Ten Commandments of Search Engines

Many site owners are not aware of the reality of what will be necessary to ensure their target market finds them when searched for and a detailed explanation of the process and what to expect – as well as what not to expect.

Unfortunately, many times the spam of easy listings and top 10 positions drowns out the truth of what is required to gain and maintain relevant rankings.

In order to have realistic goals and expectations I think the first thing we need to do is put the massivity of the online world into perspective:

• In 1997, there were an estimated 200 million pages on the World Wide Web (K. Bharat and A. Broder, “A technique for measuring the relative size and overlap of public web search engines ” [WWW1998]).
• By 1998, that number had jumped to 800 million pages (S. Lawrence and C.L. Giles, “Accessibility of information on the web ” [Nature 400:107-109, 1999]).
• A mere 7 years later, the estimate is now 11.5 billion pages (A. Gulli and A. Signorini, “The Indexable Web is more than 11.5 billion pages ” [2005]).
• Google: Before they decided to no longer show their index count in October/2005 reflected 8,058,044,651 pages.
• February 2007, the Netcraft Web Server Survey found 108,810,358 distinct Web sites. Multiplying the estimate of the number of web pages per Web site by Netcraft’s February 2007 count of Web sites, you arrive at 29.7 billion pages on the World Wide Web as of February 2007.
• Netcraft’s February 2009 Web Server Survey received responses from 215,675,903 sites. This reflects a phenomenal monthly gain of more than 30 million sites, bringing the total up by more than 16%.

Based on the above, what intelligent person would not take as a given the work that will be required to get found? It is not uncommon when doing keyword searches to find millions of pages competing for the very same terms.

This information is not my opinion, my take or just my viewpoint. This is an accurate representation of the way the Search Engine environment operates and what is required to get found. Like it or not, it is best dealt with than ignored or disregarded – that is unless you have deep pockets to purchase the traffic you desire.

Just like anything else to do with your Web Program your rankings have to be worked at — consistently — to produce results. They don’t just happen by osmosis or for perpetuity or by changing a few things here or there on your site. So, don’t shoot the messenger as they say!!

The Ten Commandments of Search Engines:

1. Thou shalt not expect that Search Engines will drive massive amounts of traffic to your site immediately based on the initial registration with free services upon the launch of your site. Listings take time to solidify over time.

   Google as an example has what is known as their “sandbox” where new sites land for up to six months or more before hitting Google’s public index! Although many engines state anticipated time frames (many also clearly offering no guarantees when or if) as to when your site may be added to their database, it could be longer due to the massive volume of new submissions submitted daily.

   And, as you grow your site for better placement you can expect a certain level of latency in any changes your tweaks may ultimately reflect. No tweaking? No updating? Not growing your site? No relevant rankings.

2. Thou shalt not expect that Search Engines care about where you are ranked, where you want to be ranked or where you think you should be ranked. Their goal is to try to rank sites based on many variables to produce SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) that best meet what searchers are looking for.

   If you are in a industry with little competition, getting relevant rankings may be a tad easier than one saturated by 100′s or possibly 1000′s of sites fighting for the same top page listings. Look at it this way… What makes your site better than those already ranked to nudge them out of the top positions? Nothing? Get to work!

3. Thou shall understand that if you don’t track your site activity and keep your site “fresh”, growing with content and current with technology, those competitors that do will be ranked before you.

   If your rankings do not reflect the current information on your site this could be that you are no longer being crawled. Time to look at your stats and try to determine what is up! No way around this. Don’t grow, track and react, your site will never gain in positioning.

4. Thou shall know that those companies that offer you “top of page” listings for $$$ per month are simply signing you up for “Sponsored”, “Paid” or “Featured Listings” that the Search Engines or PPC (Pay Per Click) services offer. These listings are purchased and have nothing to do with your site’s organic/free listings or the “keywords” in your meta tags.

   You can set up your own PPC accounts and save thousands of dollars by visiting the Search Engines, reviewing their programs and learning all the variables necessary to a successful campaign. Then, here again, be prepared to chomp on all the data that will be provided so that you can tweak and modify your program to garner the best results and conversions.

5. Thou shall realize that you need to play by the rules. There are no silver bullets or magic pills when it comes to your site’s rankings. Don’t fall for the hooey from those who promise unbelievable results with little effort, touting all that is stated here to not be necessary.

   Some use tactics that simply do not work or may temporarily work and when detected could get your site banned. This is called “Black Hat” SEO (Search Engine Optimization). As a matter of fact, Google has a warning on their site about these “services” — read and learn!

6. Thou shalt not sit back and think that without participating, networking and taking advantage of on and off-line opportunities to get exposure for your “dot com” that you will get traffic anyway. You won’t. Look again at the figures I mentioned above. This is interactive technology after all — don’t interact, don’t be involved, don’t expect rankings or traffic.

   While site and link popularity are an important part of getting found, they aren’t the end-all-be-all either – just one part of the formula. Quality, relational links to your site can boost your rankings – but that won’t happen by osmosis. Why would any site link to you unless you have unique quality content worth linking to? The answer is, if they are committed to building a quality site for the long haul; they won’t. Valuable content, articles and white papers – now that’s information worth linking to!

7. Thou shall understand that this is not a “build it and they will come” telephone book environment. With literally billions of Web pages online and millions going live daily, how do you realistically think your potential customers will find you without ongoing reactive and proactive efforts? They won’t.

   You need to look at your stats, see where you are currently ranked and then determine an ongoing plan on how to improve upon your rankings if you want to place higher than you currently are. Simply changing your keywords or adding more keywords won’t make any difference if other issues are not seriously considered.

8. Thou shalt not believe that by simply running around and resubmitting your old stale site, every day, every week, every moment will be all it takes. Believe this at your own peril! Some engines consider resubmitting, if not done within established guidelines, as spamming them and you can be dropped or banned.

   Actually, if you are doing everything right, the Search Engines will find you and there really is no need to submit or resubmit your site at all. Just be sure to give them a reason to come back for more.

9. Thou shall understand that only unwavering commitment, participation and ongoing investment (in time and $$), is the only way to gaining and maintaining relevant rankings. You also need to plan on consistently growing your site with content rich topical information or your risk not attaining your full exposure.
10. Thou knows that even though they may not like the Ten Commandments of Search Engines, that in no way diminishes the reality of fact and truth in how Search Engines work and what you need to do as a site owner to ensure consistent relevant rankings over your competitors.

Many think rankings should just happen. Or that by changing or adding keywords or some phrases here or there that all your target customers will be able to find you. There is nothing further from the truth!

Look at your stats! See the traffic you are getting and from where. Run Search Engine tracking reports on your targeted keyword phrases and compare them to your stats and make modifications and adjustments based on that data.

Create keyword rich informative articles and add them to your site on a regular basis. Start your Blog and Blog 3-4 times each week to keep the new, fresh and valuable information coming!

Search Engines tweak how they list sites all the time. This is called their algorithm. And each will list your very same site differently. Don’t waste your time chasing algos — rather spend your time writing about your experience, expertise and share your knowledge by continually adding and growing your site.

Follow this approach and the rankings will come. Have no approach? Still have just static unchanging brochureware because that is all you are willing to deal with? What if your competitors are more involved and aggressive than you are? That is called lost opportunity!

“Wanting”, “feeling”, “thinking” doesn’t cut it! Doing, planning, reviewing and taking action in an environment that is fluid and constantly changing is what works. What other medium do you have the results of your efforts at your fingertips 24/7? None!

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but those most adaptive to change.”
~ Charles Darwin

Don’t blame the Web, don’t blame the Search Engines, don’t blame the fact that to reach your goals one has to spend more time and/or money – try and learn new things – all the time. That’s what this gig is all about – learning, changing, doing – rolling with the proverbial punches! Certainly, don’t believe friends and associates who claim unbelievable results without the efforts mentioned here – impossible!

If up until now you have neglected this area of your Web Program, watch for my next post that will cover what you need to do to get up to speed!

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