Chasing The Search Engines' Algorithms... Should You Or Shouldn't You?

It's a common occurrence. SEOs often spend countless hours trying to "break" a search engine's algorithm.

"If I could just crack Google's algo, my pages would soar to the top of the rankings!"

Let's look at some flaws in this way of thinking.

1. Picture the Google engineers and tech folks turning the algo dial as soon as you "think" you have "cracked" thealgo. Your rankings may fall, and you would have to figure out what's working with the engine right now.In other words, your rankings may never be long term.

2. Instead of spending all of this time trying to impress a search engine with a perfect page, why notimpress your true target audience . . . your customers. Has Google, MSN, or Yahoo! Search ever boughtanything from you? They're not your target audience. Your customers are your target audience. Write yourpages and content for them.

3. When you expend so much of your energy chasing algorithms, you often focus on only a few elementsthat influence ranking  those elements that are working right now and that you hope will give yourpages the best chance for success. It is said that Google has over 100 ranking elements that influenceranking and relevancy. Some are more important than others. But focusing on just one or two "main" elementsand discounting the rest can prove disastrous to a Web site.

A different approach . . .

Wouldn't you rather achieve top rankings and keep them there, and have those rankings equate to salesand money in your back pocket?

After all, isn't it ultimately the sales you're after, as opposed to just the rankings? If those rankingsdon't equate to traffic that equates to sales, you lose, any way you look at it.

Five Basic Steps for Achieving Top Rankings without Chasing Algorithms

1. Forget about the search engines. Yes, you heard me correctly. The search engines aren't and neverwill be your "ideal target audience." They don't buy your goods and services. They're not who you shouldbe trying to please with your Web pages and site. Instead, write your Web page content for your targetaudience.

2. Don't ever forget the basics. No matter what's happening in the algorithms, continue using your mainkeyword phrase prominently in your title tag, META description and keyword tags, link text, body, headingtags, and so forth. That way, when the algo dial is turned, you won't have to make changes to all ofyour pages. You'll always be ready.

3. Focus your keyword-containing tags and body text on one keyword phrase only. Each page should be focusedon one keyword phrase, and each page should have its own unique tags.

4. Write well-crafted content for your Web pages, and add new content on a regular basis. If contentis king, context is queen. Focus on your keyword phrase, synonyms and related words, and surroundingtext. Use a program like ThemeMaster if you need help determining those supporting words.

5. Remember that both on-page and off-page factors are important. Don't sacrifice one for the other.On-page factors are your tags, body text, prominence, relevance, etc. Off-page factors are link popularity(quality and number of your inbound links) and link reputation (what those inbound links "say" aboutyour Web page when they link to you).

What about search engine research? Isn't it important?

It's crucial.

Let me give you an example. At the beginning of this year, pages began falling out of Google's index.The forums were alive with speculation and what to do about it.

Through research, we determined this was a compliancy issue. By having compliant code, the search enginespiders are more easily able to spider the content.

The solution? Make sure you use a DOCTYPE tag and an ISO Character Set Statement at the top of everyWeb page.

For example:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.1 Transitional//EN">

<META HTTP-EQUIV=content-type CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-
8859-1">

If you didn't know about the compliancy issues, you could have made changes to your Web pages that didn'tneed to be made, wasted countless hours trying this or that, all to come up dry.

Research helps to make sure you remain on top of what's happening in the search engine industry. It'swhat sets you apart from other SEOs. You make your decisions based on research and facts, versus speculationand theory.

In Conclusion...

"Take it from someone who has been in this business for nine years and studies the algorithms closely- don't chase the algorithms. You say that you have a #2 ranking for a certain keyword phrase that aloneis bringing your site 550 visitors per day? Great. In the time that you have spent gaining that ranking,I have written 285 pages of unique content, obtained 821 links, etc., and collectively I am getting over1,300 visitors per day," says Jerry West of WebMarketingNow.

In other words, by focusing on more than just chasing algorithms, you have the potential of having amuch more successful Web site.

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