Increase Your Web Site Ranking

What You Can Do

We have done everything we can to help make your Web site rank competitively, but there are things you can do to help it attain its full potential. Read about what you can do to improve your site’s ranking below.

Along with individually optimized pages with keyword rich content, we have optimized title and description tags, created header tags, attached optimized alt and title tags to images, and possibly embedded a Google Maps listing for geo-specific targeting. When we create a site we use optimized file extensions, the addition of robot.txt files, and the creation of an Extended Markup Language site map.

We’ve done all we can, but there are a few minor steps you can take to help your site rank more quickly and in better positions during searches. First and foremost you will want to create reviews on the two largest local search tools, Google Maps and Yahoo! Local.

Follow these simple steps to make sure you’re getting the most out of your Web site.

Google Places

If you haven’t established or claimed by Google Places listing please refer to instructions in our May 2010 Newsletter. A great way to generate additional Internet leads is to produce some high quality reviews.

After your Web site is up and running, the best way to get your Google Maps listing to the top of the list is to have ‘reviews.’ Google loves reviews because it provides extra information for end users, and if you have a few of them your listing is much more likely to show up on page. Follow these steps to create reviews for your listing.

How to create Google Places reviews:

Start out at www.google.com/maps
Search for your business name + your location. Ex: HUEY Productions, Fredericksburg, TX.
Locate your listing and click “Write a Review.”
In order to leave a review you will need to set up a Google Account. If you don’t have one, click the link that says “Create an account now” and follow the steps to create an account. (Setting up the account only takes about a minute.)
Your last step is to enter the review. When you leave a review keep keywords and geographic targets in mind.

Example: The Web site designers at HUEY Productions created an excellent Web site for my business located in Fredericksburg, TX. I highly recommend them!

Note: As with any review service, your reviews should come from different computers and different accounts. Otherwise the search engines will think you’re spamming and penalize your listing. The best way to get good reviews is to request them from happy customers!

Create a Business Page On Google Plus

Google is improving search by refining official page detection: They try hard to give users the most relevant and authoritative results. By adding a Google Plus business page your will allow Google to adjust how they attempt to determine which pages are official. This will tend to rank your Web site even higher in their ranking.” A Google+ page linked to your site with Google verification will signal Google that your site is the “official” one for your business.

Verified Google+ brand pages are showing up in regular Google searches. Individual posts by both individuals and Pages are showing up as well. This is a huge opportunity to grab more of the front page real estate on Google search, and will mean even more for those businesses that need to do some reputation management in Google results.

Since Google basically owns search and all their other properties like YouTube, Blogger.com and Google Places get priority in search it would not be a bad idea to have a Google+ business page in addition to your personal profile. A fairly comprehensive tutorial that will walk you through the process of setting up a Google+ page is located here.

Creating a Yahoo! Local Review

Start out by going to http://local.yahoo.com/
Search for your Business name and location
Click ‘Write a Review’ and complete in the same manner as you did for your Google Maps listing.

Create A Listing in Craigslist

Start out by going to Craigslist and selecting your geographic location in the “State and City” list on the right of the screen.
On the left side of the page, toward the top, click the link “Post to Classifieds.”
Choose the appropriate heading for the type of business you’ re advertising. There are numerous choices, so be specific.
Now choose a more specific category from within the list that comes under your heading. Your choice should clearly reflect the nature of your business.
Fill out all of the fields that appear for your ad. This is your chance to make an impression, so take care describing your business. Gear your advertisement to your target audience and provide your Web site address.
A verification e-mail will be sent to you by Craigslist to verify you are an actual person, and not some spamming software trying to clog Craigslist.
Wait for leads to call or e-mail you regarding your services.

Additional Steps To Improve Site Ranking

Request links to your Web site. Search engines can see all the Web sites that link to your Web site. The more links and the better quality the links the more benefit your site will receive.

A great way to get some high-quality in-bound links is to contact manufacturers your company has a relationship with and ask them if they have a place to list supplier Web sites.
Most chambers of commerce now list member Web sites. Make sure you contact your Chamber and get your site listed. This tactic is especially beneficial for geo-targeting customers.
List your site on free directory listings. A great list of high-quality directories can be found at Directory Critic.

Let everyone know your company has a Web site.

Make your employees aware of the site.
Put the Web address on your business cards, letterhead, and e-mail signature. Include the Web address on any print, radio or TV advertising. Display the Web address on your store front window or work vehicles.
Let customers know about the site, especially when they call on the phone. Let them know directions, coupons, and/or a gallery of your work may be viewed at the site. Not only does this make your customer aware of your site, it allows the customer to show other people your site. An added benefit is that the increased traffic will boost your search engine rankings.

Watch out for companies offer links for money.

You’ve probably received offers from companies promising links from PR5-PR9 (Page Rank 5 – Page Rank 8) sites for a few dollars. This sounds like a good offer and the Web sites look relatively credible. However, things that look too good to be true usually aren’t true.

Many people have been burned by these link building services. What do these companies promise and what do they actually do?
The promises of these dubious link building companies sound very good:

They promise you links from high Page Rank Web sites.
The promise you a quick and easy solution to get more backlinks to your site.

Unfortunately, this is not what these companies actually do. When you order such a link building package, you will get the following:

They create fake accounts on forums with a link to your site.
They write dubious comments in forums with a link to your site.
They create hundreds of fake websites and Internet directories to which they “submit” your site. The Web sites and directories are all owned by the same company (which also owns the link building service).

These links might actually harm your Web site. There are several reasons why these links won’t help your Web site:

The quality of the pages and the links is so low that the links won’t have a positive effect on your rankings.
Some of these sites add the links in a way that clearly looks like a paid link (which cause problems with Google).
Most of the links will disappear after a short time.

Some people in the scam forums even reported they were charged for links that didn’t exist at all. When they requested their money back, the customer service did not reply and the “US link building company” turned out to be located in an Eastern European country. The money was lost.

When it comes to link building there is no fast-track. If you want to get lasting rankings in Google’s top 10 results, there are no quick and easy solutions. You need high quality Web page content that has been optimized for users and search engines and you need backlinks from high quality Web sites. It takes time to get these backlinks but it’s worth the time and the effort. A single link from a high quality site is better than lots of low quality links from dubious sites.