PageRank is one of the factors that Google uses to evaluate your web site and determine its position in the Google search engine results. PageRank is a number from 0 to 10.

Generally, if your web site has a higher PageRank, it will appear earlier in Google search results pages, all other factors being equal. In fact, you can see a significant improvement in where your pages appear in search engine results when your PageRank increases.

How do you find your PageRank?

Install the Google Toolbar. You can get it for free at this link:

http://toolbar.google.com

After you install the toolbar, you will see the PageRank in the middle of the toolbar. It may have a small green bar. Hold your mouse over the green bar to see the Google PageRank for the site you are viewing.

So how does Google determine your PageRank?

Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes a page receives, however. Google also looks at the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves important weigh more heavily and help to make other pages important.

How can you improve your PageRank?

By getting votes from important pages (or, links to your web page from other web site pages that themselves have a high PageRank).

You can also be sure to include plenty of relevant, useful, fresh text in your pages. This is useful for Google, since you are providing information for the search engine to index, and it is useful for the people who visit your web site too.

You have heard the phrase LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. But wait, this is online! You don’t have to worry about location…or do you??!! Location is everything! Let’s take a moment to really think about this. You need to find something. What do you do? Most people will go to their favorite search engine and input what they are searching for. They will type in a few words that describe what they are looking for. The Search Engines come back with the most relevant websites for your search. However, your search for a keyword can result in thousands of links (if not millions).

So now you begin the task of clicking one by one on these links to find the information or service you need. You may go through page one to find what you are searching for, you may go through all of page two, but did you get to the website on page 10? If you are shaking your head No (who has that kind of time?) then you have realized how important LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION is to your website. We need to get your site located on the first page.

The quick and easy answer to this problem is of course PPC (Pay Per Click Advertising such as Google Adwords or Overture). But this is not the smartest way to solve your problem and the cost can put my small business owners of out business. We have found that most website owners state their largest expense is advertising. Imagine if you could cut your advertising in half! Imaging if you could eliminate your advertising cost all together and still achieve the same sales (if not more)!

Search Engine Optimization for your site is the answer.

Everyone wants to be listed in the number 1 spot. But most companies do not get listed under any of their keywords because they do not know how to implement search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is really not as hard as it sounds and most will find that once they understand how it works, it is actually quite simple.

A few things to keep in mind when starting your SEO Journey:

1. Make sure you use HTML Links. Some designers want to use beautiful image map links from their home page. Although this looks great, it does not help you with the search engines. Place links on your pages to the various pages to help not only the search engines find your pages but your visitors as well.

2. Frames…Well this is a hard one. Not only can some people not see frames, the search engines have a hard time with them as well. Also, what if your customer stumbles into one of the pages and does not see the frames? Just stay away from them all together.

3. DO NOT SPAM. Let me repeat this again. DO NOT SPAM. Spamming in any form is wrong. Most people consider spam as only used with emails. Wrong again unfortunately. Spamming will backfire on you. If search engines pick up on the fact that you are spamming, they have and will penalize your site.

Here are two examples of spam:

a. Content Spam. Data within a part of a Web resource designed for humans where that data is designed only for search engines to see.

b. Meta Spam. Data within a Web resource that describes that resource or another Web resource inaccurately or (when the data should be readable by humans) incoherently.

Take your time when it comes to your websites SEO. Make small changes and watch your rankings. If you move up, great! Make more changes. If you move down, undo undo undo. Always keep records of the changes you make so you can easily track what worked and what did not work for your site. Remember, we are in this for the long haul. Do it right the first time and make it last.

The Myth of Rankings – Beyond Search Engine Optimization

What follows is a condensed version of a conversation that happens all too frequently when I am approached by a prospect interested in search engine optimization (SEO):

Prospect: We need our website optimized, because we aren’t showing up for any searches.
Me: What searches have you tried?
Prospect: We don’t show up for ANYTHING.
Me: Why do you want to show up in searches?
Prospect: Well, it seems like we should. Our competitors do, and our website is WAY better than theirs.
Me: But, really, what would you stand to gain from showing up prominently in search engine results?
Prospect: Well, we could get more people who are looking for our products or services to find out about us.
Me: So, what you are saying is that increasing your search engine results could help you to increase sales and awareness?
Prospect: Yes.
Me: Now we’re on the right track. Since your goals are to increase sales and awareness, have you thought about not only improving your search engine rankings, but also getting more people to take an action on your site that leads to a sale, getting more people to read your press releases or whitepapers so that they can consistently associate your company with your offering, or sending your prospects a regular newsletter to reinforce your name and expertise?
Prospect: Didn’t you hear me? Our website is great. We just don’t show up for searches.

And so it goes.

A consistent problem with the “ranking-centric” mindset demonstrated above is that it doesn’t reflect a powerful rationale for getting involved in SEO. Where is the true business case? What tangible results are desired? In general, if a prospect can’t explain what he or she hopes to achieve beyond “higher rankings” or “more traffic,” we’ll first try to educate, and, if that person can’t move beyond these base subjects, we’ll kindly refer them elsewhere.

More and more frequently, people are getting into SEO for the wrong reasons (and sometimes for no real reason at all). Achieving high rankings for targeted keyphrases, while an admirable and worthwhile goal, is really only a small piece of the entire online marketing puzzle. In this article, we’ll discuss a few additional, but equally vital, pieces.

Website Conversion

Website conversion is the art and science of getting more of the people who come to your website to take the action that you want them to take – fill out your contact form, read your whitepapers, sign up for your newsletter, or (in the case of e-commerce) buy something. For a company that is trying to build offline business, this action is typically something that gets prospects into the sales pipeline through some form of online registration. For a company or organization that is trying to build awareness, this action can be a number of things – getting visitors to a certain page of the site, getting them to stay longer at the site, or getting them to tell a friend about the site. The critical point that is commonly overlooked in a ranking-centric mindset is that no number of high search engine positions will address the real problem if your website is not serving as an effective marketing and sales tool. And, as I have said many times before, the overall net effect of raising your conversion rate from one to two percent is the same net effect as doubling your traffic, and it is almost always easier. Increasing the number of visitors to a site that does not convert them effectively is like pumping high performance gasoline into a car with engine trouble – it might help the car to run a little bit better, but if you’d done repairs before adding the premium fuel, it really would have hummed.

Online PR

Your website is only one potential online destination where people can find out about your company, and a typical user will regard your site as an advertisement since you have complete control over the content. With optimized press releases and expert articles, however, you can have your company name mentioned on popular news sites and industry portals, where credibility is more inherent.

Optimized Press Releases

Press releases that are optimized to appear when certain terms are typed into news search engines are an excellent way to build name recognition and credibility. If someone is taking the time to look for news related to your industry, he or she is probably either in your business, learning about your market, or writing a piece about your industry. The last category is especially significant since a recent study* indicates that 98% of journalists go online daily, 92% use the Internet for article research, and 73% use it to find press releases. Whatever motivation a person has when he or she searches for news related to your industry, you want your company represented in the results.

Expert Articles

Another great way to promote your expertise and business is to write expert articles and submit them to the leading online publications in your field. At least one person in your company is almost certainly an expert in your field – why not let everyone know that? A person that reads an expert article published on an industry portal, and who subsequently clicks through to the website (from the link in the expert’s bio) is extremely targeted and already has a favorable impression of your company. Moreover, the same study cited above found that 76% of journalists go online to seek news sources or experts. When your company has demonstrated that you have experts on staff by publishing articles in credible, non-biased forums, the phone invariably starts to ring. Your experts will be asked to provide their opinions, quotes, or experiences for feature articles, often in prestigious industry publications. The benefits of this, of course, do not need explanation. A side benefit to both of the strategies above is thatthey increase the number of inbound links to your website and, therefore, can help greatly enhance your search engine rankings – which might be the primary reason you looked into SEO in the first place.

Newsletters

Direct mail was once considered a marketer’s dream – but email newsletters can be much more effective. Imagine a direct mail list with a low delivery cost, where every single person on the list has shown an interest in receiving such mailings. Such is the nature of opt-in email newsletters. People have shown enough interest in your company, or, at least, in what your company has to say, to invite you to communicate with them on a regular basis. They are essentially giving you permission to keep yourself “first in mind” whenever they are considering your products or services. Such opportunities are rare in the marketing world. By combining the conversion principles you have applied to your website to your email newsletters, you can also get people to take an action that puts them into your sales pipeline without worrying about getting them to your website itself.

Conclusion

These are only a few of the additional ways to expand an online initiative beyond a misdirected ranking-centric approach. Weblogs (or blogs) are often considered another new frontier in online marketing, and we haven’t even touched on paid media opportunities such as banner ads or pay-per-click marketing. However, the three components mentioned above are important elements of a complete and successful online marketing initiative. An SEO campaign launched without considering them is like driving a four-cylinder car with only one cylinder firing – it will move, but you’d definitely reach your destination more quickly – and more smoothly – with all four.

Everyday, the Search Engines average 300 Million searches. In a recent Forrester Research report 81% of consumers on the Internet find products and services by using the Search Engines. Search Engine Optimization allows you to achieve top search engine placement and a tap into a new source of qualified visitors who are actively searching for products and services on the Internet.

Unfortunately, only 7% of all websites are visible on the search engines according to a recent StatMarket.com study. The reason for this phenomenon is that most web sites are not properly optimized and promoted to achieve high search engine rankings.

To achieve the best overall, long-term search engine positioning, three components must be present on your web site:

1. Content component (Your web page text.)
2. Link component (How you link your pages together.)
3. Link Popularity component (The in-bound links to your site.)

1) The Content Component

The most important part of the content component (of a search engine algorithm) is keyword selection and where you place keywords on your web pages. In order for your target audience to find your site on the search engines, your web pages must contain keyword phrases that match the phrases your target audience is typing into search queries. Finding these keywords that your target audience uses to find your product is accomplished by conducting keyword research.

2) The Link Component – Internal Linking

The strategy of placing keyword-rich text on your web pages is useless if the search engine spiders have no way of finding that text. The way your web pages are linked to each other has huge impact on your site’s search engine positioning. Be sure to link your pages together with your keywords within your links.

3) The Link Popularity Component – Acquiring In-Bound Links

The “Link Popularity” or Google “PageRank” (PR) component of a search engine algorithm analyzes how many web sites link to your website.

95% of the battle of getting high rankings at the search engine is acquiring quality and relevant links pointing to your web site. Ever since Google entered the search engine market, all the major Search Engines have started using links as the primary way they rank web sites. This is known as your web site’s “Link Popularity” or in Google’s case it’s called “PageRank” or “PR.”

As Google explains, Links and PageRank are critical to ranking high in the search engines. In fact, inbound links and the text within those inbound links account for 95% of effective search engine optimization.