Wondering how to get your small business’ website ranked on the first page of Google?
Here’s the thing. Despite what you might hear, there’s no magical shortcut, surefire formula and certainly no guarantees to claiming your spot on the first page.
But, when it comes to effective and ethical (ie. not doing scammy things that may get you ranked on the first page quickly, but may ultimately get you banned from Google) search engine optimization (SEO) there are 4 main ingredients that give you the best chance of success.
1. Know Your Keywords
You have to know the actual search terms prospects are typing into the search engines when looking for your product or service. You simply can’t guess here.
At a bare minimum, head over the the free (and pretty awesome) Google AdWords Keyword Tool to so some basic keyword research.
Find 1-2 keywords to focus on first. These keywords should be selected using the information you get from your keyword research as well as your knowledge of your prospects and customers.
The ideal keywords are those with high levels of traffic, low levels of competition and indicate the searcher is in buying mode (ie. “need a st. louis plumber” vs. “plumber” or “buy a Sony KLV26S400A LCD TV” vs. “LCD TVs”).
2. Content
Content can take the form of videos, blog posts, photos, articles, podcasts, etc. The more quality, original content you have on your site, the better. Also, try to build your content around the keywords you’ve identified as the ideal ones for your business.
You can outsource the content creation if you’d like, but it’s better if it comes from you. It may not matter as much for SEO (as long as the content you’re getting from freelancers is truly original work) but it makes a big difference to prospects. When you can inject your personality and knowledge about your business/industry/problems your prospects face into the content you create, that’s going to make a much bigger impression on a prospect than outsourced material.
Frequently adding quality, original content to your site makes Google very happy. And when you’re trying to get on the first page, you want to do whatever you can to make Google happy.
3. Links
Along with content, getting links on other websites that point to yours is key to getting a first page ranking. While the number of links is important, I’d recommend focusing on the quality of the links. Getting links from sites related to yours means much more than a bunch of generic links from unrelated sites.
For example, if you’re a dog groomer in St. Louis, your best links will come from sites related to dog care as well as local St. Louis focused sites. Those will carry much more weight than a link from a site about lasers or celebrity gossip.
How do you get links? The best way is to create great content. When you do this people will naturally want to link to your site to share it with others.
You can also create your own links from external sites to your own site by commenting on blogs, posting on message boards, creating Web2.0 sites (Squidoo, HubPages, WordPress.com, Scribd and countless others) that link back to your main site, article marketing and more.
4. Time
Unless you are in a niche with very little competition (which is getting harder and harder to find), it will take time to get to the top of the search engines. It could take days, weeks, months or years to get your website to the first page of Google and you may not even get there at all.
But selecting the right keywords, focusing on content and links and giving the process some time to work will give you the greatest odds for success.
Related posts:
- 7 Potential Pitfalls of Search Engine Optimization
- Why Free Search Engine Traffic is a Myth
- Google Local Search Update: Lowly PPC Guy Gets A Big Slap And An Important Reminder
- Google Local Search: How a Lowly PPC Specialist Beat The Local SEO Firms at Their Own Game
- YouTube Secrets: How to Get Viewers From YouTube To Your Website
