web design
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web design | Improving Search Engine Rank |
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Great Google AlmightyBy now, Google has pretty much become the god of the internet. While in real real estate, the three keys are "location, location, location," virtual real estate has different rules. The virtual landscape is as close to any user as any other site. Just type in the name and you're there. But in order for folks to know your name, you have to be in the search engines. You need good rank. And you need good rank with Google. Why Google? One word. "Market-share." (The one word was hyphenated.) Have a look at http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/2156451. Nielsen ratings show that as of January 2003, Google had the largest portion of search traffic on the web at 29.5%. Next was Yahoo at 28.9%. Then MSN at 27.6%, then AOL at 18.4%. Now, if you're not too busy, open another browser window and try a little experiment. Search for something at Google. Anything. Look at the top 5 (non-sponsored) listings. Then try the same search at Yahoo and AOL. Look familiar? Chances are your results are the exact same, unless Google has recently changed its listings and Yahoo and AOL haven't followed suit yet. In my experience, Yahoo is about 2-3 days behind Google, but that's about it. Where Google goes, Yahoo follows. As does AOL. And others. MSN does not, however. Which means of the top 4 search engines, Google controls results for 76.8% of searches. Now you see why this column is titled so. Google is powered by brilliant minds -- more brilliant than you -- who do little more than try to make Googlebot the most effective spider ever. Don't try to trick it. It's 99% likely that your idea has been thought of before, and that Google has a way of catching it. And Google does punish tricksters -- they can throw your site to the back of the listings at their whim. That said, here are a few of Google's rules (in commandment form), taken from Google's guidelines for webmasters..
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