Typically, there is no way to make a single page rank well with every search engine for every keyword or phrase someone might use. However, you can work to make at least one page in your Web site rank near the top for each engine or a couple of engines. Ideally, you will want one of your pages to be well positioned for each of your primary keywords. This may take some thought on how to set up your pages to acheive the desired results.

Study the rankings of the sites above and below you. Look for patterns. Does the site immediately above have more occurrences of your targeted keyword in the Title tag? Does the site immediately below have fewer total occurrences of the keyword in different element of the HTML than your site?

Are you at least indexed in each spider-driven search engine? Make sure your page design has been optimized for your targeted keywords or phrases, then resumit it. If you submitted recently, make sure you have allowed enough time for the search engines to add you to their database.

Are you at least in the top 30 position for your primary keywords? If not, redesign some of your pages (or create), and resubmit.

You may find that your ranking suddenly moved up or down dramatically. When this happens, you will need to understand why. I recommend you keep careful motes on when you submitted or resubmitted your site to each engine and what pages you submitted. You may even wish to create subdirectories with different copies of your Web site at various stages. That way, if you move down in rank after submitting revision B, you can go back and study what made revision A better. This requires some planning to be effective.

This is the key to achieving good rankings. There is no 100 percent effective page design or strategy especially when you consider that each search engine changes its algorithm frequently. What works this month might not work next month. and then after a month or two, the older technique may may not work again. Each search engine is different and continually changes and adds new pages to its index. These will affect your postion over time--Sometimes very quickly. SEO is an iterative process, not a one-time effort. Be sure to let your submitted pages "settle" before resubmitting. Often it takes time, up to a month or two, for a submitted page to reach its "natural" ranking.

About the Author

Pamela Upshur is a Web Promotion Specialist