Many site owners have great difficulty in getting the search engines to rank their sites. This is not easy for new sites, especially if the domain name is also new. There are many reasons for low ranking, here are a few:

• Age
• Content
• Linking Building and Link Baiting
• Google Sandbox
• Competition

Age

The search engines are suspicious of new sites and need to be convinced the site is not merely a spam site. Google will quickly block a site, if the site pulls in traffic from AdWords for an advertisement for something completely different. This is very common with adult sites. They setup sites with common keywords like mortgage or insurance and highjack your web surfing and lure you to an adult site. They often used misspelled words of well know web sites to “capture” traffic. There are many spam schemes designed to persuade surfers to visit their sites. When the site has been around for a while and ads for the site match the content, the search engines start trusting the site.

Content

Having good quality, interesting content is vital to generate repeat visitors and customers. However, the traffic has to flow into the site first. Updating the site a least once a week will help get your site noticed in the search engines. Here are a few tips:-

• Regularly update News & Events
• Add new products
• Comparison reviews showing advantage of your products over the competition
• Boost about new sales
• Link to your customers sites
• Write interesting articles about your industry.
• Publish in online magazines AND on your site.

Linking

The most important factor in ranking sites is linking. Both incoming and outgoing links are a very important. Having a great site with good content is only part of the battle. Without good links a site has little chance of achieving high ratings.

Before Google (GOOG) came along in 1998 getting your site listed was simple, just register your site with the search engines and build a nice interesting site. Fine with the early search engines, which were directory based and consisted of a list of sites indexed by different categories, the concept of linking was unknown. Google changed the world of search with the introduction of PageRank™. This is how Google describes PageRank™.

“The heart of our software is PageRank™, a system for ranking web pages developed by our founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. And while we have dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of Google on a daily basis, PageRank continues to play a central role in many of our web search tools”.

Google is very interested to know who thinks you are friend (inbound links) and who are your friends, (outbound links). Inbound links with high PageRank™ with good authority are worth more than links from lower ranking sites.

Google Sandbox

The Google sandbox effect, where new sites are placed in quarantine for a period of time can be very frustrating for new sites who have invested a lot of time and money in building a site with great content. As explained above age of a site is one of the factors used in the search engine equation. Therefore if you are building a new site, either buy an existing domain name or decide on a new domain name and put up a skeleton home page up on as soon as possible. Then continue to building the rest of the site.

Competition

Unless you are introducing a complete new product or service with little or no competition, there will be many companies who already have established web sites and have good ratings with the search engines. You need a lot of patience and time. It will take at least several months before the site begins to show and maybe a year before your reach the first page!

Before analyzing the process of how to build links, here are a few tips and ideas which will help drive traffic to your site.

1) Add a couple of interesting sites or blogs to your blogroll. The search engines like sites that have good friends. If your friends have high ratings and are willing to link back to you, even better. Don’t forget to link to sites relevant to your business or interest. Google does not like links which are not relevant and yes they do check if the content is compatible. This is a very effective way of networking and should result in increasing your leads and contacts.

2) Read the high ranking blogs in your field and leave comments frequently,

3) Review books you read at sites like Amazon, make sure there is a link back to you site. Select the name of the link with care as the name used will be the same keyword used by the search engines. Do I want to use Shia Leigh or Shwebby. The same review should also be placed on your site. Just be aware that some sites might claim ownership of your review. I suggest writing a short review for Amazon and a full review on your site with a link to the review on Amazon where the visitor can buy the book.

4) Conferences, presentations and trade shows you attend should all be reviewed on your site with a link to the conference or event. Talk about the companies you spoke to, with a link to their web site.

5) Customers and Sales. Many companies do not like to discuss their sales and customers on-line for fear the competition will learn the company’s secrets. However, the more information you can reveal will build confidence and encourage potential customers to “buy” from you. Creating an on-line reputation for quality and integrity is a very important step in step in establishing an on-line business. Do not be afraid to be personal and name employees, particularly when they have done something good like “Bill Jones has developed the greatest idea since sliced bread”.

6) Add photos or video clips they attract more interest than plain text.

7) Contribute top online forums will help attract attention and increase your visibility.

These ideas will help establish your online presence and help you gain a reputation as an expert in your field.

Google
Google stock has taken a plunge in recent months with $70 billion dollars wiped off the stock as reported by Seekingalpha. Although Google Apps are continuing their advance of Google Sites, Web Design For The Masses, I expect to see major advances in the features offered during the coming year.

iPhone
Timesonline and Informationweek report Apple are gearing up to release a 3G version of the iPhone in June. Mr. Jobs has been doing extensive travel lately with expectations of new markets opening for the iPhone in Europe and Asia.

Microsoft bid for Yahoo
A report in Timesonline says Microsoft is planning a hostile takeover of Yahoo’s boardroom.

SEO, Link Building, PPC, Social Media, Affiliate Marketing and Blogging
A useful summary or articles about Beginner and Comprehensive Guides to SEO, Link Building, PPC, Social Media, Affiliate Marketing and Blogging

The single most important factor is a good product. No matter how good your site content, SEO or linking if you do not have a good product your business will fail. It does not matter if you are selling a product, service, information or just plain you. Is it sellable?

The Youtube videos from Blendtec where they blend Golf Balls and Coke Cans was very good advertising. Blendtec made very good use of Web 2.0 with no advertising budget. The videos have been watched by millions of viewers and sales of blenders have increased dramatically.

However, Blendtec have a very good blender.

If like the majority of products yours is no different from many others, you will have to show the potential customers the advantage of buying from you. If not the potential customer will within seconds be looking for an alternative vendor. It could be quality, price or service. Spend time thinking why a customer will want to buy a product from

So, before you start working on getting those high search engine rankings in Google and Yahoo, make sure you have a good product to sell.

Yesterday was a very exciting day for the SEO/PPC community in Israel. The event the first sphinncon held Jerusalem to packed audience, moderated by Barry Schwartz Executive Editor of Search Engine Roundtable & News Editor of Search Engine Land. Barry is also President of RustyBrick, Inc.

There were 3 SEO panels:-

• SEO Panel - Paid Links & Penalties

• PPC Panel - Will the PPC Model Hold Up as Click Prices Rise?

• Social Panel - Should You Social?

Each panel led to a very lively discussion the only problem was not having enough time for all the questions.

I found the SEO Panel - Paid Links & Penalties particularly interesting with an explanation of how Google do their best to discourage paid links. One can argue that Google are only looking out for their own interests, but a person searching the web wants to find good accurate information. Is SEO about “fooling” the search engines just to get a good rating and a lot of visitors to your site? Or is SEO about building long term business and establishing a relationships with buying customers. Most business’s are looking for repeat business and referrals. However, good SEO is a long term time intensive process needed a lot of patience and endurance.

For more details look at Barry’s article on Search Engine Land and Ophir Cohen, for more information and nice links.