I have authored a couple of sites over the years, and I was given some good info awhile back from a guy who does the internet ranking thing.
Try a Google for those guys, and you will net a LOT of links. The whole ranking game is pretty much another internet scheme folks tried to glom onto for profit. But like many things, the market gets flooded with these folks, and it turns into a losers list.
Plus the fact that the strategies that these folks are peddling for profit become obsolete very soon, as the way search engines do business is always evolving.
But there are some things that never change. And some very basic structuring of your website will optimize it for a good web ranking as much as it can be.
I would first suggest getting a list up of all those who beat your ranking, or are close. Take a look at their source codes. Look at how they have their meta tags set up at the top of their page. First thing most of these engines see is your meta tag set-up. And take a sample of their meta keywords, and try to incorporate the top terms from all the sites into your pages keywords. DO NOT use too many key words, as even one character over the limit, and it will be seen as a negative. After you have several of the top terms in your keywords list, include some other entries that would be common misspellings of your top terms. Remembering that too many words will be seen as spam by a bot. And never repeat words (in the list), as that will be seen as spam.
You must even be strategic when listing the meta description of your site, making sure the description contains your top key words.
And put graphics on your pages, and make sure you set them so a go over with a curser will pop up the title of the graphic. Be strategic and use your top key words when placing your graphics.
Even if you don't see these without going over them with the mouse pointer, the search engine sees them embedded in your pages. Don't use the same words in your graphics, as it could also be seen as spam.
One of the most important things to remember is that the engines are usually looking for a comparison between what your META tags say, and the actual content of the site, starting with your home page. Meta tags with lots of information, including your key words, will net you a lower ranking if the content of your site does not match the words you chose to use.
The thing most don't know about is the limit the engines place on the content. I would suggest going to one of those submission site places that offer a free look at the optimization of your page. These sites will often let you know about the word rules and number counts these engines use.
Just an example, I mentioned the limit on key words in your meta tags, and If I am not mistaken, the limit used to be 274 characters, including all characters and spaces.
It is very important to not exceed any of the limits that these search bots look for, as it will do more than anything to hurt your ranking.
Many try tricks to gain ranking, such as placing key word text in the background of their site pages in such a way that you can't actually see them when viewing the site, but they are there. Perhaps the same color font as the background. But, the engine bots see this and will red flag the site as a spam site. Not good.
A little research will net you a bunch of tricks that are acceptable by the bots to use. But I would suggest not taking things to the last character limit, because these rules often change without notice. IMO, search engine bots seem to take on a mind of their own and I feel they are probably evolving themselves, without the input to do so from the bots administrators. But, that is just my theory.
Once you have your site ready, and NOT before, you want to make a very important submission to a very important search engine.
DMOZ.org is a search engine that is run by volunteers. It is thought that without acceptance from this site, top rankings from the major sites will be hard to come by. Not impossible, as the shear number of hits you get could override a search engines criteria, but unless you have a site that gets millions of hits, you pretty much need to stay within the search engines parameters. And do NOT submit to DMOZ until you are confident you have your site ready to present.
I looked at DMOZ and what they had for Amsoil, and there were a total of 5 links listed, including the corp site.
I'm forgetting loads of info on this, but this should at least get you started in understanding how these things work.
And don't worry too much about sponsored links that appear above your top ranking beating you out. A study was done that shows many folks will never click on any sponsored type links, and always opt for the links just below.
Try a Google for those guys, and you will net a LOT of links. The whole ranking game is pretty much another internet scheme folks tried to glom onto for profit. But like many things, the market gets flooded with these folks, and it turns into a losers list.
Plus the fact that the strategies that these folks are peddling for profit become obsolete very soon, as the way search engines do business is always evolving.
But there are some things that never change. And some very basic structuring of your website will optimize it for a good web ranking as much as it can be.
I would first suggest getting a list up of all those who beat your ranking, or are close. Take a look at their source codes. Look at how they have their meta tags set up at the top of their page. First thing most of these engines see is your meta tag set-up. And take a sample of their meta keywords, and try to incorporate the top terms from all the sites into your pages keywords. DO NOT use too many key words, as even one character over the limit, and it will be seen as a negative. After you have several of the top terms in your keywords list, include some other entries that would be common misspellings of your top terms. Remembering that too many words will be seen as spam by a bot. And never repeat words (in the list), as that will be seen as spam.
You must even be strategic when listing the meta description of your site, making sure the description contains your top key words.
And put graphics on your pages, and make sure you set them so a go over with a curser will pop up the title of the graphic. Be strategic and use your top key words when placing your graphics.
Even if you don't see these without going over them with the mouse pointer, the search engine sees them embedded in your pages. Don't use the same words in your graphics, as it could also be seen as spam.
One of the most important things to remember is that the engines are usually looking for a comparison between what your META tags say, and the actual content of the site, starting with your home page. Meta tags with lots of information, including your key words, will net you a lower ranking if the content of your site does not match the words you chose to use.
The thing most don't know about is the limit the engines place on the content. I would suggest going to one of those submission site places that offer a free look at the optimization of your page. These sites will often let you know about the word rules and number counts these engines use.
Just an example, I mentioned the limit on key words in your meta tags, and If I am not mistaken, the limit used to be 274 characters, including all characters and spaces.
It is very important to not exceed any of the limits that these search bots look for, as it will do more than anything to hurt your ranking.
Many try tricks to gain ranking, such as placing key word text in the background of their site pages in such a way that you can't actually see them when viewing the site, but they are there. Perhaps the same color font as the background. But, the engine bots see this and will red flag the site as a spam site. Not good.
A little research will net you a bunch of tricks that are acceptable by the bots to use. But I would suggest not taking things to the last character limit, because these rules often change without notice. IMO, search engine bots seem to take on a mind of their own and I feel they are probably evolving themselves, without the input to do so from the bots administrators. But, that is just my theory.
Once you have your site ready, and NOT before, you want to make a very important submission to a very important search engine.
DMOZ.org is a search engine that is run by volunteers. It is thought that without acceptance from this site, top rankings from the major sites will be hard to come by. Not impossible, as the shear number of hits you get could override a search engines criteria, but unless you have a site that gets millions of hits, you pretty much need to stay within the search engines parameters. And do NOT submit to DMOZ until you are confident you have your site ready to present.
I looked at DMOZ and what they had for Amsoil, and there were a total of 5 links listed, including the corp site.
I'm forgetting loads of info on this, but this should at least get you started in understanding how these things work.
And don't worry too much about sponsored links that appear above your top ranking beating you out. A study was done that shows many folks will never click on any sponsored type links, and always opt for the links just below.
