How the heck is “that guy” above me? Why does Google give them all this love and I’m all the way down at the bottom of the page?
Google has it’s own little algorithm, or crazy formula, that they use to determine what web pages are the best result for a given search.
There’s a few things you can do now, and a few things that will really benefit your business if you make them part of your daily routine.
Things you can do now.
- Research key words/phrases you think a potential member might type in to a search engine to find a particular page on your website. Make a list.
- Find pages and blog posts on your website that you can target a couple of the key words/phrase on your list and then…
- Determine if you can use those key words/phrase for your page title, but only if it makes sense. This works better for blog posts than pages.
- Change your permalink (the last part of the URL for that page) to include your key phrase. This can be found right under the page title at the top of your page. Warning: If you are currently linking to this page, make sure you have your Web designer re-direct the old URL to the new one. If you don’t, the link will be dead and will show an error to anyone trying to access the old url.
- Use your SEO (search engine optimization) plugin to set the page title and description that Google will display in searches using the same key words/phrase.
Things you can do as you go.
- Ask for Google + reviews. Imagine that – Google likes to give extra ranking to those who have interaction from people who use Google! Just make sure you create or claim your page first. If you can’t figure out how to do this, let me know.
- Blog. The more blogs you have, the more pages on your site Google has to index which gives you clout. You MUST be the expert if you have so many relevant posts on your website!
- Comment on other people’s blogs. This gives you the opportunity to link back to your website. Google also likes it when other sites link to you. Don’t be lame and say something like, “nice post!” because everyone else who reads that blog will think your lame and that’s not good for brand perception.
- Find opportunities like “lists” and “directories” that you can add your box’s info and web address to. Again, Google likes it when other sites link to you.
- If you run any kind of promotion, create new landing pages. This is as simple as going in to the pages menu, click add new, write a ditty and drop in your images. Boom. Now spread this link around like wild fire on social media. It’s a one stop shop for your promo or event that others can easily share. This tactic brings new people to your website and if they want to see what you’re all about, they can navigate the main website menu at the top of the landing page. If you have any questions on how to do this or you have certain requirements for a landing page, let me know and I’ll get you an answer from the design geniuses.
- Look at your Google Analytics report and consider making adjustments based on any trends you’re seeing. If you’re not already set up with Google Analytics, your Web designer can set that up for your very quickly.
