5 Effective SEO Strategies for Top 10 Placement

By Jeffrey L. Smith

Get the inside track on how to achieve top 10 results for highly competitive keywords in Google. You know your own website better than anyone, but knowing the best way to optimize it for search engines is crucial for creating a thriving online presence. By mastering any of the methods outlined below, landing your pages in the top 10 search results will become as common as sending an email.

1. Fresh Website Content

Fresh content is one of the most effective ranking strategies one can employ for their website. There is a component to Google's search engine algorithm that evaluates how frequently website content is updated. Websites that provide useful content are granted trust rank and true authority (which is pure ranking power) and as opposed to page rank. A site that refreshes their content more frequently is an open invitation for web bots and hungry spiders to feast on the pages like the Klump’s at an all-you-can-eat-buffet. All joking aside, as a result, over time, the website will gain trust as an authority and rank competitively for multiple search terms. When you see a query returned in search engines with two pages from the same URL, that is a pure example of effective keyword optimization.

With constant shifts in algorithms daily, make sure your website is not overlooked during the next adjustment simply because the site failed to offer fresh content on a frequent basis. Great rankings are calculated by the hour, what may have taken weeks or months to accomplish could easily be undone by a cunning aggressive link building campaign from an SEO company or blogger from the dark side. The point I am making is, if you are fortunate to make a dent in a high volume keyword and start to gain traction from it, make sure you defend it by utilizing a few of the following tips.

2. Article Marketing

Writing articles is great way to gain free press, back links for your website or generate a media buzz for your products or services. Make sure you pitch is newsworthy and keep the word density for your keywords respectful to the reader in the spam free zone (5-7% of the total volume of words). An article with a succinct plot and punchy conclusion can do more than trigger the spiders, it can shed new light and traffic on your website and turn your traffic analytics program inside out from colossal surges if done correctly.

The title like anything else should be compelling and inviting while encouraging the reader to investigate your proposition further. In addition the title can also be used for SEO. To do so, simply use 2-3 keywords in the title of the article. This gains instant recognition from search engines when they index the article and directly translates into ranking power if you include a link to your site. Use references when applicable and keep them on topic, but the true focus is to embed your bio in the about us section and generate quality traffic, back links and visitors to your website.

3. Deep Links from Directories

Although the emphasis is now shifting from the sway that directories once had on ranking, there are still some good ones out there. Fresh links augmented by high page rank directories that allow deep linking allow you to put your top keywords to work on your behalf 24/7. One of my favorites is Octopedia, which allows up to 8 deep links for your URL. Others I recommend are Yahoo Directory for $299 annually. Yahoo can provide instant search engine trust and over 50-70 quality inbound links in some instances. Best of the web with thousands of footprints throughout the internet one link from a few of these directories is still a great value for the money.

4. Contextual On-Topic Blogs

One of the hottest things on the web right now is business blogging or contextual advertising. Essentially when you find a hot blog with tons of dedicated traffic that is related to your field or industry and write a world class blog that gains recognition from the piers in that field. Getting a track back or a endorsement from an industry leader is one of the fastest way to make a lasting impression on search engines, who will see the link almost instantaneously to your site from theirs, as well as the dedicated audience who will seek you out to to see if your writing passed the muster.

There are various forms of blog marketing, this is only the tip of the iceberg, but the true contribution that blogging has created for webmasters and creative types alike is the ability to publish your content in a non intrusive fashion while having complete control of the backlinks that point to your most precious / related pages.

This by far is one of the most guarded secrets in SEO, the ability to use keywords and anchor text in conjunction with a content development strategy to achieve high rankings in search engines.

5. Attaining Trust Rank

Perform the above steps over time (3-6 months) consistently and you will have established trust rank. This expedites the indexing time in search engines. What once may have required weeks or months waiting for spiders to revisit your site can happen within minutes or virtually hours from the time you make a change.

Rankings occur when the search engines index your pages, so the ability to update and reflecting new keywords in Google, Yahoo or MSN several times a week, as opposed to once a month provides even more opportunities for you to outrank your competition.

In any case all of these strategies revolve around one basic premise, content, so what are you waiting for. Get those keyboards clicking and have fun as your words translate into search engine visibility once authority and trust rank catch on to your copy, that is, if it’s the real deal.

Jeffrey L. Smith is an seasoned search engine optimization strategist and founder of Seo Design Solutions http://www.seodesignsolutions.com  Seo Web Design Company in Chicago. Jeffrey has been involved in internet marketing since 1995 and brings fresh optimization methods and solutions for businesses seeking long-tail organic search engine placement.