Gone are the days when a website owner could 'fool' search engines by making a webpage with a keyword repeated over it 10 billion times. Gone are the days of thinking a site will rank well by having hundreds of software-generated links stuffed into it. The search engines have gotten smart, and we are greeting the arrival of intuitive search engine technology with a smile because it will begin weeding out bologna websites which once dominated the search engines via gimmicks rather than good content.

Our work in the field of web design is showing a rising trend in the number of web site owners who are getting it that the success of their web business or organization depends largely on their search engine rankings. Top rankings = top traffic = top profits. It's like the mantra brick-and-mortar shopkeepers have always repeated, "Location, location, location." So, more and more, we are being approached by savvy folks who say, "I want a top 10 Google Ranking." We're glad to see people understanding this. But then we review their websites and that sinking feeling sets in...

The horrors that we see include flash graphics that make us want to hide under our desks, javascript menus, menus that move, menus that are located in 10 different locations, huge images, splash pages, background music, and a total lack of decent, relevant, useful content. For an example of a really hideous website, please read our article, Bad Website vs. Good Website. Now, if the potential client designed the site themselves, we don't blame them one bit. They aren't a professional web designer. After all, we don't know how to build a house, fill a cavity or groom horses! Where we start to get angry is when we review a site that has obviously been built by a 'professional web designer' who recently graduated from the SCHOOL OF REALLY OBNOXIOUS AND USELESS FLASH GRAPHICS, and who has obviously charged the luckless website owner a heap of money for the monster they have created which is driving away any potential business for the client. Invariably, the expensive site is absolutely nowhere in the search engines. And the unhappy web site owner is out whatever investment they made. We have seen this happen again and again to trusting, nice people and sometimes, we have seen them blow their tops when they realize how they were sold an idea that isn't working for them. If you find yourself in this crowd, we really sympathize, and want to help you catch your breath and get yourself out of this mess. It can be done.

Similarly, we are nearly reduced to pointing fingers and calling names when we see businesses being approached by so-called "SEO Experts" who are going to charge some kind of monthly fee for improving your search engine rankings, only nothing ever happens. Yet, they keep taking your money! And, watch out if you try to break your contract with these guys. They can get really nasty. These types of things are scams, and most on-line businesses will be approached by SEO companies at some point. Recently, we did a terrific redesign for a neat cottage industry and were rubbing our hands happily, waiting for their good rankings to show up in Google, as is the case with our clients. But then, nothing happened. We said, "????". And then we found out that the owner had been approached by an SEO company a week or two after we built his site, and that this company had gone in, ripped our beautiful clean code apart, and plastered all of his pages with unnatural repetitive keywords. Google subsequently turned up their noses when they indexed the redesign, and we have been crying a lot since. Not only this, but these unscrupulous SEO experts got ahold of the business owner's credit card number and keep charging him every month for completely messing up his website. The moral of this story is, DON'T HIRE AN SEO EXPERT. Hire a web designer who builds your website BASED ON SEO PROTOCOLS. There are a few of us out there. We hope. It isn't just us...right?

So, let's get back to the topic of how to get Top 10 Google rankings. This is what you want. But then, so does everybody. So, how do you beat out your competition? Well, first of all, by avoiding all of the above disasters, and secondly, by having your site designed or redesigned by a web designer who knows exactly what all of the following 8 things are about and why they are vital to the success of your web business:

Title Tags
Header Tags
Meta Tags
Alt Tags
Straight HTML Handcoding
HTML Navigation Menu
Reciprocal linking
Rich, keyword-focused text content

If the designer you consider working with cannot describe, in detail, why the above things are essential, and give samples of having incorporated all of these elements into other projects he or she has completed, don't work with them. If they make a mystery of how they will build you an effective website incorporating ALL of these things, run away! If you don't know whether the answers they give you to your questions about the above list are the right answers, feel free to e-mail us at info@solaswebdesign.net and we'll show you what we do, and we won't make a mystery of it.

The next thing we want to focus on in regards to outshining your competition is the actual content of your website. If yours is an e-commerce business, and you sell vases, having nothing but photos and prices on your website will result in a content-poor environment, and the search engines will shrug at you. You don't want Google shrugging at you, ever. Rather, you want to impress them with the time you have devoted to making your vase business not only a great place to buy vases, but also a great place for the Internet public to read about vases. So, if you are selling a Murano Glass Bud Vase, why not include an article about the history of Murano Glass, the history of bud vases, ten great things to do with bud vases, a story about the artisan who makes your vases, etc. Be creative. Develop good, descriptive writing skills, and give plenty of information on each page about your products. This will enable you to outshine anybody who just lists products and prices. Remember - gone are the days of trickable search engines. The folks at Google want quality text content.

If you're not a great writer, or if you feel concerned about your ability to write good, keyword-focused web content, any good web designer should be willing to do the writing for you at an hourly fee, or as part of the total project cost. At Solas Web Design, we have written many hundreds of articles on just about any topic you can think of. We carefully research the subject and come up with something that is both keyword-oriented and also, of interest to the public.

Where we find ourselves getting a little tongue tied is when we are approached by folks who want top Google rankings, but are so invested in the non-functional website they had built by somebody else, they aren't willing to let us remove their fancy graphics, or change their image text navigation to real HTML text. We can't help people like this. We can get results by doing what we know works, but we can only accomplish this once the web site owner has decided that the purpose of their site is to make profits, not to entertain people with animations, or wow people because it looks 'cool'. Better an ugly site that wins customers than a high-tech site that never gets seen and never earns a dime. But, the good thing is, your website doesn't have to be ugly. You can pick your color palette, include some nice, static photoshop images, create a good mood. But what we are trying to educate web business owners about is that the purpose of their website is to meet the needs of potential customers, not to impress them by how much money they paid for a flash animator. The only exceptions we can think of to this rule are websites selling flash graphics, gaming sites and fluff sites for groups whose reputations depend on having some kind of avant-garde image. We don't worry about things like this, because these sites are not about filling needs or earning profits. To put it bluntly, if you want to make money, function is your #1 priority - not special effects.

Think about Amazon.com. That's a pretty plain website. White background, small graphics and literally millions of pages of text content. No wonder they've made such a name for themselves. No one is buying from them because they have a 'cool' image. People are buying from them because they can find what they want in about one click, and the prices are right. This is a good guideline for any web business or organization.

But now let's think about Amazon.com from a different angle. As we're sure you're aware, they have cornered the market in book sales on the Internet. Can you outshine them? Probably not. Can you hire an SEO expert to make your site outrank theirs? Nope. And this brings us to our lecture on the Age of Specialization. This is a term coined to describe the status of the economy and society in the European Renaissance after the black plague of the middle ages. Because of the colossal population decrease, coupled with better agricultural techniques, more people had more time to devote themselves to becoming skilled in a particular field. Rather than being peasant workhorse jacks-of-all-trades, individuals could become potters, carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, etc. At Solas Web Design, we are beginning to be convinced of the benefits of applying this mindset to the Internet Marketplace. This comes into play when deciding whether to focus on Broad Keywords vs. Refined Keywords.

If you go to Google and type in 'books', guess who comes up #1? You guessed it - Amazon. Unless you've got an inventory that blows theirs away, there is no conceivable way for you to outrank them for this broad keyword. However, go back to Google and type in 'used books'. Aha! The #1 listing is a neat little company called ABE Books. They specialize in used books, rare books and some new books, too. They are winning for this more refined keyword 'used books'. Now, Amazon does carry used books, but Google is giving preference to this smaller company, because used books is what they specialize in. So, ask yourself, what does my company specialize in? If you sell shoes, well, so do thousands of other Internet businesses all over the globe. But, if you specialize in handmade orthopedic shoes, then you've just discovered your answer to how to make money on the Internet. Don't shoot for being in the top 10 of Google, Yahoo or MSN for 'shoes'. Get onto that first page for a specific, special product that you carry, and that you are offering at a good price.

This method is especially effective for those businesses which are offering goods and services in their local location. A well-designed, search engine friendly website will get you ranking at the top if that list of eight vital things are focused on "Marin County Pet Grooming", as opposed to just "Pet Grooming". This is a really important notion for business owners to take hold of. Because of this, if you own a brick-and-mortar store which sells many different kinds of things, you may find it more effective to start out focusing your website on just a few of things you carry. For instance, if your business is your local community's supplier of home decor items, but one of the neatest things you sell is ceramic clocks, you may want to launch the Internet side of your business with a website that sells ceramic clocks. There are just too many companies out there already selling many of the products you carry, and unless you are willing to sell at a huge loss, business will be slim. But, if you can get your site ranking well for ceramic clocks, and you start earning profits, you can start expanding your on-line inventory to see how other items sell. Something to think about when making your business plan.

But whatever business you are in, we want to reiterate that the key to achieving top search engine rankings is totally dependent on meeting that 8 item criteria. If you don't know how to do this yourself (and chances are, it's not what you're trained in) you can hire a web designer to get this going for you. What sets us apart from much of what's out there is the fact that we are a small firm of actual people. We are not a corporation, and our clients value speaking to us over the phone, as opposed to being fed through a production line of automated voice systems, online help desks and tech support crews who are frustrating to communicate with because, unfortunately, they don't speak English very well.

One last item we want to mention before signing off on today's informative article is about money. We'll be blunt here. Having an effective web business created for you is going to cost money. A reasonable budget must be set aside for this when you are either starting your business, or contacting a designer to rescue a site which is not ranking well in the search engines. Think about it - if you were going to open a physical store, hiring a kid to construct the building for $60 would result in the ceiling falling down on your head, sooner or later. A web designer is your company's construction crew. They are building your entire shop for you. It makes sense that this will require an investment, and the adage remains true here that you get what you pay for. (Well, with the exception of handing a Flash designer $5000 to build your website in which case you'll get nothing that you paid for). It's very important that you view whatever web designer you work with as the person who is going to get your web presence off the ground for you. That's a role of tremendous responsibility and deserves fair and decent compensation. Without their skills, your site will be nowhere. You won't have a business. Always ask any designer you consider working with the following two questions:

1) Where do your clients rank on Google? Show me.
2) Can I contact your clients to ask how they like working with you?

By developing a long term relationship with your web designer, you will save yourself the headaches and heartaches of being all on your own when a build-it-yourself web template fails to bring results, or when the design corporation you're paying $100 a month won't return your messages about the fact that your website isn't ranking anywhere in the search engines. An ethical, competent web designer will tell you they're with you for the duration, and they will remain available to you for the long term hard work of gaining and maintaining top Google rankings.

Solas Web Design offers a complimentary website review to any interested party. Send us your URL, tell us what problems you're having and what your goals are for your Internet presence. We'd like to work with you!

Solas Web Design is now visiting eBay store boards, giving advice to store owners who are new to the world of Internet Marketplace e-commerce. We're answering many SEO and web related questions, so if you're a member, please feel free to ask questions, and stop by our Me Page where we discuss both eBay stores and the valiant efforts that go into achieving Top Ten Google Rankings.

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