Getting to No. 1 on Google

Emily Tool-Tips Blog , , ,

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is like gambling; you bet your money on specific key-words or phrases to gain a higher ranking for searches that use those words. This may get you to the top of a page in the paid results for a particular phrase but the fact is that no one can promise you an organic #1 ranking on Google. The internet is dynamic with new sites and blogs constantly being added to its cyber-awesomeness.

Coming in at Number 1 on Google is not the Holy Grail. Search Engine Marketing isn’t bad – but as a local, small business your goal should be to target local results and develop your following organically. Talk to your customers, use Facebook, Yelp, and Twitter to promote seasonal offers and new merchandise, and most importantly, develop word of mouth advertising by providing great customer service. Keep in mind, if your Google Ads aren’t translating into actual, real-life customers – there is little worth to playing the paid-for popularity game.

The only tried and true way to become “popular” is to develop specific, relevant, unique content – and update your website every so often. Don’t pad your pages with a keyword (visible or invisible) or create dummy pages with your URL repeated ad infinitum. Attempting to exploit loopholes in different search-engines will only get your site bounced.

Other things that matter: Your domain name, page titles, heading values, file and image names as well as the appearance of keywords and key-phrases in your content (keyword weight) are all important. External style sheets and lean code are also useful because they allow robots access to the content of your site first. Programs that generate HTML can be messy and the code may not be up to code by current web standards.

Practice good linking: Related, high-quality blogs, sharing content on social networks (Twitter, Facebook), self-promotion tools or listings (like Google Places!), joining professional groups (Chambers of Commerce, professional trade associations), exchanging links with similar pages – can all improve your site ranking over time.

Listen to your customers: As a small business you are in a powerful position to talk to your customers face to face. You can adapt quickly to trends and relate to customer concerns as a neighbor and human being. In the long run, this is better than any advertising money can buy.

Things that can adversely affect ranking are:

  • Padding a page with keywords
  • Hiding keywords in your page background
  • Cloaking your site or setting up alternate domains that re-direct users to another website
  • Creating alternate domains with the same content
  • Poorly written content, misspelling words on purpose for alternate search queries, copying content from other sites without developing your own unique content
  • Creating dummy pages for search engines that repeat keywords or your domain

Things that can improve ranking are:

  • Concise, quality content
  • Correct use of META tags, page titles (the title at the top of your browser window that tells you what the page is about) and page headings (heading values on your web page organize content and have varying levels of key-word weight)
  • Search-phrases, in addition to keywords, can also help your ranking – in blogs, use your TAG property. These are essentially keywords specific to your article.
  • An up-to-date, user-friendly site with intuitive navigation