traffic sources you need to grow your own website.

Competitor analysis may lead you to websites you have never heard about and will also show you what type of traffic sources you need to cultivate to be successful in the long run.

Three Ways to Perform Competitor Analysis

These collection of web tools and sites will help you to find out what websites are referring traffic or linking to your competitor.

I’ve not included any keyword-based or SERP research tools because I’m not focusing on organic search traffic but rather, defensible traffic sources. Read more…

You must first understand that the search engine are looking for the most relevant content to supply to their users.  They also want to provide  a good user experience to have them come back over and over again.

When you start putting up websites of any sort,  you are claiming a slice of the internet.  The theory goes that the larger your percentage, the more traffic you’ll get.  So, this is why you want to propagate content across the web.  Its important to know that your content must  include  keywords, related words, and links.

Start with using  keyword rich URLs. (web page addresses)  If you’re trying to rank for “Atlanta  rehab deals,”  you should be using a URL with those keywords, like www.AtlantaGARehabDeals.com

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If you do not believe me,  click here for  the word from Google and also find out Whats new with Google Search

Overview of landing page quality

I. Definition

Landing page quality is one of several factors that determine a keyword’s Quality Score. The quality of a landing page is influenced by the usefulness and relevance of information provided on the page, ease of navigation, load time, how many links are on the page, and more.

II. Why improve landing page quality?

First, improving landing page quality can help you gain the trust of your customers and, therefore, keep them coming back to your site. You’ll also make it simpler for visitors to make a buy, sign up for a newsletter, or perform any other desired action. And finally, you can increase your overall Quality Score and lower your cost-per-clicks (CPCs).

For help making a high quality landing page, see Google  Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines.

III. How landing page quality is determined

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Google are making it increasingly more difficult to get and retain decent rankings in the search results, and with the recent bombshell of the “May Day” update, many of you have found that your nicely ranking long-tail pages have disappeared off the face of the search results and you’re now languishing on page fifty somewhere, if you’re lucky.

Not only has the “May Day” change come into play (and it’s a  *permanent* change BTW), but also Google have publicly stated that synonyms are actually affecting 70% of their search results, effectively ruling most of your long-tail niche pages out of the equation if your site isn’t structured correctly or properly themed and focused.

Well all is not lost… Read more…