HOME - Search
Engine Articles -
Monitoring
Search Engine Positions
by Michael Rasmussen
(C) Michael Rasmussen
All Rights Reserved
http://www.search-engines-revealed.com
Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet
looking for goods or services, the position your website appears in
search results is an important factor. If your URL shows up far down
the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you
increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine position,
it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you
have worked so hard to achieve.
This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search
engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any
marketing campaign. Think of your search engine positions as your
online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance
and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so
you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must
consider your search engines positions.
Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine
campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you
will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on
the lookout for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When
this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage
two, the monitoring and protecting stage.
In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in
your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of
stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the
whole process. It's the long-term changes that you must watch for and
prepare to act on immediately.
Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is
imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at
the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes - many of which
are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking - your position may drop
to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent
this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your
positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top
ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch "the
market" closely.
Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings. When a
search engine changes this formula in any way, it may raise or lower
your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas,
rotating them so that a formula doesn't become overused or outdated.
Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine
position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore,
you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a
search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.
You must also deal with your competition - a crucial factor you must
always be vigilant about. Your competitor's position may suddenly rise,
automatically lowering your position. Or their position may drop,
pushing your position higher. Each month, expect position changes due
to the continual changes that are occurring in your competitor's
position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy to
compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will
also give you vital information about how to improve your website to
increase your position in search results.
Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in
order for your monitoring efforts to be effective. Right now, there are
ten popular search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your
sites. The challenge you face is that these top ten may change from
month to month.
This means that your must not only monitor your search engine
positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of
the search engines you are monitoring. Find out which search engines
people use most frequently every month and be sure to live in the
present! People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and it
takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The search engines
they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old news in the
next few months. You must adjust your list of engines according to the
whims of the Internet users. Check out
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html for a current
list of website favorites.
Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your positions
in all search engines. This is not the same as monthly fluctuations -
this is a neon red warning sign! It could mean a number of different
things.
It all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may indicate
that search engines spiders - those sneaky programs that seek out your
site and rank their positions - have found some type of problem with
your website. If you have recently changed the code, for instance, the
spider may become utterly confused and consequently drop your positions
disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your website when it is down for
adjustments or changes, you may actually disappear from a search engine
index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change its formula,
and suddenly all of your website come up as irrelevant. If that search
engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino effect, causing
all of your position to drop in all search engines.
Some search engines rely on the results from other search engines, and
it is vital that you know which engines these are and keep track of all
the engines they influence. The biggest problem here is that search
engines will sometimes change affiliations, and this can create a major
shift in the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo
decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you must not
only monitor your own positions, but you must keep abreast of seismic
shifts in the landscape of the Internet as a whole.
Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the foundation
bricks of the entire search engine system, and they demand individual
scrutiny in your monitoring efforts. If you have found that a number of
your positions have plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website
has become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders. Or the
competition for that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed
into outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and efficiently
to regain lost ground.
Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs you
time and money on a continual basis. Protect this investment as
diligently as you would your financial portfolio. In the same way,
track your positions from an objective perspective, and monitor your
positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap
rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture - your long-term
marketing campaign.
Michael Rasmussen is a successful Internet Marketing Consultant and
author of many top-selling eBooks. Michael has been marketing online
since the early days and he knows what it takes to make money and
succeed online. Stop by his Web site and subscribe to his Fr*e monthly
newsletter full strategies and techniques for successful web site
promotions that can help YOU!
Go to http://www.search-engines-revealed.com
|
|
Finally
- a step-by-step guide to help you achieve Top Search Engine
Ranking in the major search engines.
Now you can profit
by using same optimization strategies and techniques used by successful
site owners! 100% Guaranteed!
|
|
Click
Here for details
|
|
|
