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As the economy continues to struggle, it's more important now than ever before that our business has a strong presence on the search engines. No matter if you are a complete novice at Internet marketing or have tried some different techniques over the years, the following five tips can help improve your Web site ranking on all the largest search engines. One caveat prior to giving search engine ranking advice: search engine optimization is not an exact science. No one can tell you one single thing to do and guarantee it will work. That's why it is important to use multiple strategies and work at them until you get the results you desire. That way, you give yourself the best chance at winning the search engine game.
With that, here are the five things you can do right now to help drastically improve your search engine rankings: - Homepage content - this is the content on the first page of your Web site. Its primary function is to let your visitors now what your site is all about, but is also helps search engines decide where you should rank on their engine. Search engines, like Google, will scour the content of your site looking for frequently used words. They feel that the more the words are used on your site, the better chance your site can benefit users looking for information on those words. The search engines are very sophisticated and so they won't factor in all the filler words (ex: a, and, the, it, to) you have on your homepage. They are looking for "keywords" that describe what your site is all about. So armed with that information, your job is to decide what your top five or so keywords are and then make sure those words are peppered throughout your homepage content. But be careful; don't repeat one keyword over and over again as search engines can penalize you for what they call "keyword stuffing." Just make sure the sentence makes grammatical senseand looks normal to a reader and you should be just fine.
- Link Popularity - Link popularity means how many other Web sites have your link on them. Google and other search engines give you more credit if other Web sites house a link on their site that directs traffic back to yours. It's actually the foundation on how Google built their search algorithm. So ask relevant businesses in your area to add your link to their Website. You can offer to reciprocate the favor by adding their link to your site.
- Domain name - make sure your domain name (aka Web site address) has your most important keywords in the name. Google and other search engines give big points when they see keywords in the domain name. So if "Corey Perlman" was an important phrase for me to come up #1 in Google, I'd better own www.coreyperlman.com. And I do!
- Other Web Sources - Creating multiple Web sources, such as a blog and a networking site like LinkedIn.com, you give yourself additional chances of being ranked on Google. Blogs and networking sites have just as much chance of coming up on Google as your Web site does. So the question is: do you care if your LinkedIn.com site ranks higher on a particular search result than your Web site? Let me answer for you... NO! Both sites are yours (and not your competitor's!) and both will contain information about you or your business. By adding an easy-to-find link to your Web site on your LinkedIn.com page, you will ensure people can easily get to your Web site when they are ready.
- Register Your URL - When you've done all the actions above, go to www.google.com/addurl and register your Web site(s) with Google. This will alert Google that you have made some changes to your site and you'd like them to come visit and check it out again. Give them some time, but they will eventually get to it. Rinse and repeat at the other search engines.
If you do all five actions above, you will see results. Just keep tweaking as needed. Remember, it's a game and you have to continue to play it in order to win it. Good luck!
Corey Perlman is the author of the #1 Amazon.com bestseller eBoot Camp: Proven Internet Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business. The book provides easy-to-do strategies and techniques to help you market your business on the Web. It covers topics such as social networking sites, Web site optimization, online articles and press releases, video marketing, and much more. To learn more about eBoot Camp or to purchase a copy, go to www.ebootcampbook.com.
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