Changing search engine results

[dee5]

I am sure most of you have done a google search, or used some other search engine with the topic "electronic cigarette". I did just alittle while ago on PCH search engine for the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes. The whole first page (I didn't look any further than that) was just vendors that no one here would ever recommend. I hate the thought of someone like me out there somewhere in the world looking for information and those vendors are their first exposure to vaping. Does anyone know of a way to get this forum or atleast some of our reputable vendors names to come up at the top of the list?

edit- Thought I had better check Google and low and behold the very first one is advertising the Vapor King. That's good! But it is followed directly by the rip off artists.

 

[glennnnnnn]

You generally have to pay to get onto the first page of google, or have lots of traffic, ie the more hits you get the higher up the ranking you go

It also helps if the person who designs your web pages knows what they're doing to get the most hits

 

[The Mosh]

Finally, a topic I know well and understand pretty well.

It's actually not that difficult. Just bear in mind that Google works on geography and your own indavidual search history (this is new) to come up with the results you see on each search. What is on the first page for someone who lives in California and searches a lot for cart mods, might not be the same as the results for someone living in the midwest, that does a lot of searching on doileys (I wonder if doileys would make decent filler? Will have to try that sometime).

There are some good rules of thumb to work with though, when building your web site. The first, whenever you're optimizing for search engines, never underestimate the power or limits of your competitions stupidity. Always read the Webmaster Guidelines, and make sure you target specific keyword terms for every page. Use, but don't re-use meta tags, and never forget that user generated content, such as message board posts, blog entries, and comments are king.

Common search engine lore would have you believe that the best way to do this is by having a lot of incoming links. I don't agree with this. You can have a billion incoming links if you want to in less than an hour. But none of that is worth anything unless you have incoming links from credible sites.

One excellent way to get the links you want in Google to appear better in Google would be to tweet them, put them on your facebook, and register them in the Open Directory. The first page has little to do with paying to be there, but that is one way to get to the sidebars.

More often than not, it's the relevence (in google's eyes) and the popularity of the site among real people that visit it. The obvious solution being, if you want the sites to rank higher... simply make them more popular.

It's not as difficult as it sounds.

[edit] Oh, and I think that yoda with the ecig is the coolest avatar in history... by the way.