Search Engine Ranking Begins With Relevant Content

By: Andy Hodges
03/24/2009 06:24 PM ET

People often ask the question “How to build a website” but also it “for maximum SEO traffic” from the very start. It doesn’t happen overnight, and if there was a shortcut, I would be honored to share that information. However, building a successful website takes patience and can be very tedious at times.

A domain name does not have to include keywords. For example, Google and Yahoo is unique but do contain keywords as sub-domains, or directories.

A friend of mine got all excited when he purchased a domain which matched a high traffic keyword. While at work, he was excited and thought this was going to lead him into immediate wealth. He would work on his website every day, mostly during the evenings, while his wife cooked dinner and served it next to him.

Within two months, he lost all willpower and gave up. He called me and asked if I could be of any help to building a website for maximum SEO (Search Engine Optimization) traffic. I felt sorry for the guy since he spent most evenings and weekends working on something that showed promise.

It’s a pattern that happens to many, if this does sound familiar, then don’t feel bad as there are other people going through the same thing. There’s nothing wrong of dreaming of wealth, after all, it is in our nature to survive and be rich. Furthermore, yes you can become rich from Internet website traffic.

At the time I evaluated my friend’s website, I learned that he was too focused on content surrounding the domain. Remember, he purchased the website domain because it was an exact match of a popular keyword used. Unfortunately, other sites were ranking above his and did not have a domain similar to the keyword phrase.

Search Engine Ranking might seem complicated, but it’s not so difficult to achieve.

Search Engine Ranking technics are everywhere on the Web. The first thing a Webmaster needs to do is stay away from information that’s supposed to give you a higher ranking. Search engines, including Google, look for relevent content so they can refer their users to Web sites.

Building a website for maximum Internet traffic is one of the most competitive tasks in the search engine market. You must think about the content you want to write, then find the keyword. Don’t try to find keywords first as that will place the buggy before the horse.

When it comes to content, you must create your own. Building content will take time, but you will be rewarded in the long run. Whatever you do, do not copy content from another website just for building.

It is not only bad for search engine rankings, but it is illegal to copy content or redistribute without permission. The search engines will know this, and no, it doesn’t matter how you try and edit the content, they will know. There are no shortcuts and you must be honest with yourself and your site if you want to be successful.

Keywords do not have to be included in the primary domain. Use sub-domain links to help identify relevent content.

Keywords as domain names are so 1990s. Search engines don’t require a domain name to be the exact match anymore. For example, if you opened a pizza restaurant, would you call your restaurant “Pizza Restaurant?”

Moreover, there are local pizza restaurants found on the Internet, but they don’t call themselves “A Pizza Restaurant”, instead, they are listed under a directory. A directory listing can help you with traffic, however, don’t try to go after a domain name because it matches a popular keyword. You will drive yourself crazy.

What makes a page rank on the search engines are the HTML tags, and sometimes, the name of the sub folder. For example, you could have a website like “MyPopularWebsite.com/pizza-resturant”, and it will do just as well as a “pizzaresturant.com” as long as you use the proper HTML tags.

Always use proper HTML tags when building new pages. Most Webmasters don’t make use of these header and description tags which can help with search optimization. The tags are there for a reason.

HTML tags are important when building the site because it better describes your content. You will want to use the TITLE, META DESCRIPTION, H1, H2, and use H3 for links. Your images must also contain descriptive text explaining what it is. This tag is the ALT=”My image title” within the IMG SRC tag and it’s always a good idea to name your images based on the topic you’re writing about.

If you follow these primary guidelines, you will achieve a website with maximum traffic. When thinking of a website, ask yourself, “What content would I enjoy writing about?” That is the first step before purchasing a new domain name. If you have to enjoy the work you do for the website because it will draw visitors.