Ranking your website highly on one of the "big three" search engines (Google,
Yahoo or MSN) is a daunting task let alone ranking your website highly on all
three. Three engines, three
algorithms, three different sets of rules - and yet there are websites out there
that have first page rankings across them all – how do they do it?
While all of the major search engines use different algorithms, the end goal of
all three is the same: to provide the searcher with the most relevant results
available. It is this one common
thread that makes it possible for an SEO to rank a website highly across all the
major engines. While there are a variety of factors at play and an even wider
variation in the weight
each of these factors are given – the possible variations that can produce
relevant results are limited.
For example, if inbound links are given 0% weight then insignificant sites will
rank highly for high-competition phrases. Many reputable companies such as
Microsoft could lose
rankings for their own names so links must and will always hold value. On the
other hand, if links were to hold 100% weight then sp@mming the search engines
would be a simple matter and so
there are a limited number of possible variables in between these extremes that
this factor can have, no matter which engine we are optimizing for.
That said, there are still three main engines with three distinct algorithms
despite common requirements. To clarify how to optimize for all of them it's
easiest to discuss them
individually first. Due to the way their algorithms work, it is best to expect
rankings on MSN first, followed by Yahoo! and finally Google (I am assuming that
the phrase is at least
moderately competitive). For this reason, we will discuss them individually in
that order.
SEO for MSN
Proper SEO for MSN requires that a site be structured well with a distinct theme
throughout and many inbound links. The advantage an SEO has while optimizing a
site for MSN is that MSN
tends to pick up and credit new content and inbound links very quickly. That
means that with the right tactics in place, one can rank a website relatively
quickly on this important engine.
While MSN has the lowest number of searches performed on it, ComScore's report
back in July revealed that MSN searchers were also 48% more likely to purchase a
product or service online
than the average Internet user. A very important statistic for website owners
that sell online.
To rank highly on MSN one needs to build a solid sized site (exactly how large
will depend on your industry – look at the size of your competitors' sites for
an idea), a relevant theme
throughout the site that focuses on your primary keywords and a good number of
links. MSN doesn't (at this time) employ an aging delay on links such as the one
employed by both Google and
Yahoo! so the effects of the site and inbound links can be picked up very
quickly and with good SEO efforts one can rank well within a few months on MSN
for competitive phrases.
SEO for Yahoo!
Until recently Yahoo! acted very much like MSN, but now it's leaning a bit more
towards Google. Ranking a website well on Yahoo! requires a solid-sized site
with unique content and a
very good number of links.
While PageRank is a Google factor, Yahoo! does have some type of page value
factor at play. Many moons ago Yahoo! was playing with a PageRank-like
calculation called WebRank. They even went
so far as to put out a beta toolbar testing it. This indicates that there is a
factor at play in the Yahoo! algorithm similar to Google's PageRank – they just
don't advertise what a specific
page's value is.
Yahoo! is placing a fair amount of emphasis on the age of links though not in
the same way that Google is. We will get to Google shortly, however to
understand what to expect from Yahoo!
one must understand that when you get a link to your website it won't deliver
its full value for a number of months. While the exact number of months in
unknown, it appears to be around 8
before it delivers its full weight, though it will hold some weight from day one
and this weight will increase as time passes.
To rank well on Yahoo!, you must optimize your site similar to what you would do
for MSN and you must build a large number of inbound links and have patience as
these links age. You will
not see a sudden spike 2 weeks after a large link-building campaign. You will
likely have to wait 3-4 months to notice any significant effect.
SEO For Google
Virtually every webmaster and website owner is primarily concerned about
attaining Google rankings because of the significantly higher number of
searchers using it. Provided
that you are building your website following the best practices of SEO (i.e.
unique content, a sizable amount of content, and a good number of incoming
links), then your rankings are sure to
follow. However, because of the aging delay it will likely take longer than for
MSN or Yahoo! Google considers the age of your links, your domain and even the
individual page to be factors,
and the longer your page has been online the better.
Essentially, ranking a site on Google requires that you take the same actions as
for the other two, continue your link building efforts on an ongoing basis to
ensure that you end up with
more-and-more links, and that you update your content and add content on a
fairly regular basis (through the addition of a blog for example).
Tying It Together
The logical process for a new website or one at the first stages of SEO is to
first target MSN. At this point, you can focus your attention on continuing to
build high-quality, relevant links to,
and content on, your site which will continue to increase your value on Yahoo!
and Google.
Analysis will be required to determine exactly what weight you will be giving to
different areas. For example, if your onsite factors are optimized for MSN, then
you know that you will need
to make up for this in the offsite factors for Yahoo! and Google. If you figured
you would need 100 links to rank on Google, then you will now need to up that
number to account for
the fact that you have optimized your site for a different engine.
During the analysis process you will likely want to use a tool to speed up the
process of keyword density analysis and competitor link analysis. At Beanstalk
we use a tool called
Total Optimizer Pro (http://www.totaloptimizer.com/) though there are others out
there (note: I have yet to find one that does what this one does as quickly and
easily).
Conclusion
I am hoping that none of you read the title and were expecting to rank on the
first page of all three major engines next week. Ranking highly on all three
major engines takes time, patience
and a good few rounds of tweaking to get the perfect balance of onsite and
offsite optimization. Of course, as you can gather, done properly it's well
worth the effort.
About the Author
Dave Davies is the CEO of Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning, Inc. (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/).
Dave writes with years of expreience in SEO and optimization tactics. Watch
Beanstalk's
SEO news blog (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/blog/) for details on the
publication of a 4-part series on ranking your website highly accross the "big
three engines" in January of 2006. Dave
would like to thank TopNet Solutions for the development of Total Optimizer Pro
(http://www.totaloptimizer.com/) - a comprehensive SEO tool that provides a
blueprint of how the top 10 got there, so you can too.
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Keywords and Phrase people use to look for your goods and/or services. We
have the tools to determine what those words are by actually looking at what
people used.
We will tailor your website to rank higher in any search engine, but we
specialize in the biggest engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Our
Client's smile as they watch their website raise in search engine rankings
for the Keywords and Phrases that drive business to their virtual door!
the
Internet the work we have done to optimize your website for
the
best keywords and phrases in your market area will ensure they will find you
regardless whether they are using Google, Yahoo, MSN or any search engine! 