How Google and other Search Engines Work?

Sites that get traffic are on the first page of search results – top 10 listings. Think about it. When you search on google, do you check page 39 of results. Nobody does. So What your goal should be is to get ranked as high as possible for your chosen keyword. To do that you need to think like search engines do.

Understanding Search Engines and their "Algorithms"

Google as well as other search engines use a formula called "Algorithm" to rank websites in their index. Nobody knows the exact formula, but webmasters have learned from experience what works and what doesn`t.

When a search engine evaluates your website it looks for:

• Page title
• Page Content
• Meta data (keywords, description,…)
• Number of inbound links (links pointing to your site) and some other elements.

Page title is like a few words summary of the whole page. It needs to tell your visitors what they can expect when reading the whole page.

Page Content needs to be written for your visitors, but you also need to include your keyword a few times, so search engines will know what your page is about.

Meta data is a part of html code that is hidden from visitors, but visible to search engines. Some say meta data is becoming less and less important, but it is still good to include it in every page on your website. Common meta tags are keywords and description. It looks like this:

You can see meta data of any website if you go to View>Page source on your browser. Meta data is always at the top of website code.

Inbound links are very important. Google treats them as votes of confidence. But quality is more important than quantity. If your site is about cars and you get links from sites about gardening that wont help you much.

These four elements are the most important – and i guarantee if you optimize them properly, your website can only get higher ranking. I suggest you also read Google Webmaster Guidelines.

Conclusion

Remember, Google wants to serve its users with highly relevant results. Your goal should be to satisfy your visitors. Think about how they think, what are their problems, what are their needs, then optimize your content for them. If they find your site useful, google will know you are relevant and will rank you higher.

In case you don`t know, search engines are best traffic source on internet. Ranking high for a specific keyword will bring you tons of free, targetted traffic. But first you need to get into their indexes. In the next articles I will show you some tricks to be listed and ranked faster.

Getting Listed in Google, Yahoo and MSN

First and the easiest way to getting listed is to submit your site directly to search engines. This is the easy way, but that does not guarantee when and if your site will be included.

• Google – http://www.google.com/addurl/
• MSN – http://search.msn.co.in/docs/submit.aspx
• Yahoo – http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html

Second option is to get listed in Yahoo Directory or Open Directory Project (DMOZ).

As far as i know this will get you listed directly in Google. But a listing in Yahoo Directory is expensive and getting into DMOZ is very hard.

 

Best option to get listed in Google (the super trick)

is by getting linked from a website that is already listed in google search engine. If a site is already listed, Google trusts this site. That means their spider will follow a link, because they want to include all good websites in their index. This is good news for you. But many webmasters fail in this step, because they dont know the rules of the game.

 

"It is not important to only get a link. It is essential to get a link from an established website with a high page rank."

 

The best way to get an extremely valuable inbound link (link that points to your website from another) is to write an article and post it on http://www.ezinearticles.com. Ezine Articles is a free articles database on all topics. When you submit your high-quality-super-interesting article you need to include link to your website in the author signature. This is super important. Why? Because Google crawls Ezine Articles several times per hour. Yes, you heard it right. Google constantly crawls Ezine Articles so thay can track all the new articles that get published. Another good news for you. Instead of waiting for weeks you can be sure google will know your site is alive in just a few hours. And what is even better – Articles submitted to EzineArticles.com get syndicated. That means even more inbound links for you! That is why I personally use this way when I launch new websites. And it is totally free!

 

These are threee ways to getting listed in Google, however that does not guarantee Google will include your site in their index.  In order to get listed and ranked high you need to know how search engines think. Learn how to prepare your website for search engines.

New webmasters often misuse this technique of website promotion. They want to make a quick sale, but people can see trough this. Promoting your website the wrong way does far more damage than not doing it at all. Read how to do it the right way and you will see results.

Benefits of promoting your website on online forums

Establishing credibility

The most important benefit is establishing credibility. Posting on forums gives your potential customers an opportunity to know you better. With doing good you will establish trust which will make your potential buyers relaxed about what you write. They will believe what you say and lower their spam shields. Think about it: from whom are you buying on internet? Sites you trust or sites you have never heard about?

Learn about your audience

Second benefit is by reading and posting on forums you can learn about your target audience. You will get first hand information on peoples needs and thoughts. This is an extreme value for every company! And its free.

Networking

You will also meet other webmasters on forums and broaden your network that way. Remember: people who know you are more likely to link to your website than others.

How to promote your website on forum

1. Find a forum that relates to your website. Check out Strongest Links Forum list for a start.
2. Join it and set your user profile. Create a signature with your Name, website URL and a short sentence about your site.
3. Contribute. Answer peoples posts, give them advice, solve their problems. Make sure you are posting only about things you know a lot about.

We have developed two models to show you how to do it. Of course follow the first one:)

Model1: Promoting your website on forums the right way

User asks a question

you reply with a valuable post

people begin to trust you

people identify you as an authority

people seek more about you and your website

Model2: Wrong way

User asks a question

you reply trying to make a sale

people notice you want to make a quick buck

you loose credibility

people ignore your posts and your website

Conclusion:

Promoting your website on a forum can only be done if you really care about your target market! People will notice the sparkle in your posts and will award you with their trust.

Their trust means targeted visitors who believe you. They will lower their spam shields when you try to sell them your product or service.

I`ve published my website…now what?
Ok. So you have just uploaded your great new website and want to get some first time visitors. In the next few lines you are going to find out exactly how to get the traffic ball rolling. Slowly…but surely.

1. The best first time visitor traffic comes from search engines.

So thats where you are headed. The big ones are the ones you want to get indexed, the rest will follow.

Here are the big boys:

• Mr. Google – http://www.google.com/addurl/
• MSN Live search – http://search.msn.co.in/docs/submit.aspx
• Yahoo – http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html

Enter your URL and they will unleash the spiders. Than here is the most important and the hardest part:

Why? Because it will take some time for your site to be fully crawled and even more to be indexed.

2. Get some links from websites closely related to you

This will bring you some first time visitors in short run and also increase the speed of your site being indexed in search engines.

Just find sites related to yours (hint:google) and send them a polite email if they could present your site to their visitors and what will they gain with it.

3. Spread the word through forums related to your topic

Join a few forums and attach your URL in the signature; if your posts are helpfull to forum members you will soon see some first time visitors coming in.

4. Write an article or two and post them at article sites

Don`t forget to create a signature with link back to your website. You want to know where I post my articles and get the best results in the world? No problem…. Go to ezinearticles.com. This can bring you lots of first time visitors in short time.

5. Social bookmarking!

Not to be overlooked. If you have something newsworthy than social bookmarking sites are going to work like charm. It could bring you a huge amount of visitors in just a few hours. But Beware: it could bring visitors, but nothing more. That is because people who use these sites often just browse for news and are not so motivated as the ones that come from search engines.

Ok. I know you want to know which ones i use:

http://www.digg.com/

http://del.icio.us/

http://www.technorati.com/

http://reddit.com/

 

Conclusion

These 5 things will bring you traffic in the long run. If you are not getting results, than try to perfect your knowledge in each of these things. It is worth the time, believe me.