by: Kerry Emrich
Want to reach the top of Google for your niche, or keyword phrases? Don't let it cause you stress or anxiety, simple read on...
Google, MSN, and Yahoo all use their own formulas to calculate the relevance of your pages, but here are a few common factors to guarantee you will rank above those not using them.
Start analyzing your pages today, don’t forget to resubmit the changes when you are done, and the traffic will start to flow.
1) Keyword Density
You should strive to obtain a keyword density in the 3.5 to 7 percent range for each of your pages. Do not overuse your keywords on the same page, instead simply use related keywords.
2) Keyword Phrase Choices
A single keyword is almost impossible to rank high for, so you should shoot for lower demand phrases. Overture lists the keyword "coffee" as being searched 370820 times per month. The keyword coffee has a huge amount of competition, but a keyword phrase such as "coffee club" is only searched 1813 times. Of course ranking number one for coffee would be fantastic, but ranking well for many lower demand keywords should be an important part of search engine optimization strategies.
3) Original Content
Google will tend to penalize sites offering the same content resulting in lower ranking for all sites. Think about all the sites you have seen promoting the same resale rights product. They all have the same sales page. The best thing you could do is to simply rewrite the sales letter and submit that page to the search engines. This is an incredibly important Search Engine Optimization tip. Try to work in related words and phrases not just the top keywords.
4) Proper Linking
Make sure all your links use proper text. How many times have you seen "click here to visit" on a website? Simply changing the link text will cause your page to rank higher in all the search engines. You can also choose related phrases for link text.
5) Repeat Keywords and Phrases
Always make sure that your selected keywords and phrases appear several times in each of your paragraphs. Try to add related keywords and phrases to help boost your SEO. Do not get involved with keyword stuffing (repeating the same keywords over and over), and make sure to leave some space between keyword occurrences (once every second or third line)
5) Stay Current
Visit SEO news sites to stay current with the latest trends. The engines are always changing their strategies and formulas so it is a good idea to read the latest news at least once a week. A great place to start is http://www.seo-buzz.com
6) Alt Tags
When adding a photo or picture to your pages you should always add relevant keywords to the alt tags. This helps to boost your page rank with little work.
Taking the time to review your site, make the necessary changes, and staying current on the latest trends in SEO will help ensure that you achieve a top ranking site for your chosen keywords and key phrases.