It goes without saying that to have a strong online presence, your website needs to rank high on search engines. However, the search engines in question are not just any search engines. If you ask any Internet marketing expert, he or she will tell you that it’s much better to rank fourth on one or two major search engines, than to seal the top spot on about ten obscure search engines. This means that if you’re going to set your sight on any search engine at all, make sure that it’s any of the following: Google, MSN, or Yahoo.

All-around excellence

Getting top ranking in one search engine is already commendable, and ranking well on all four major search engines is utopia in the world of search engine marketing. A study that was done in April 2008 showed that almost 62% of online searches were done using Google, while 20% of the searches were from Yahoo. If you manage to make your site rank well on both search engines, your traffic will multiply. Just imagine if you also seal a top spot on MSN, too.

The fight to the top

The problem is that the ‘magic’ factors that affect a site’s ranking on one search engine are entirely different from the factors that affect ranking in another search engine. For instance, an SEO strategy that allows you to rank higher in Yahoo may not so anything for your Google ranking. This is because each of the four search engines use different techniques in determining a site’s relevance. Some search engines like Google use more modern methods, while some like Ask and MSN stick to more traditional techniques.

However, most of the experts agree that you don’t have to be torn apart by the differences of the major search engines. There are several things you can do to make sure that your site is doing well on any search engine. These things include making your content informative, rich and helpful, creating an overall user-friendly website, link building to other reputable sites, and constant maintenance.

If you are not familiar with these various SEO techniques, you can always hire an SEO company like Blackwood Productions to do the work for you.