919 Marketing

Ashlie Lanning

Four Low Cost Secrets to Improve Your Search Engine Rankings

When you need to find a service, a product or even a person, where do you go? I bet you said Google...

How many pages of generated results do you look at? My guess, you probably don’t go past page two or three.

So, how does your company, service or product rank when you Google yourself? If you aren’t listed on page one of the search, I suggest you continue reading...

With increasing dependency on search engines, an entirely new marketing practice has emerged called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. (And no - SEO is not the same as the Pay-Per-Click options offered by search engines like Google.) SEO is the process of choosing targeted keywords and phrases related to your Web site and business, integrating those keywords throughout your site to ensure that when people search for a business, service or product like yours, your site is at the top of the search return.

It sounds simple, but it is an intense, time consuming process that can - if done at 100% - become one's full time job. To get really good at search engine optimization on your own? Read books on the subject, visit SEO blogs and practice, practice, practice.

However, for the sake of this article, I will assume that you probably don’t have an extra 30-40 hours a week to devote to SEO. Don’t worry! There are several things you can do to improve your search engine rankings – and these don't require cloning yourself...

1) Refer to your geographic location throughout your Web site. Many searchers will add a location to their search terms (e.g., "bank in RTP"), so be certain to mention your city, county, state, and country if you do business internationally.

2) List your products or services individually. The more specific you are, the more likely your Web site will show up in relevant searches. A bank's Web site might list "Checking Services" "Loan Services" "Retirement Planning" and so on. Add extra pages to list the many products and services you offer.

3) Connect your company with other Web sites. The more places in which your Web site or url is listed on the Internet, the higher the chances are for driving traffic to your site. Direct search engine users to your site by placing strategic online advertising and listing your company in online directories. Even listing other Web sites on your own site as resources can improve your SEO rankings.

4) Issue press releases to online newswires. Online newswires often have high search engine rankings because their content is constantly changing. Using newswires will improve your SEO rankings.

While search engine optimization is a great tool for increasing traffic to your website, you should not rely on it to ‘run’ your business. It won't. Look at SEO like a billboard driving traffic to your Web site. Visitors don’t' just stumble upon your website by chance – to get noticed, your Web site needs to be big, bold…and listed at the top of search engine results.

Other helpful articles on driving traffic to your Web site:

"Should you outsource your SEO Campaign?" From Inc.com
http://www.inc.com/articles/2001/06/23146.html

"Turning Clicks Into Cash" from Fast Company
http://www.fastcompany.com/partners/intel/articles/20051001/webessentials.html