How to ensure good search engine results – the 3 Core Elements

To achieve high ranking, long-term search engine positions, three key elements must be present for a web page:

• Text element (keywords placed in HTML tags)
  
  

• Link elements (links within the site and from other sites)
  
  

• Popularity element

Get these three right, and you are well on your way to moving your site's pages towards the top of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

It is not just a question of making sure you have considered all three elements. You must ensure that you have the correct combination of the elements and then you can rise above your competitors in the SERPs. 

It might be possible to rank highly for specific searches when you have optimised for only one or two of the elements.  But for more competitive search phrases a combination of all three is essential.

Summary

The basic elements of SEO can be summed up with the basic overview of how Google ranks pages in their SERPs:

1. Find all pages matching the keywords of the search.
   
   
2. Rank accordingly using ‘on the page factors’ such as keywords.
   (Text Element)
   
   
3. Calculate in the inbound anchor text.
   (Link Element)
   
   
4.  Adjust the results by PageRank scores.
   (Popularity Element)
   

(To find out more about Google's PageRank, read Chris Riding and Mike Shishigin's excellent resource PageRank Uncovered.)