Why doesn't my web site rank well in search engine positioning?

There are a number of reasons why a web site does not have a good search engine ranking:

1. Not configuring your meta tags (title, keywords, description, etc.) properly.
2. Having a keyword show up to many times in the content of a web page.
3. Lack of or poor use of header tags (<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc.).
4. Little or no links pointing to your web site (link popularity).
5. Not having enough words on the page of your web site.
6. Content of web site does not coincide with your keyword phrases.
7. Missing or misuse of alt tags in your web site.
8. Being banned from search engines by using wrong techniques.
9. Improper keyword density, proximity, and prominence.
10. Web site not submitted to enough directories.
11. Web site not optimized for search engine spiders.
12. Robots.txt file does not allow search engine spiders to 'crawl' site.
13. You are linked to a site that has been penalized/banned.

*Remember!!!  None of these will give you high search engine positioning alone, but the more methods you use the better the chance you will achieve high search engine positioning!

Not configuring your meta tags (title, keywords, description, etc.) properly.

The title meta tag plays a very important role in search engine rankings today in all of the search engines.  You should try to use your main keywords in the title with the proper density, proximity, and prominence.

The keywords meta tag does not play a very important role in search engine positioning today, and Google does not even use it anymore.  But the keywords meta tag should be optimized and included with every page regardless.  Why?  Search engine algorithms change continuously and they may become important some day once again.

The meta description key does not effect how well your web site does in search engine positioning, but is very important on how your web site is described when someone views your listing in some search engines.

Other meta tags to configure for high search engine positioning would be ones that ask search engines to crawl your site and how often.  Some more useful meta tags that give information such as copyright, author, etc. can be used with keyword phrases that you want for that particular web page.

Having a keyword show up to many times in the content of a web page.

If you have a keyword or keyword phrase show up too many times in a web page the search engine spider will read it as spam and penalize or ban your site from the search engine.  So it is very important to have your keyword phrase show up the right number of times in your content according to how many words are on the page.  Our search engine reports can help you with that to help you achieve search engine positioning.

Lack of or poor use of header tags (<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc.).

The header tags play a very important role in search engine positioning today, and we don't foresee that changing in the near future. If you use your keyword phrases well in the header tags that helps in your ranking.  Other things that can help is if your keyword is hyperlinked, in bold, or underlined.  Currently there are no free SEO tools that supply this particular information on the web, but the search engine reports that we supply gives you this information along with all of the information you need.

Little or no links pointing to your web site (link popularity).

Link popularity plays a good role on all of the search engines, but plays a very important role in Google.  That is why it is much more difficult to obtain high search engine positioning in Google.  The number of links pointing to your site is nice, but the quality of those links are VERY IMPORTANT!  I've seen a site with only ten high quality links (with a high PR) do better than a site with a thousand links pointing to it.  The links that point to that help you out are sites that have the same theme or content of your site.  So it is possible to not do well in search engines rankings if you have a lot of non-relevant sites pointing to you.  Choose your links carefully!  Not having enough will hinder your chances, and having to many from non-relevant sites will hinder your chances of achieving high search engine positioning.

Not having enough words on the page of your web site.

Depending upon the search engine, not having enough words on a page of your web site will harm your search engine positioning as well.  Some search engines require at least 250 words per page while others require at least 500 to do well.  Since search engines change their algorithm so frequently it is hard to know the right number of words to use.  As a rule of thumb provide a good chunk of great relevant content that is based on your keyword phrases.  If you would like a detailed analysis on how a particular search engine views your page for content and give you optimization advice, send a url of the web page you want examined along with the search engine you would like to optimize it for and up to three keyword phrases you use.

Content of web site does not coincide with your keyword phrases.

As described above in Not having enough words on the page of your web site. if the content of your web page or site does not coincide with your keyword phrase the search engines will deem the page or web site as not valuable and lower your rank accordingly.  So it is very important to provide valuable rich content on what you are trying to reach high search engine ranking for.  At the web site www.theinternetpresence.com there is a lot of content talking about how to install and faq's of SSL certificates that brings in at least 100 visitors a month through Google.  That tells you that having rich content is very good for Google search engine positioning.

Missing or misuse of alt tags in your web site.

Do you know the little message that appears when you move your mouse pointer over a picture?  That appears because of an alt tag.  Currently alt tags play a good role in search engine positioning, and if you don't use them you can be doing a lot of harm to your site.  Put your keywords into every alt tag, even the ones that don't show up on the web, and you can improve your ranking.  Remember not to abuse this or it may end up harming you.

Being banned from search engines by using wrong techniques.

You can get banned from the search engines for a variety of reasons:

• Repeated keywords not in a structured sentence.
• Hidden keywords the same color as the background of the page.
• Tiny text that is to small to read.
• Linking to a blacklisted web site that spammed.
• Using 'doorway' pages incorrectly.
• Linking to many non-relevant sites
• Etc.

Improper keyword density, proximity, and prominence.

If you don't know how to place your keywords right on your web page, someone else is sure to do it better.  The best way is to compare the top three sites on the search engine and note the similarities they used to get to the top and do one better.  You can get a search engine rankings report from us that will analyze your competition to show you exactly how they used their keywords to get to the top.

Web site not submitted to enough directories.

Submitting to the right directories helps give you a good linking strategy going.  Currently the top to directories to submit to are Yahoo! and DMOZ.  Yahoo! costs $299 a year and DMOZ is free, but takes a long time to get listed.  There are articles out there that show you how to get listed in DMOZ.

Web site not optimized for search engine spiders.

If you have your web site set up properly with the right keywords at the right places it still may not look good to search engine spiders.  Why?  If you use flash, frames, or tables the wrong way it will change the order or hide the way a search engine spider looks at your site.  So careful crafting of your web site is essential to make it look good to web viewers AND search engines.  Do this by minimized flash movies, not using frames unless necessary, and being careful using tables.

Robots.txt file does not allow search engine spiders to 'crawl' site.

You may have a robots.txt file in the root directory of your web site to deter spamming spiders, but is it also deterring search engine spiders?  If you have a robots.txt file make sure it is turning away only the harmful spiders.

You are linked to a site that has been penalized/banned.

You could have your site in perfect condition, built the right way, keyword phrases distributed perfectly, submitted to the right directories, etc. and still be banned from search engines.  How?  By having a link on your web site pointing to a site that has been banned from the search engines.  In some search engines they ban all of the sites pointing to a banned web site as well.  SO BE VERY CAREFUL WHO YOU LINK TO!

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