I want my site to come up on the first page of Google….
Yeah? So do I. And, it’s getting harder and harder to make that happen. More web sites come online every day. .com addresses are harder and harder to come by. Search engine optimization changes all of the time. So, how can you make search engines work for your small business? You can hire a top notch SEO (search engine optimization) company, but as a small business that can get very expensive. Many SEO companies charge more than you will have paid to create your entire site. Or, you can share this article with your web designer and work together to come up with a plan to get more traffic to your site. Here are a few tips:
1. First identify your potential clients. I have a client who was concerned because his site didn’t come up in the first 10 pages of google when he searched for “automation”. First of all, a search for automation returned over 22 million hits. He was searching for a word that is used over and over again in literally thousands of businesses. Second, when I asked him what his client base was he stated that it was strictly Eastern Pennsylvania. So even if he came up on the first few pages of google for automation the chances of that potential client being from Northeast Pennsylvania was very slim.
He would be better off deciding on a few phrases to incorporate into his body text on his home page and other pages of his site that better relate to the clients he can potentially serve such as: Automation Industry in Northeast Pennsylvania. You need to target your text based on location and your capabilities. I recently looked in to purchasing an alarm system for my home. I search fored Home Alarm System Lehigh Valley, PA. It wouldn’t do me any good to get a great price from a company in Nebraska. That would be a long way to travel for an install.
2. Say it often and in as many ways as possible. My client is in the automation industry in Northeast Pennsylvania. He needs to make sure the text on his site states this everywhere that he can and in many different combinations. Pennsylvania Automation Industry, Industry Automation in PA, PA Northeast Industry Automation, you get the point.
3. Make sure that the pages on your site have good title tags that match the content and wording on your page. Search engines look at title tags to see how they relate to what’s written on the page. If they match you will be ranked higher. If you don’t know the difference between a title tag and a price tag, ask your web designer. If he doesn’t know, get a new web designer.
4. Pay per click – Pay per click advertising does work. That’s when you bid on keywords for a certain price and then pay the search engine every time someone clicks on the link. The problem is that the costs adds up quickly and many people simply click to see what your site looks like or they are just passing time. They may not be serious buyers.
5. Make sure that you put your website on everything that you have printed. Cards, Letterhead, envelopes, direct mail, brochures, magnets, hats, bummper stickers, etc. Anywhere that you can put your web site that potential visitors can see it helps. Also make sure that you always use a signature in your e-mail application that has a link to your site in it.
6. Read. Search for articles about SEO on google and yahoo. There are a lot of great free articles out there that can give you valuable tips. Also, google and yahoo have information on their sites for Web Masters on how they index web pages. Why not get the info directly from the people who are creating the Search Engine.
7. And most important of all…hire a web design company that will build your site the right way. That means using web standards that search engines like google and yahoo use to rank your site.
Most small businesses just don’t have the time to do all of this on their own. Again, work with your web designer to put together a plan that will get your site listed in front of the people who are looking for your product or service.
Category Web Design | Tags: Design,Search Engine Optimization,SEO,Web Design,Web Standards
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by john
On September 7, 2009 at 1:41 am
I already have a website. How much do you charge to make my website come up on the first page and one of the first three sites.
John