Part 3 : Search engine optimization

Recently I've noticed some resignation on the search engine issue among webmasters of smaller sites. There is a view that says you can never achieve good rankings without spending an awful lot of money. What's your take on that attitude?
Jill: It all depends on what you're trying to rank high for. If you're hoping to rank high for a one-word keyword, then don't even bother. Also, if you're trying to rank high with a website in a saturated market such as "website hosting," you'd be smarter to concentrate your marketing efforts elsewhere.

But for most small business owners, if you set reasonable expectations, getting high rankings doesn't have to cost you anything but your time. When we optimize sites for high rankings, yes, it does cost our clients lots of money. They are paying for our time and expertise. But we're not doing anything that they couldn't do themselves if they understood the process better.

There is enough good information out there that spells out exactly what to do to get high rankings. In fact, if someone took the time to carefully read all of our articles on our Rank Write website, they would be armed with enough ammo to do what it takes to get ranked highly. Much of the problem lies in the fact that people want a quick fix. As with everything else in life, there usually isn't any.

Heather: Sure, you can pay big bucks for search engine optimization. But, you don't HAVE to. Like anything else, you need to do your homework before you set off on a Web site course of action. One of the things we've found is many businesses want "pretty" sites that are death for the search engines. If a smaller business blows most of their marketing budget on a Web site that doesn't work for the search engines, they've made a very costly error.

Is there one aspect of website design and management that holds the key to good rankings, or is it more a question of using a combination of tricks and techniques to get a good position?
Jill: I know I must sound like a broken record with this answer, but here's my mantra: the key to high rankings in the spidering search engines is in the visible text on the page. That is, well written marketing copy that naturally utilizes relevant keyword phrases which the site should be ranking high with. No matter how many times we tell this to people they still only seem to hear "meta tags meta tags meta tags," which actually have very little bearing on the rankings in most engines.

That said, you certainly shouldn't rely on your content alone. Focus on the content first, and THEN work on all of the other little things that can give that extra boost in the rankings. Just remember that you can work on your meta tags forever, but if they don't match up with your visible content, your chances of getting good search engine rankings are very, very slim.

What are the crucial elements that webmasters tend to forget when carrying out their own search engine positioning strategies?
Jill: They forget (or just don't know) that most web surfers (and all search engines) really do not want flashy designs. They also tend to put very little emphasis on the visible content. Many also forget that when it comes to the search engines, patience is a virtue. It can take many months to get a site re-indexed in some of the search engines.

Many times it's best to submit and then forget about it for a few months. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that your sites were indexed when you go back and check months later. If you're constantly checking to see if your site has been added, it's very often going to be a source of major frustration. It may also cause you to resubmit too frequently, which can end up hurting your chances of getting in the databases.

Continued...