Higher Search Engine Ranking:
What's the Problem?

If you have a great product or service to sell, and you've done everything you can to make sure that product is attractive to the customer and that your service is excellent, but you still haven't seen the results you were hoping for, I have two words to say to you--search engines! If you're not pleasing the search engines, no matter how hard you work, you won't achieve any measurable success on the Web.

The secret to success in any kind of business that is Web based is higher search engine ranking. Without it, you are a non-starter in the online race. Higher search engine ranking is a preoccupation for every business on the Internet because it can bring untold wealth almost overnight to those who get it right.

How Not to Get a Higher Search Engine Ranking:

So how do you achieve higher search engine ranking? To begin with, it's very important to pay attention to what you shouldn't do. If you offend a search engine it could take you a long time and lots of money to put things right. The first rule is always make your page content relevant and interesting, and don't spam. Spamming is when you use a word over and over again in the hope of getting more attention from the search engines. You'll get attention alright; if a search engine thinks you've been spamming, it'll ban you. Don't plagiarize either. Stealing content from other sites will also get you banned. It just isn't worth it.

Never, ever use irrelevant keywords in the hope of drawing extra traffic. Not only is this a waste of time because those visiting your site will be looking for something else, but you'll make the search engines very mad indeed. This is definitely not a good way to achieve a higher search engine ranking. Some people, in their desperation to get a higher search engine ranking resort to getting a higher keyword count by putting white text on their page (so it can't be seen by the eye against a white background, but will be counted by the search engines). This is also guaranteed to get you banned; don't do it.
by Patricia Skinner