SERPs Up Big Kahuna

Most definitely, present actions on Google -the Panda Thing, the merging of Bing with Facebook and Yahoo revamping its platform is causing changes in SERP. For the novice website owner or content marketer, understanding SERP can be challenging. Before I explain all the details, I want you to keep a few things in mind about websites, where they come from and perhaps where they are going. Most are unaware that websites begin at the machine level, meaning whatever computer is hosting your site, plays a significant role in the websites overall performance. This may not mean much to the small site owner, but to those who want to build a global entity, the host server and their system can effect visits and even search results. Little known fact: search engines check machines, operating systems on those machines, screen resolutions, colors and then crawl the folders on those machines, to find and gather data. It is a good idea to make sure the server you go with has a solid operating system, adequate storage space and easy to use client management controls.

Now, the main point about getting ranked on search engines is not always truthful, meaning you do not always need to appear on the top five lines of the search results to get noticed. You also should not confuse Site Ranking with Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), as they are two completely different things!

Site Rank: a website is ranked by several independent sources, like Quantcast and Alexa, who gather data about the sites overall performance. Sites are generally grouped based on their particular genres, like food or fashion else they are ranked and rated based on the above mentioned attributes (machine, operating system, crawl accessibility, etc). But the largest portion of a sites rank comes from one thing and one thing only: Unique Visitors. Visitors to your website are the second most vital attribute to its overall success. Without visitors, nothing happens, right? You could have the best machine hosting the site, best installs, best programming languages, graphic designs, content, videos, images and links, but if nobody shows up, there is no party.

A question someone recently asked me was, "Does my Site Rank effect my position on Google?" My answer was a flat out, "No". Why? Well, foremost, search engines could care less how many visitors you get in most cases, unless of course they have a vested interest in you and your website. In short, unless Bing is using a piece of Facebook or Google serving Ads to Hub Pages, they really have no reason to get excited over your guest list. Their primary concern is getting people to use their search bar and increase their rank and revenue. Another point I made to this person was this: "Even if you are FB or Twitter, with 50 million unique visitors a day, the average person is not interested in finding their answers in these places". In fact, I think it was Mashable.com that made a very true statement: Social Networks and Blog sites (like Wordpress, Blogger & Tumblr) are killing web searches overall. Why? Well for starters, Content Farmers are super Social Network Savvy and tend to overload Social Media outlets (including Social Bookmarking sites) with ridiculously redundant and useless content often called spam.

SERPs are generated per millisecond, when anyone presses the "search" button on a web page. So, one thing to remember, is search engine web pages are also effected by the their own results and the input of data in the search bar. Google is extremely popular and its SERP is off the charts, because people use their web pages nearly three times a day. So, they get 1 unique visitor @ three searches per day @ x-million people. This effects their overall Site Rank and their Page Rank.

Up until recently, Search Engines held the keys to unprecedented control and "Kahuna" status. Yahoo, Bing and Google control the flow of waves from ocean to shore. Surfers everywhere want to ride the Big Kahuna. Some get out their long boards, some short boards, others very interesting surf boards and race into the water, paddling their pants off to get to the top of the wave, before it breaks. With the sun sparkling off the crest, they slide down strategically at catch the pipeline. Even as the wave curls overhead, in an attempt to drown them, surfers ride the pipeline for as far as they can --until they exit with a "hoot" or "wipe out".

Your website works the same. you could literally build your own search engine and do what Bing, Yahoo and Google are doing. You could create a specific cluster of code to filter content, rate that content for originality and robustness, store it in a database -that updates with every query and become the next Big Kahuna yourself. In fact, why don't you call your search engine the Big Kahuna. It's catchy :)

What I just described is how search engines built results for surfers to view (aka ride the wave). What transpired some time ago was savvy content marketers and spinners began flooding the engines with pages that really had nothing interesting on them. Some went so far as to steal other content and build 'pseudo' mixed content pages, piled high with ads. Their goal was strictly revenue by Ad Overload. So, when a surfer entered a query, they results came back with hundreds of thousands of links to these webpages and most surfers got caught in the cURL and washed out to sea -meaning they couldn't find what they wanted.

And this is the other primary key to SERPs. It sounds cliche, but when building your website for others to visit, give them what they want or need. This is what search engines recently did to rid themselves of redundant content. Google called it Panda. They flushed their databases and in doing so, flushed many good sites out to sea, with the bad. This made the Page Rank of many good sites topple over like a newbie on the wave crest. It pushed many back into the kiddie pool to start learning how to surf all over again. Now surfers need to become more clever and creative in their searches and equally so do websites posting content.

SERP and Page Rank

So, let's break down the terminology, so everyone ends up on the same page, literally and figuratively. A SERP is an abbreviation for Search Engine Results Page. This is the page you see after entering your search query. This is very important to understand when producing content. Why? Well, what users type in is what comes back. What you publish needs to match that query. The better the match on that query, along with other stored links on your site, relevant to that query, determines the displayed results surfers see. The more targeted the query, the higher the rank becomes.

Now, there are a few factors that effect SERPS like keyword competition, duplicity, originality, and yes, whether anyone will admit it or not, which engine is serving the site with revenue potential. In short, if Google is dropping ads on your pages, they will certainly want the results to match their pages fist or pages they can profit from. Same with Bing, same with Yahoo. So, most often, your content is at the mercy of the engine. Unfair? Yes. An inescapable trap? No. There are many ways to get around this issue and get your pages ranked higher.

Page Rank is the position (not rating) of your pages, as they appear in the SERP. So, the smaller the floodgate of relevant results, the better your chances of Ranking higher. With the use of Google Instant, users can now instantly get related queries for searches. This means an even smaller window. But a small window on the web can result in 100,000,000 pages in 0.004 seconds. That's a lot of pages. For example, if you type the word HubPages into the query, you will see this. (see photo b and c).

I published an article about two weeks ago. It was about Building A Sitemap Instead Of Backlinking. When typing it into the bar exactly, my page position was 1 for 1. Top dawg. But when I changed the query parameters, my page was buried on page eight.

One way to get around the search results issue is to point your users to multiple search engines, instead of just one. The second is to publish a lot of content -original and amazing of course, that search engines cannot resist indexing. Once indexed, you should see a least a steady flow of 1 visitor per page, per day, at minimum. In addition, as your site grows in popularity, it is a good idea from time to time to resubmit your website to the search engines, just in case they bumped you or missed a few good links. Again competition is huge.

Everyone wants to catch the Perfect Wave -that gigantic arc of liquid traffic. But the reality is this: their are 250,000,000 machines @ 20 pages each that are competing for that wave too. The Big Kahuna is a myth. Sure, you can ride a great wave, again and again. But like any surfer knows, waves come, waves go. Sometimes waves don't come at all.

With this in mind, we ask how can I get my pages higher on the SERP?

You can, but all the SEO measures on earth cannot get you to top position. You have to paddle your way out to sea, brave the waiting game, wait for the wave of traffic to come. Then paddle even more and catch the wave. If you slip, its WIPEOUT for you.That paddling is called Keywords And Content. Notice I put both together.

Keywords are words people would enter into the search bar to find things. Take out a sheet of notepaper and list the words you would feel are relevant to your articles. Now, create combination's of those words or phrases and type them into the search bar. Make note of what returns. Are these articles relevant to those words. Now, read the content of those pages, because that is your competition. The best rule of the wave -know the wave, yes, but know your competition. All of those SERPERS are trying to catch the same wave as you.

A Greater Philosophy for SERPs has never been spoken. Just hang loose. Let the Engine do the work. Once you create your keywords, your content and feel out the competition, let the wave come to you. The less paddling you do --meaning changes after changes-- the easier it is to catch the wave.

SERP works the same. The engine filters, shuffles, shews and spits out the results for you. If you are savvy and patient, you will see what to do next time the Big Kahuna approaches. Instead of fighting the Rip Current and possibly drowning, go with the flow -let off the gas and cruise. One of the biggest success stories for SERPS was by a young man who made quite a bold statement, "The best way to succeed in internet business, is to let your competitors do the work. The more they are paddling, the less you have to. The ocean of Search Engines has no bias. A smart SERPER will let the engine do the work and their competition wipe themselves out, fighting for Top Dawg."

more thoughts to follow...