Most business owners know a thing or two about marketing themselves effectively. You likely have business cards printed up, maybe have an ad in the local Yellow Pages, and have other means of putting your name out there. If you've got a Web site, you've probably hired a professional to design it and do all of the technical work. But have you hired someone to optimize your site? Search engine optimization can help owned small business sites get to the top of the search engines...yes, even in front of the "bigger sites" who have more money to spend of marketing efforts! The reason that SEO works so well is because an SEO expert knows what the search engines like. It's about making sure your Web site has the right content, in the right placement, and through linking properly to your targeted keywords and phrases.
Here are 3 SEO Secrets to Your Success:
1. Find a niche. Catch customers in the act of buying exactly what you sell by making sure your keywords are perfectly suited to your customers. If you sell many different products, analyze what you have for sale and segment each category into niche markets and go after those. If you sell shoes, for example, don't try to target the keyword "shoes" for search engine rankings. You will never get you where you want to go. You will have much greater success if you go after the smaller niches like black basketball shoes, pink girls shoes, boys soccer cleats, affordable kids shoes, affordable designer shoes, etc...you get the point! This is the first secret to success for your owned small business.
2. Use your keywords towards the top of your page, right away. You'll want to take a peek at the "cached snapshot of the pages" of your site from the Google toolbar. Then, click on "text-only version" in the upper right of your screen to see how Google looks at your site. Next, do a search on Google (in a separate browser window) for your targeted keyword or phrase. Which of your competitors comes up on the first page? Do the same thing as above to look at their sites and see what Google loves about them and imitate their methods/techniques. This is one of the smartest things you can do for your owned small business to ensure high rankings.
3. Link your keyword phrases towards the top of your page and throughout your pages, but do it evenly. Cramming a bunch of links in groups anywhere on your page is a red flag for Google that your site is spam. That's the last thing you want! However, by including your keywords and phrases, linked and evenly distributed, your site will get favored in the search engine rankings. Try not to use your exact keyword or phrase more than about once every 100 words for best SEO. You CAN include secondary versions of your keyword all over the place (such as described above in the shoe site example). Your goal is to get your owned small business on the first page of Google!
So, remember to keep your content rich with information and helpful tips and Google will reward you with lots of traffic! Don't forget to find a niche (or niches) to go after, use your keywords at the top of your page and throughout, and do the same for your keyword-linked words and phrases. Give it some time and patience and you'll soon find your site rising in the ranks!
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