Getting your web site ranked

Every time you use Google, Yahoo, MSN, or other search engines, they have special web site "crawlers" that scan the internet to find the information you are searching for. They find the information using the keywords found in the web site and in your search page. The search engines search through millions of pages to find the right information you need and they list the pages in order according to their relevance.

Search engine crawlers follow an algorithm that has been created by the search engine companies. These algorithms are constantly changing because some companies started to abuse the system by creating false pages just so their site would appear at the top of the list. If your company is caught abusing the search engines, they will remove you and you won't appear in the search engine results.

As a search engine scans your web site, they are looking for keywords on your web page. The pages that have certain HTML title tags are used to rank the sites and this normally puts you at the top of the list. The HTML title tags should correspond with the information that is found on the web site. Depending upon the search engine, the crawlers will scan the first few sentences of the page and look for keywords near the top of the web page. This is because any page that is relevant to that topic will have this information in the first 2 paragraphs.

Another thing that determines your search engine ranking is the frequency of web site visitors. The search engines will analyze how often a keyword appears in your site and in other web sites and how often these keywords are used. The keywords with a higher frequency will place your web site above other web sites that do not use the keywords as often.

Every search engine is different and they each have their own unique algorithm, which is why your web site may appear at the top of Google's list but as #2 in Yahoo!. The thing to remember about search engine ranking system is they are operated by smart webmasters. These individuals know all the tricks other webmasters use to get better rankings. Since a lot of webmasters use different ways to generate traffic, search engines also have a system called "off the page" ranking. This information will take a look at your links and determine how your pages link together. If they feel a certain page carries some relevance, they will give it a boost in rankings.

Just because your web site is # 1 on the rankings doesn't mean it will stay there. Search engines also check the click-through measurement of internet users. They are looking for the ways a person searches for something and what links they select that pertain to their search. If people click on yours, only to come back to the search engine within a few seconds, the ranking system will collect this data and they may start to drop your site in the rankings.

If you want to get a higher ranking, take good care of your web site. Start by updating and removing all the broken links on your web site. Having broken links is detrimental to your site and it can easily cause web crawlers to skip your site. Another thing you can do to increase your search engine ranking is to get more web site traffic through pay-per-click advertisements. Try partnering with other companies to get your site listed on their web page. The more inbound links you have, the higher your search engine rankings will be.