To most small business owners managing a website for the first time, getting listed in search engines and search engine ranking are confusing topics. This article isn’t meant to be a field manual of technical details to increase search engine rank, but rather, a light summer plate for those confused about search engine rank or just starting out.
Tips To Increase Search Engine Rank
What Is Search Engine Rank?
Search engine rank refers to the placement of your website in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for particular keyword search. Sorry, that sounds a heck of a lot more confusing than it actually is! In short, when someone goes to Google and types in a keyword, the resulting pages of matching websites is referred to as the search engine results pages. And the order of those pages is referred to as the search engine rank. So, when someone says, “hey, my website ranks number one in Google for such and such keyword,” it means their website is the first non-paid website listed on the search results pages for that keyword.
How Is Search Engine Rank Determined?
Search engines compute your website’s search engine rank using a variety of variables fed into proprietary algorithms. Most of the variables are a kept a secret to prevent people from gaming the system to increase search engine rank. But, a number of important key variables have been openly acknowledged by search engines, and are consistently used in internet marketing to improve organic (natural) rankings and increase search engine rank. A few examples of key variables to increase search engine rank include: site keywords and phrases, file naming, domain and web page naming, keyword density in the site’s content, website structure, traffic volume, and hyperlinks from other websites to your site. There are many other factors, but again, we’ll keep things simple for now.
How To Increase Search Engine Rank
Review Your Use Of Keywords And Phrases
First, check to make sure the keywords and phrases you are using on your website are used by people searching Google, Bing, Yahoo and the other search engines. Use Google Adwords Keyword Tool or Google Search-Based Keyword Tool to research the popularity of individual words and phrases and then use those keywords on appropriate pages of your website. Stocking your web content with keywords is a great way to increase search engine rank.
Review Your Website’s Traffic
Ask your web host for access to website’s statistics tracking software, log files, or ask your web designer to setup Google Analytics on your website. Once setup, review the words and phrases people are actually using to find your website, with the keyword list you’ve developed from the above step. If how you want people to find your website is out of sync with what people are actually using to find your website, then you’ve identified a big cause of poor rank. Work to bridge the gap in keyword use to increase search engine rank.
Review Links To And From Your Website
It’s a bit of a funky paradox… you need traffic to increase search engine rank, but in order to get traffic, you need a high search engine rank. That’s where the importance of linking to and from other websites comes into the equation. Search engines use links to your website to determine the content and quality of your website. The more links you have pointing to your website from related topics, the more valuable your website appears to the search engine — helping to increase search engine rank.
Create A Marketing Plan To Increase Search Engine Rank
Develop a long-term plan that defines what websites, online directories, social networking websites, communities, forums, and other places you should list your website with to increase search engine rank. In addition, identify what traffic goals you’re seeking, conversion rates, paid listings and pay-per-click search engine advertising (Google, Yahoo, Bing, AOL, Ask.com, etc.) you need to do. Then, work the plan. Planning your online marketing will set benchmarks for success, so that you’ll know where you’re succeeding and where you need to fine-tune things to increase search engine rank.
Kick your feet up and stay a bit! Leave us a comment, question, idea or concern about increasing search engine rank for your small business website. We’d love your feedback! And if you like what you’re reading, subscribe to our RSS feed or via e-mail. Thanks for reading!
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