By Trish Andrews

To rank well in any search engine, the words you write should never be a second thought. They must be your absolute first thought. Give careful attention to the words on your web pages right from the very beginning of planning and designing your website.

Content development experts know the one thing that causes websites to win or lose in the search engines is Words. The words you use and how you use them to create your content is your best asset to naturally market your website in the search engines.

Why is that?

Website content that is "optimized" for the search engines deliberately aims right at the very words and phrases people are typing as search terms as they hunt for information or products.

IT ALL MAKES SENSE

There is nothing mystical about it... it's as black-and-white and sensible as it gets! Readers of web pages need to be immediately assured that the page they land on is what they're after. The page needs to be clear and on point.

It's the same for the major search engines. Just like people, the search engines need to identify right away what a web page is about. They need definite pointers and clues to guide how and where they will list your web page in their reports.

This is done with the use of keywords. Targeting the best words and phrases is done through keyword research. Research digs up the niche words that people really do use; words that have a good demand and low supply! Your website development must begin here, to be a contender for high-ranking pages.

With well-designed, keyword-rich content pages that are linked together using keywords, search engines are more likely to index your web pages on Page One of their listing.

SEO IS A GUIDE, NOT A GIMMICK

Think of writing SEO content not as a ploy or a trick to get better rankings. Think of it as it really should be, and that is simply to help the search engines list your web pages in the best possible way.

Search engine technology is advancing rapidly too. Shallow repetition of keywords throughout the text will become a thing of the past. Search engines will be looking harder and smarter for relevance and meaning to be woven throughout a site's pages.

Why? So they can bring the most accurate and fulfilling web pages back to the searcher. Period. Because without this pinpoint accuracy, advertisers will not reap the benefits of paid advertising. This one trend will motivate webmasters to improve the relevance and resourcefulness of their web content.

PEOPLE DEMAND QUALITY

People will continue to demand refreshing, informative content - which is "who" the content is really and truly for. After all, we only write a web page according to the search engines' demands so people will find it.

It will be no coincidence when someone types a search phrase and your website is either absent from view or is indexed highly on the results page.

It will also be no coincidence that when someone lands on your web page, they either click away from your highly ranked page because the content is worthless, or they stay with you and engage because the content is important and meaningful to them.

Just remember: Don't get "number bound" when you do keyword research. Use common sense in keyword selection. Find the easier words to market, words with a smaller audience. Then let nature take its course to the bigger rankings.

It all happens because the content is built to tell a search engine exactly what it wants to know. What is this page about? All the rest is then for people!

Copyright 2006 Trish Andrews

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