There is a way by which the elusive page 1 rankings on Google  can be achieved within days and weeks instead of months and years.

It involves tapping into the power of Google Universal and social bookmarking to get prominent rankings on Google.

For example, a popular video on Youtube which has the relevant metadata makes it faster on page 1 than a website which is being optimised.

A Blog post that has optimised content can make it to page 1 of Google under Blog Results.

A news item on your website can make it to Page 1 results under Google news within days.

A Google maps result can become live within weeks of uploading.

Any SEO Approach should utilise a combination of methods, some which achieve quick wins and some which achieve long term results.

  There was a gold rush…and there is a gold rush. At a time when economists are talking about a slowdown, the digital economy is booming.  The digital entrepreneurs view the new economy as the next big boom. Taking inspiration from success stories like facebook, flickr, Digg etc a whole new breed of websites is emerging in interesting areas from parenting to photobooks, from comparison sites to auction sites. Internet is a level playing field. Leadership positions are constantly being threatened as new websites gain market share from others. Technologies continue to expand at a rapid rate. Creative destruction will continue to dismantle old business models and lead to new ones. As buying habits are changing, the definition of the internet is changing from that of an information superhighway to a Megamall. In a survey conducted by Monash Retail Studies, the average Australian spends more time online than watching TV. What that means is you now don’t need mega bucks to get your message across.

Whether you have an online or offline business, there are people in your industry who are leading the way online. They have websites, which attract a large number of visitors and engage them. Is your website getting enough visitors? Are the visitors spending time on your website? Do they find it full of useful resources? How many enquiries and sales does your website generate? How do you know whether you are getting more traffic than your competitors? Or where do you stand against the industry leaders. All this can be done by using a traffic comparison on www.alexa.com. While the information is skewed and biased sample of Alexa toolbar users, it still serves as a good comparison. Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics) is a useful method of finding out how much traffic you get on your website, which pages do your visitors like and which pages do they spend less time on. It also reveals what traffic sources does your website get it’s traffic. You can easily judge whether that paid listing on yellow pages online is getting you any traffic. 

Once we know where we stand, the next step is to make an online marketing strategy. This starts with defining your target market and your value proposition, or unique selling proposition (USP). For example, if you own an online gift store, your USP may be your delivery time, customer service or the gift range that you stock. Once you have a USP, you have to articulate it clearly on your website. If you provide a guarantee, put it upfront on your homepage. Often, people have the more persuasive elements of their service in an obscure part of the website. Use client testimonials to your advantage and enable your prospects to read them and gain confidence in your service while they are making up their mind whether or not to fill up the contact form on your site. Promote your website on search engines, blogs and forums using SEO. Give importance to Google but don’t ignore other potential traffic sources. Write articles about your products or services and post them in places where your prospects visit frequently. And lo you are ready to strike gold. 

The online business industry has never been as exciting as it is these days. The number of online users has increased manifold over the past few years. So have been their buying habits. The web is fast changing from being an information superhighway to a mega-mall. Attitude towards risk has changed and people like to take quick  decisions online.

What does it mean for web entrepreneurs? One, this is the best time to find gaps in the market and launch new products and services online. Secondly, there is a great opportunity to buy websites, optimise them for search engine rankings and profit from the increased traffic.  Ideas abound on the web space. One can gain insights from what other’s are doing, add an innovative twist and launch the idea with better impact.

We would like to thank our visitors for their appreciation….we are really enjoying the experience of sharing. We also appreciate the ideas of those posting comments on this blog.

This month, this Blog has been recognised by Adspace pioneers and Marketing Magazine among the top 50 blogs in Australia.

Here are a few more SEO Secrets and we hope that you enjoy reading them :

Be original

When building your website, always create original and unique content. Copying content from another website, even if it is an international site, will be detrimental to getting good website position. Google applies duplicate penalty to sites which plagiaries content.

Browsers not readers

On the web, people often skim through the content. While you need to provide enough information for those who seek detail, you should not have long pages  of running content. Break your content in sections with clear and compelling headlines. For example, =if you are selling ‘notebook computers’,a good headline is ‘The one-stop-shop for notebook computers’ as opposed to  ‘Welcome to ABC Notebooks.  

Updates

Add fresh content to your website on a regular basis. The content added should be contextually relevant. e.g, new articles, news or resources on the topic that your web-page is based on.  Develop a repository of content to be published on the website on a weekly basis. Google is more likely to rank a site which is recent in it’s new content as compared to a site which hasn’t changed it’s content for many years. 

How to use images

Use more text than images, and when using images make sure that they have an ALT Tag which is a method of helping google read what that image is about. Create usergenerated content on your website by launching a blog/forum. This helps to create fresh content and also engages the visitors by increasing their sense of ownership in the website.

Very often, we come across small business owners who want to get high Google rankings on a low budget. My advice to them is, not to go for a fully managed SEO service but to utilise our SEO Consulting services in order to chalk out a plan and then do the work themselves. This saves them money and helps them to get  the high search engine rankings.  According to me this is the big difference of successful people. Adapting to situations and achieving results despite the constraints.

The lifestyle that comes from running an online business is priceless.  The idea of abandoning the 9-5 race, working from home and enjoying the abundant income the internet has to offer is alluring for many folks who go choose to do business online.

Although alluring, a successful business doesn’t happen accidentally.  Just like business in the physical world, there are factors that will influence your success.  So before you rush out and pay your website developers…make sure you’re aware of the following…

Sell a great product

Whether you’re selling a physical product/information/service make sure it’s of high quality.  There is so much junk sold online, so the last thing you want to do is ruin your reputation by selling a low quality product.

Furthermore, make sure you’re product is not a complete re-hash of something that already exists online. 

The more original you’re offering is to the online space – the easier it will be to differentiate yourself and get noticed!

Market Effectively

Just like real life, it’s all about getting a unique selling proposition across to the customer.  Figure and out and aim to communicate the essence of why you’re business is special.

Then…get the word out!  Considering there are over 108,810,358 websites online (Netcraft Web Server Survey) you need something to say….’LOOK OVER HERE …MY BUSINESS HAS ARRIVED!’.

The essence of online marketing is to let, as many people know about your existence as possible (and have them remember you!).  This will build the traffic that you need to do business.  A couple of great ways to do this is…

-Have a memorable website name and domain

-Post comments on blogs and forums

-Write articles and submit them to directories

-Build links to your site

-Make your website search engine friendly

-Pay Per Click Advertising

If the content you produce is valuable, then you’re providing even more value by letting more people know about it. 

If you learn about a great new web site, do you let other people know about it?  Aim to make your business ‘that site’ so that you’re customers spread word for you!

Monetise your traffic!

After you have gotten people through the door…its time to turn them into paying customers! 

Does a coffee store with no one behind the front desk sell coffees?  Of course not!  So a website that converts visitors into buyers is critical!

Define what you want from visitors to your site.  Maybe it’s a sale, maybe it’s a lead…whatever it is, make sure that your website gives a clear pathway for the visitor to enable your goal.

Make sure you’re website is simple, clean and functional.  Ask yourself…if I were a customer…would I know what to do next?’

Customer Retention

Happy customers are more likely to buy again right?  A good business will stay in touch with their customers with newsletters, blogs and special offers.

Loyalty programs and bonus offers based on points are also ways of encouraging customers to come back.

Communication is the trick – and should have all your previous customers coming back for more!

In the next episode…

Theory, theory, theory…lets look at some examples!  Tune in next time and we can see how these elements have been applied by thriving online businesses.

Nothing like seeing the successful in action!

Many businesses do not get into SEO efforts for their website, as they are unsure about how to track it’s progress.  It’s fair enough to be wary of the unknown - but upon further investigation these businesses would discover that there are very accurate measures of an SEO campaigns success. 

Google Analytics is a website analysis tool that provides you information about all traffic and conversion aspects of your website.  This type of information can be useful for all online businesses – as it will allow businesses a statistical peep inside the way web surfers interact with their website content

Some great functions of Analytics are…

• Find out where your website hits came from
• How long they stayed on your website
• Their geographical position
• Find out what keywords attract the prospects that get converted
• Which landing pages and content are the best for conversions

Google Analytics and SEO…marriage made in heaven

So what this really means is that it couldn’t be simpler to get the data you need to make informed decisions about your SEO campaign.  Google Analytics can be a great tool in your SEO arsenal to plot a course for an effective online presence.

If you find that traffic from a certain keyword is converting more then the rest – you can focus optimisation efforts there.  On the other hand, you may discover a page with a customer ‘exit rate’ (or ‘bounce rate’) needs tweaking.

Having the right information to base your online business on is critical.  Google Analytics can be great in pointing the way to ‘what is working’ or ‘what needs tweaking’ in terms of SEO. 

Where do I get it?

Implementation couldn’t be easier!  For quick and easy guide on signing up to Google analytics just click here.

PS…It’s free!

In short…yes! You’re business can compete with the large companies in SEO. Simply put…a lot of large businesses launch their websites without much knowledge of SEO or Internet Marketing.

They are unaware of the strategies and tactics involved in achieving the high rankings for keywords that will mean success online! Certain big companies believe that they’re brand name alone will be enough to allow them to gain market share.

So…when you search your main keywords in Google, what websites pop up first? Is it a big corperate player? A slick new-comer? An old veteran?

Well you know what…it doesn’t matter about WHO the site is. What matters is HOW WELL they have gone about their SEO strategy. The big ‘intimading’ real-life corperate giants might turn out to be SEO-pushovers!

Here are a couple of simple ways you can determine whether or not you are going up against SEO rookies or seasoned veterans…

Check how many back-links they have

Backlinks are one of the main factors of a good ranking. Google the keywords you would like to compete for and analyse the number 1 and 10 ranking websites (beating number 10 means you are on the 1^st page!).

Find out how many back-links your competition has by inserting their URL’s into the MarketLeaps Link Tool.

Alternatively, you can type this command into Google to check backwards links

link:http://www.youcompetition.com/

Not all links are created equal though! Check out if any of your competitors links come from any websites with real authority. For example…an online computer store with a link from Microsoft (that will be the day!) is sitting pretty.

How is their site structured?

Here are some factors of your competitor’s site structure to analyze….

• Do they have a sitemap? (Sitemaps are great for SEO)
• Have the included their main keywords in the title tag?
• Do their hyperlinks contain their keywords?
• Do they use keywords early and often within the body text?
• Do they have <h1> and <h2> header tags that contain the right keywords within their html code?

Enlist some help!

It can be a bit of a daunting task to analyze just how competitive the market your business wants to target is. So if you’re stuck or want some help…contact us and we will be glad to talk about your chances of knocking over the big-boys!

Being listed well in Google is not the only way to have your website found! Although it does hold a lion’s share of the overall search engine traffic – there are still other ways to be noticed in the maelstrom of content. (SEO is not just about search engines)

Web Directories

A web directory is a compilation of different resources gathered in one place. There is usually a central theme to a directory (eg: Business Blog Directory, AFL Website Directory etc). The site compiles a host of outbound links to other websites – that are relevant to its theme.

This allows users to find your website when browsing directories that cover your topic.

The fundamental difference between most directories and search engines is that humans (not search engine crawlers) add links. Most likely – the webmasters of the directory will check your site for relevance to the topic before submitting it.

In order to find link directories – a simple “x directory” search on Google (X = your theme) should reveal some good places to start. Every approval to for a directory is an extra back-link for you (thus increasing your chances of ranking!).

Some directory examples include…

• StyleHunter (a fashion directory)
• Blog Catalog (a Blog directory)

Most SEO’s will stress the importance off having other relevant websites in your industry link to you. This obviously would satisfy Google’s authority fetish and consequently – HELP YOU RANK WELL!

But inbound links from authority websites are sometimes hard to get – especially if you are a new player in your industry. So…can linking to these websites from yours (outbound links) increase your ranking? Lets find out…

What does outbound linking do for you?

When you link to another site, you are essentially casting a ‘vote’ for it. So ok…your helping them? Yes fair enough…BUT if you consider the process from a Google crawler’s point of view then you will see the benefit

“Hi – Im your local Google Crawler”

And I have just jumped on to your website and noticed that you have outbound links to well-known, authority websites in your industry, This fact makes it easier for me to know where you fit in – and therefore rank you accordingly.

As an example, if you were to have a Video Games e-store – it’s logical to assume that Google consider you more likely to be related to video games if you linked to authority sites such as GameSpy and IGN.com.

BUT WAIT….

This is by NO means the magic bullet of SEO. So when considering outbound linking there are a few factors you must know….

• You must keep the links relevant (never link to an unscrupulous source!)
• Be selective with who you link to (a couple of relevant AUTHORITY websites with a high page rank is advised).
• Use appropriate keywords in anchor text link (label the ‘hyperlink’ in other words).
• Have a separate page for your links – as the outbound’s will dilute your page rank for that page. (A ‘links’ or ‘related materials’ page is ideal – as you wouldn’t care if it didn’t get indexed by Google)

Please use this technique sparingly. I am not encouraging you to turn your website into a link-farm! But none the less, a few relevant outbound links make sense from an SEO perspective and will also help you build some relationships with other websites in your industry!