At this point, you may be wondering just how search engines decide which site goes where. Well, the bad news is, the exact formula search engines use to rank web sites is a bit of a mystery; much like the secret ingredient in the recipe for my grandma’s famous barbeque sauce.
If the secret every got out, web sites would attempt to manipulate the system for better ranking and the major engines are having none of it.
The good news is that you don’t have to know the secret ingredient to be extremely successful with the major engines. A few basic rules of thumb are all you really need.
#1 Tip: Search engines rank web pages based on content and the relevance of that content to the search terms. Here’s the logic behind this ranking system. If someone is looking for information about famous barbeque sauce and you happen to have a web page with content that feature the phrase “famous barbeque sauce” a number of times, chances are that page is about famous barbeque sauce and everybody gets what they want.
The engines have done their job, the person search the terms feels like they’ve found what they where looking for and your page gets traffic.
That being said…
You won’t be able to pull the old “barbeque sauce, barbeque sauce, barbeque sauce” routine; call it quality content and think it’s going to fly with the engines. Where some might find such a gag somewhat amusing (myself included), the search engines are all business when it comes to relevancy.
Your best bet is to stick with good solid content and a healthy sprinkle of your “famous barbeque sauce”, and you’ll create the kind of flavor for your site that everyone will love.
So, the general rule of thumb for a good ranking would be…
Keyword in your headline; keyword at least twice within the first two paragraphs, and wrap up your conclusion with (you guessed it…) keyword and good quality content to fill out the rest of your web page.
