Search Engine Rankings

[I'm no longer updating this page, but you might be interested in my comprehensive article SEO 101, aka "How to get good search engine rankings".]

I was surprised my sites do very well in search engines. Here's how they fared for various searches on March 31, 2002. My sites include michaelbluejay.com, BicycleSafe.com, BicycleAustin.info, and CriticalMassHub.com [defunct].

How did I do this? I certainly didn't try. I rarely put in META descriptions and keywords for my sites, which is what I used to think got good results. There's no META description or keywords for the "How to Fix a Flat Tire on a Bicycle" page, yet it's the #1 match on Google, just a few months after I created the page. Years ago I probably submitted my sites to Google, Dmoz, and Yahoo, and those sites get analyzed by the search engines' robots periodically.

So what's my secret to getting good rankings? Simple: Create pages with good content, and you'll automatically rank well for searches about that content. You may be skeptical, but remember I got my good rankings without consciously trying, just by trying to create sites with really good content.

Once I found that I ranked well, I devoted some study to search engine rankings. I found that professional search engine consultants all confirm my earlier advice: having good content is the most important part of getting good rankings.

I eventually set up shop, offering website design and hosting at discount rates. And on my business site, my website about getting good search rankings is #1 in Google for "good google rankings"!

For the restlessly curious, here are the top search terms people used to get into my main site (michaelbluejay.com) in May 2002. This doesn't include other sites like BicycleAustin.info and a few others.

#reqs: search term -----: ----------- 580: how to buy a house 267: ben folds five 184: austin mini 135: hitler 127: buy a house 111: saving electricity 107: ben folds 89: bluejay 82: porta potty 76: ben folds lyrics 68: batteries 63: ben folds five sheet music 61: austin music 61: ben folds five piano music 60: funny band names 11167: [not listed: 6,938 search terms]

My Web Development Philosophy

(1) Create something not available elsewhere.

I have the only sites in existence (that I know of) about such topics as socially responsible stocks, Austin Co-ops, and Club Whatever. But I didn't create these pages to corner the market, I created them because I wanted to share that information and there was nowhere else to get it. Of course, the fewer competing pages for a given topic, the easier it is to get to the top of the search engines for that topic.

(2) Create something better than what's available elsewhere.

There are other sites about Critical Mass rides, saving electricity, and how to buy a house. I created my sites not to be a copycat but because I thought I could provide a better resource. Things that can make your site better than one that already exists include:

• Making it comprehensive. When you include LOTS of information about a topic, it becomes useful and popular because it's one-stop shopping.
  
  
• Pointing to other resources. If you can't provide all the information, then including an annotated Links section to other resources will STILL make your site a one-stop shopping place. People will visit your site because they know they'll either find what they're looking for or you'll point them in the right direction. But don't include just a plain list of links -- that wastes your readers' time. Instead, include a short description of each site you link to so readers know what they can find on the site BEFORE they go there. (example)
  
  
• Making it easier to use. This includes easy navigation, no pop-up ads, no annoying animated GIFs, no buggy Java applets, etc. (See more of my specific website design tips.)

If you make your site naturally useful in this way, then other sites will naturally link to it. People link to GOOD sites. When you have a lot of links pointing to your site from other quality sites, that's another thing that helps your search engine rankings.