We have a saying that Search Engine Optimization isn’t rocket science. But if you want to optimize for that phrase, make sure that the term “rocket science” is on the page.
Let us explain.
When we mention that we’re involved in Search Engine Marketing, the second thing folks often do is ask why their site isn’t ranking. (The first thing they do, of course, is call us braggers for being search engine optimizers!) Anyway, here is how the conversation often goes …
Them: “Speaking of rocket science, my site doesn’t appear when you search the term ‘rocket science’ in Google.”
Us: “But in looking at your site, the terms ‘Rocket’ and ‘Science’ never appear together in the titles, headings or pages.”
Them: “But it’s what we do. It’s obvious.”
Us: “It’s not obvious to the search engines. Put the phrase on your site, write copy about it, and optimize for it!”
It sounds so fundamental, but you’d be surprised at how often that happens. Sometimes, the reason for the lack of rankings isn’t that cut and dried. For example, the person may have a Flash-heavy site that has all kinds of pretty moving pictures and parts about Rocket Science, but no spider food in the form of text that the search engines can devour. Or the site is competing in the search engines against Rocket Scientists from around the world, when all the owner wants is a little piece of the pie in, say, the Kansas City market.
So we advise the owner to go to work getting content created, adding copy where there is none (or external resources when main content is in Flash). Creating a blog is always good for this, as is creating pages by adding copy from sales letters, brochures, presentations and other resources used to communicate about the business.
Then, create internal links within your site that hyperlink pages via anchor text containing the terms “Rocket Science” and “Kansas City” and other relevant qualifiers. Use those same terms in your page headings and title tags. For good measure, add a strong description of each page in the meta description tags. And populate the meta keyword tags as well, though it won’t help a lot for rankings purposes.
Finally, get some related sites (vendors are great for this) and directories to link to your site with “rocket science” in the hyperlink. And see our tips for titles and meta descriptions for further assistance.