Two days ago, someone gave me this Google Search Engine Optimization 101 . (Here is a summary) After reading the tips, I thought I’d test if they would work. Today, I typed in reliable webhosting…and the the-protagonist.net site is no. 2 (at the moment) among 158,000 results. In just 2 days. JOY! oops..But my joy turned to horror when I realized that it isn’t the Protagonist webhosting that is linked in that slot. But the main the-protagonist.net index page featuring Lisa Frank. Ack, so much for being reliable. Although the link to the webhosting is in that page, I don’t think an image of Lisa Frank depicts “reliable”. A redesign should be in my next plan. I mean , a lot of webhosting sites would just die to be in the first page of that search query.
Aside from that, I am amazed that I got the no. 2 slot in just 2 days. This is how I did it:
I knew I already had all these:
1. fast loading content
2. tableless layout and validated as HTML 4
3. good page rank 5/10
4. searchable by most search engines
What I needed was keyword density.
1. Keyword in Title Meta tag ( added Affordable and Reliable Webhosting Plans at the Protagonist dot NET)
2. Keyword in Description Meta tag
3. Keyword in Body text
not just in body, but at least once in first paragraph, again in the middle, and again at the end of the body text
4. Keyword density - 1-7%
So I fixed the meta tags. Next step, I just needed more keywords. With the help of this keyword density analyzer, keywords like “affordable, “reliable”, “webhosting” were below the recommended density. To fix that, I added keyword links Affordable and Reliable WebHosting and plain text in the index and nav bar. Voila, I had reached at least 1%.
It helps that protag dot net’s index page was tableless. Google can easily read content that way without wading through all the tr’s and td’s. The pages at the webhosting site are coded in tables.
That’s google search engine optimization for you. Just read the summary.
*edit
October 1- Today, it’s no. 1. Google is unpredictable. 
