When the internet was still new, ranking in the first search engines wasn’t difficult at all; cyberspace wasn’t very big. Now, the World Wide Web is bigger than most people can imagine. Net craft, an English company that tracks internet market share, found over 460 million websites at the end of 2011–and right now, while you’re reading this article, worldwidewebsize.com is showing 50 BILLION web pages listed on Google, Yahoo and Bing. Since there are over 7 billion people in the entire world, that is a lot of content– a little over seven pages of content for every person alive, right now.

Where is My Website?

Well, unless you have a lot of traffic, quality content and back links from other websites, it’s probably buried somewhere on the back pages of Google where no one will find it by searching. Most people never look at the search results past the first page or two on Google, or the other search engines; that’s why getting to page one is so important. The latest Penguin update caused massive ranking shifts for millions of websites, especially websites that didn’t offer quality content, used “keyword stuffing” or relied on low quality traffic to get visitors. This actually helped the website owners who build good websites, but it changed what a “good website” is, according to Google.

Ranking in the New Google

SEO is more important than ever, but it has to be the “right” kind! The search engines are looking for a lot more than a plug in affiliate page. The websites that get attention have a lot of quality content, consistent organic and exact keywords (but no more than 1.8% overall), quality back links and “real” traffic. Search engines don’t count all the 10-second visits from a traffic exchange the same way they count people who specifically click on your link somewhere–and the traffic they really want to see comes from ordinary searches.

They also track how much people move around on your site, and how long they stay. Having an optimized site allows Google to find you, but unless your content is also interesting, being found doesn’t mean you will get ranked Google finds your site by keywords, but those keywords have to be part of some well written content for them to do you any good. Optimization is more than your keywords; everything about your site needs to be optimized to get the ranking you want in the search engines.

Believe it or not, Penguin is a Good Thing!

Once you understand how Penguin works, it’s easy to see how you can make it work for you and your website. Just as a quick example, open up a Google search window, and begin typing in anything you like. Google will present a list of options if you have your browser set for “auto complete”, and those options let you know exactly what real people have searched for, in real time. If you typed in “where is my website”, for instance, it gave you a list of options to search–and all those searches are the best traffic, the “organic” kind. Just using the drop down box to choose keywords for SEO can really make a difference.

Now, more than ever, we need SEO, and Google provides the tools you need to get it right–because if they help you rank, they make money. Taking the time to get friendly with Penguin and Google and optimizing with the free tools they give you will pay off in time–and once you achieve top ranking the right way, you’ll probably stay on top.