These days it is getting harder and harder to find people that do not have some sense of awareness of how the internet is run. It has come a long way even in a short period of time. I remember 5 years ago my grandmother thought that the internet was a place you actually went to. I could never understand how she could think this, but most people had an outside view looking in when it came to what the internet was. With this thinking also came the naive way of knowing how a website operated. That way of naive thinking is slowly shrinking over time except when it comes to SEO, search engine optimization. This little service that designers offer is still very new to website owners and because of this there are individuals, and companies, out there that find easy people to take money from, especially in the horse industry.
I received an email the other day from a website company that deals mainly in the Arabian horse breed. They were running a special on search engine optimization for your website. They had these special tools that would get you the highest rankings for your website. And they guaranteed this high ranking. What a bunch of crap this is. I went to their site and there it was, the guarantee again for the highest ranking. Most people in the horse industry have no clue that these types of boasts are a sure way to get your money taken right out of their pocket. Nobody in this world can guarantee you a high ranking in a search engine unless you can give them what really does the job, money. The rest of the job is done the way most jobs are done, hard work.
Any time someone tells you they can guarantee you a good ranking in a search engine, don't listen to them. Yes, there is a chance that your site will get that high ranking, but I can tell you right now that it will come from doing the right things and doing them over time. There are different peices of the puzzle that make up a good ranking in a search engine, and it is never guaranteed. Please be aware of these the next time someone offers to get you a high ranking in a search engine.
1) Content - The world of website design has been confused over time with the world of print media. The original idea behind the internet was for a way to get information passed at a quicker pace. This information was content. These days’ designers are feeding their ego by trying to use as much trendy coding as they can, and pushing the envelope on how pretty the site can look. Know that people still use the internet for a source of information, not to judge a beauty pageant. The same goes for the thinking process of a search engine. They are looking for useful content, and content that is relevant. If your website has none of this, you are guaranteed a low ranking.
2) Title - If you ever run across a search result that has a title that is hard to understand, and you don't see how it is relevant with what you searched for, it is because they don't use good titles. What is a good title? One that is short. One that describes the website and the company that owns the site. If your farm has the name XYZ Farm you might want to do some creative thinking for a title. Why? Because every site will come up before yours that has a title that starts with the letter a-w.
3) Description - Behind each website is code that is used to tell the website how to look and operate. This is for the most part html. The beginning of the is a section called the head. If you go to a website and you right click you can view source. When you do so you will see a <head> and a </head>. Inside of this is some important information for search engine robots. The first is the <description>. If your site does not have this, you might want to talk with your designer to find out why. This description helps search engine robots understand what your site is about, and eventually, let people who do searches that you come up in, know what your site is about.
4) Keywords - In the same <head> you will see keywords. This is another helper for search engine robots that go to websites. These keywords are important in letting robots know what keywords people search for are relevant to your site. Check and see if your site has this.
These are some of the areas that help in getting a good placing in search engines. There are many more that go hand in hand. It all boils down to hard work and keeping at it. Know that there is no such thing as a guaranteed #1 placing in a search engine, but with hard work, over time you can get there or come close. At the important thing to know is that you want the #1 spot in searches that are relevant to what you want. |
