Everyone knows that there is big money to be made ranking well in the search engines, and (almost) everyone has their little secret or trick to help you do it. In other words, people are usually technique oriented, focusing on what you are suppose to do and how you are suppose to do it. There is, no doubt, great value to knowing what works, but there is also a problem and that is that what works today doesn't seem to work tomorrow. The search engines, it turns out, are rather dynamic and they are constantly changing the way in which they determine which sites rank well for any given search term. This leads us to a question, is there a long term strategy for ranking well in the search engines? The answer is a resounding yes! You simply have to learn how to think like the search engines.

If you can learn to think like the search engines, then you can start to build and market the type of sites that they want to rank well. And guess what, with billions of dollars of cash, and some of the brightest minds that roam this planet, the search engines are getting rather good at ranking highly those sites which they want to rank well. What that means is that if you can create and market the type of sites that the search engines like then you can build long-term, stable rankings in the search engine.

All you have to do is find out what do the search engines want? And what do they want? They want sites which are relevant and popular. All you have to do is create a highly relevant and popular website and you are on your way to high rankings that last. And while that may not sound so easy, it's not so hard either, if you go about it right. Indeed, it's basically a simple two-step process.

Step number one - creating a relevant website


As we mentioned above, the search engines crave relevant results. Indeed, their entire business depends on it (people don't like using search engines that return irrelevant results). What that means for you is that you need to create high quality content for any and every keyword that you want to rank well for. The key is to always stay ahead of the game (and your competitors). Stay up-to-date, come up with creative insights, make a video presentation, whatever it takes to make sure that your site has the best, most relevant content out there for the terms and phrases that you want to rank well for. And don't forget about presentation, make it easy-to-understand and enjoyable.

Now, there are many ways that you can accomplish this. Look around at all of the different types of content online and pick one (or a few) which you are most capable of reproducing. And then just keep doing it day in and day out, each time working to make it better than the day before.

Step number two - creating a popular website
It is important to understand that the search engines are actually somewhat democratic. They like sites that other people like (it's how they determine whether or not a site is significant). That is why that put so much emphasis on links. However, as is well known, they are not totally democratic. They don't value everyone's "vote" the same. The most significant vote comes from sites which are topically related and popular. Less significant votes come from sites which are either popular or relevant (but not both). The worst votes are from sites which are neither relevant nor popular. This means that in order to rank well you need to find a way (or numerous ways) to get large numbers of sites which are at least either relevant or popular to link to your site. What's the best way to do that? Find the people with the power to influence those sites? Where can you find them? Blogs, forums, del.icio.us, dig.com, press release sites, people with large email lists, etc. There are thousands (if not millions) of people who actually want your to link to good sites. After all, they also need to provide their visitors with quality content. As such, the moment that you have created a quality site you have created something that people want (bloggers love linking to good sites). What's more, you can also rework your content and offer it to other sites in exchange for a link.

So, at the end of the day, high rankings which last revolve around one word, content. Create lots of it, make sure that it is relevant and of the highest quality, and you and Google can live together happily ever after.

Moshe Morris is president of SEMBasics (http://www.sembasics.com) - a leading resource center for search engine marketing. SEMBasics provides free search engine marketing tutorials and other valuable search marketing products and services.

This article is free for use in its unedited form with links intact.