Variables That Usually Affect Search Engine Ranks

This list includes most of the variables known to affect search engine ranks. One should understand that some of these variables are more important than others.

Variables that affect ranks in a positive way (these factors probably will not change over time, these

are some of the most important variables):

• Keywords in your copy.

• Link popularity.

• Keywords in the title tag.

• Listings in directories.

Variables that affect ranks in a negative way (these factors probably will not change over

time):

• Spamming by using the same word or phrase several times in your title, meta tags, or text.

• Spamming by putting words or phrases into your meta tags or title that have nothing to do

with the actual content people see on your web page.

• Using text the same color as the background.

• Using tiny text (font size "-1" or smaller) as a way to cram keywords into a page.

• Linking out to sites that have nothing to do with the focus or niche of your site.

• Linking out to link farms or free-for-all (FFA) link pages. (Sites that contain pages just for the

purpose of exchanging links with other sites without concern for content. Generally link farms

or FFA link pages have thousands of links and the links are added by means of a program not

a human.)

• Links coming in from link farms or FFA link pages.

Variables that have been thought to affect ranks positively in the past (these factors may

change over time depending on the way the algorithm is programmed):

• Keywords in the domain name

• Bolding keywords, e.g. <b>WiseVIN</b>

• Using keywords in heading tags, e.g. <H4>WiseVIN</H4>

• Keywords closest to the top of the page.

• Keywords in the description tag.

• Keywords in the keywords tag.

• Keywords in the names of linked pages and in the linked words, 

e.g. <a href="http://wisevin.blogspot.com/">WiseVIN : An Entrepreneur</a>.

• Keywords in alt tags.

• Keywords as names of images, e.g. <img src="wisevin.gif alt="wisevin">.

• Getting listings in Pay-Per-Click search engines like Google Adwords or Overture.

Since keywords are so important in SEO it is heavily recommended you get yourself a solid keyword tool such as Keyword Elite . Not only will this save time, effort, and lots of guess work, but it will

greatly increase your SEO efforts.