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14 Ways to Own Page One of Google Search Results and Why You Should Care
by Dawn Billings, a gift from The Heart Link Women’s Network Heart to Heart Media and TROVA Women Business Directory Everybody is using it, but (almost) nobody really knows how it works. Google PageRank is probably one of the most important algorithms ever developed for the Web. With billions of existing pages and millions of pages generated every day, the search issue in the Web is more complex than you probably think it is. PageRank, only one of hundreds of factors used by Google to determine best search results, helps to keep our search clean and efficient. But how is it actually done? How does Google PageRank work, which factors do have an impact on it and which don’t? And what do we really know about PageRank?
With the rise of mobile search and social media, local Web-presence optimization is becoming paramount to small businesses. Local businesses need to understand how Google can drive awareness and traffic to their locations, and they need to recognize the critical role that search-engine results play in their competition against their peers. THE HEART LINK WOMENS NETWORK
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Consumers are more likely to click on search engine results that appear on the first page, according to research. When consumers hear of a local business that is not well known, it's only natural that they conduct some research before making a purchase. Thus, "owning" the first page of the search engine results page (SERP) is an important part of Web-presence optimization for any local business. You can optimize your Web presence to own page one of the Google SERPs in a variety of ways. Use a "build and buy" strategy that begins with paid advertising, and create sites and social profiles that are active, optimized for search, and linked to one another. Here are 13 effective ways your business can own the first page of search results.
1. Search Engine Advertising Google search ads can appear at the very top of the SERPs, creating instant visibility for your brand, regardless of what results appear on the rest of the page. That's why it's important to bid on your business name. For any business keyword, search engine advertising is the quickest and most cost-effective way to secure top billing on a SERP when consumers search for your type of business or your business name online.
2. Website A business website is important for ranking well on search engines, especially if your domain contains your exact business name. It is a great idea to have a name that describes exactly what you do like www.WomensNetworking.com or www.Networking-Events.co, or BestBusiness-WebDesign.com Or select a easily brandable name like www.Google.com www.Zillow.com or www.Ebates.com
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By creating a search-optimized site with a front page that strategically lists your business name, address, phone number, and other important details, you can help your site rank well for searches that use your business name.
3. Optimized Website Pages Create keyword-optimized pages throughout your website (e.g., the About, Products, Contacts, and Press Releases pages) to increase the chances of getting your business website ranked for your business name and getting individual pages of your site to rank high on Search Engine Results page (SERP). Typically, up to four additional pages can rank on SERPs before Google displays a "Show more results from [website URL]" link. Optimizing your website is extremely important if you want to be found on the Internet. Google offers a website optimization tool. Website Optimizer, Google’s free website testing and optimization tool, allows you to increase the value of your existing websites and traffic without spending a cent. But you have to be willing to gain your “inbound marketing” degree. Using Website Optimizer to test and optimize site content and design, you can quickly and easily increase revenue and ROI (return on investment) whether you’re new to marketing or an expert. Google also offers a web site optimization blog http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/ which offers many articles and tips on step-by-step how to optimize your websites. Here are some great tools to use to evaluate if your optimization process is working: • • • • •
For running split tests and multivariate tests, use Google Website Optimizer. To better understand how users interacted with your website, use Crazy Egg. Identified user experience issues by commissioning usability tests from UserTesting.com. Host your videos with YouTube. (Here’s a great guide for advanced YouTube techniques.) Analyze survey feedback to understand visitor intent and to identify common questions and objections. Use many survey tools, including Survey Monkey and Survey Gizmo (We highly recommend Survey Gizmo.) • HubSpot also offers a great free tool called Website Grader that you can find at http:// websitegrader.com/
area and or/ industry. THE HEART LINK WOMENS NETWORK
Online Social Networking: Get yourself up and going on LinkedIn, Plaxo, The Heart Alliance for Women Professionals, TROVA Business Directory, TROVA Women Business Directory and create a fan page on Facebook. Connect with professionals you know or with whom you share interests. Join discussions where you refer (or as we at The Heart Link Network like to say, link) to your website or blog. You can also start an appropriate group in your
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4. Blog Search engines love relevant, fresh, dynamic, and regularly published content about your business, industry, and community like the TROVA Business Networking blog to the left. Blogging is one of the most effective ways to dominate the first page of SERPs. In addition, social "likes" and "shares" are becoming important signals to search engines. People tend to share timely, informative, or entertaining content from blogs, rather than static pages from websites, so you can create search-friendly links and social authority via your blog. You can create and host a blog in several ways. For example, you can integrate your blog with your business website, or create a blog on a different Web address and cross-link the blog with your website. The latter will enable your blog—with its unique Web address—to rank on its own. Moreover, your blog will be deemed a unique site, which means multiple pages from your blog could rank individually on SERPs for your business name. If you love to read blogs and website articles, such as The Heart Link Network blog : ), I wanted to share a helpful tip with you! Many of you may have seen the orange and white symbol on blogs but may not know what it is or how it works. It’s the RSS Feed button! And it will simplify your blog-reading life, so I’ll walk you through it. RSS Feed Symbol
RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. But for us, RSS stands for
Really Simple Syndication – and it certainly lives up to it’s name as it will organize your blog reading life! So what does it do? It saves you time so you do not have to visit all of your favorite sites individually each day. It will send the latest posts from your favorite websites to YOU, as soon as they are posted! Exciting, right? So how do you set it up? Simply click the RSS Feed button on your favorite website and select how you would like to be notified of new article posts. Outlook, My Yahoo and Google Reader are just a few popular choices, so choose the program you like to work with best!
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Let’s look at Outlook, and how to make your RSS work. First, it automatically creates a folder with the website name, and populates right into an RSS Feed folder Just like with email, the number next to the folder in blue tells me I have 17 new articles to read on whatever blog I choose. When I click on the (chosen blog) folder, it pulls up all of the blog posts for me in an email-type format. By clicking on it, I can see a preview of the first few sentences of the blog article. If the article sounds interesting, all I have to do is click “View Article” and it will link me to the full article! How easy is that! If the article doesn’t sound interesting, I can simply delete it. So now I don’t have to scroll though pages and pages of blog posts, I can pick and choose what interests me! And I can save interesting articles right in my folder for easy reference. So where is this orange button, you ask? The RSS Feed button is usually found at the very bottom of a website’s page. You might have to search around to find it, but it’s usually there! Not every website has an RSS Feed, so if you spent 5 minutes and still can’t find the symbol it’s possible that particular site does not use it. But you’ll find more often than not a website has it. Want to see ours? Scroll down to the very bottom of the page, you’ll find the RSS Feed button in the green footer on the righthand side. RSS Feed can also be found in the Footer. Go ahead and click it! It will be your new best friend. So sit back and let the news come to you – you’ll always be the first to know of the most current blog posts out there!
5. Get an Ad on the TROVA Business Directory or TROVA Women Business Directory One of the least expensive and easiest way to potentially show up on the front page of Google is by creating a one page mini-website optimized ad on the TROVA Business Directory and TROVA Women Business Directory. This is the perfect option for small business professionals, especially those who do not have a website, or only have a brochure website online. To learn more about the advantages of an miniTHE HEART LINK WOMENS NETWORK
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website ad go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUQX377Kwgk and watch this video that explains that incredible benefits that having an ad on TROVA provides.
6. Submit your website to Directories Important directories need to have a listing for your site. Some important directories are: • www.dmoz.org/ It is free to submit a business listing. • https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/reference/cost Costs $299 a year to list your business website • www.stpt.com/directory/ Cost $99 a year to list your business website • www.joeant.com Costs $40 a year to submit your business listing • www.Jayde.com/ It is free to submit a business listing. • www.lii.org/ It is free to submit a listing. • www.business.com/ Costs $299 a year to list your business website
7. Google Places Page Claiming your Google Place page is an absolute must for any local business. Claim your Google Places listing - it's easy to do and if one doesn't exist for your business then you can quickly and simply create one. A Google Places listing is effectively a profile attached to Google's local search results. It is important because Google ranks these profiles above all others in their new first page local search results. You can optimize your Place page for search around your business name and business keywords, and your listing can also appear in Google Maps and at the top of the SERPs. Add pictures to your Google Places listing. The effectiveness of your Google places listing is impacted by its completeness. Images will not only flesh out your listing, but when they appear in the search results, besides your Google Places listing, they are eye-catching and attractive which will increase clicks.
8. Learn to Write Syndicated Press Releases There are few things as powerful as a great press release. Press releases are picked up as news on the internet and can be extremely valuable ways to get a message out about your business. http:// promotions.prnewswire.com According to a study of commercial newswires: PR Newswire generates more media pick-up. PR newswire get used by media more often than copy from competing services and generate more clips when they are picked up. There are many resources THE HEART LINK WOMENS NETWORK
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for learning to write press releases http:// www.publicityinsider.com/release.asp You can also get free press releases http://www.pr.com/ promote-your-business Creating search-optimized press releases when major news occurs and syndicating them via a wire service can spread news about your business and help you own more SERP territory. Major news sites can pick up your press releases off the wire and run them, word-for-word, on their sites— which would pack a lot of authority with search engines. Though many public relations professionals consider press releases an outdated form of marketing, others argue that press releases are an excellent way to reach both news media and everyday people. Press releases also catch the attention of search engine robots, placing valuable links to your site around the internet and moving your website up Google’s rankings. It’s important, however, to set up you press release as efficiently as possible to gain maximum SEO benefit. Here are five tips to creating a high-quality, SEO-friendly press release. 1. Use your keywords at the beginning. Your keywords, which should come from your existing SEO campaign and show up as anchor text links, will be used by Google to determine how high your website ranks. Google will use the headline, first 160 characters of the body, and possibly the short summary of the press release to help determine these rankings as well. Use the keywords in the first 160 characters of the body for maximum benefit, but definitely within the first few sentences is that isn’t possible. The keywords should also be found within the first 60 characters of the title. 2. Who, What, When, Where, Why. Remember that you’re writing a journalistic article, so it’s important to get to the point as quickly as possible. The first sentence should answer the five “W” questions, and the first paragraph should be a brief summary of all the information that the press release will contain (as many sites will shorten the release and post only the first sentence or two). Be concise and don’t use flowery language like idioms or metaphors. 3. Use anchor text links. Your keywords should come from your existing SEO campaign (or be researched with a tool like Google AdWords if you don’t have an SEO campaign) and show up in the release as anchor text links. Be sure that the links point to all different pages on the site, not just the home page. Include a full URL of the home page as well – many PR sites won’t accept anchor text links but will post full URLs as live links. This still has significant SEO benefit. 4. Be sure that it’s newsworthy information. Don’t write spam press releases just for the sake of building links. By filling press release wires with junk, companies are only further devaluing the press release process and knocking back their SEO campaigns. You can almost always find
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something newsworthy within the company to do a press release about – such as a new staff member, a new location, a new service, or a new innovation that you could discuss. 5. Use social media to your advantage. Social media has exploded in the past year, and it’s quickly becoming one of the most effective marketing channels in existence. Post your press release to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to give your fans and followers the ability to comment on the material. Social media websites make press releases more interactive, boosting the human readership element of your SEO campaign and keeping your company in the spotlight. To add more authority to your overall Web presence, optimize your press-release content just as you would a website page, and include links to your business website, pertinent blog posts, and social profiles.
9. Create Several Unique Domains You may have topics or information that warrant their own websites. Search engines typically only list one page per domain in their results, unless you work very hard to have unique and relevant information on other pages within your site. But directories prefer and are more likely to accept home pages that have unique information and offerings. For example we have many websites that all offer different and important information and gifts like:
• www.BestSkinCare-BeautyProducts.com for example is a website that showcase beauty and
skincare products and professionals.
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• www.Womens-Networking.com is for The Heart Link Network business women
networking and marketing with heart in face to face, intimate settings in over 180 locations in US, Canada and Australia, and a new scholarship location in Pakistan.
• www.TROVABusinessNetwork.com is for business professionals who want to network in a
new, modern and exciting way.
• www.GoodHealth-Products.com is a website that showcases good health products and
professionals who represent them.
• www.HearttoHeartMedia.com is a website that offers industry exclusive, key-word rich
websites that a professional can advertise on and BE FOUND on the Internet while all proceeds collected from the online advertising go to various women and children’s charities.
• www.Find-Success.CO is a website that helps business professionals find success in all areas
of their lives.
• www.TheHeartAlliance.com is our no-cost, professional women online social community
where women can meet like-minded professionals from around the world.
• www.Heart-Notes.com Our Heart-Notes Garden is an online garden where you can plant a
flower in honor of a friend or loved one and then send the flower via email with a brief heartnote to let them know you love them or are thinking of them.
• www.TrovaBusinessDirectory.com A small business directory created to showcase, support
and optimize small businesses, their products and services.
• www.TrovaWomenBusinessDirectory.com A women business directory created to
showcase, support and optimize women owned small businesses, their products & services.
• www.DawnBillings.com This website offers information about relationships, entitlement,
speaking and books written by Dawn Billings.
• www.GetCapables.com This website offers parenting tips and a NEW revolutionary
parenting tool called CAPABLES, along with a comprehensive, step-by-step parenting guide that helps parents parent with confidence and courage.
• www.Parenting-Positive.com This website focuses on tips on how to positively parent. • www.WomensProfessionalNetworking.com This website contains a list of valuable women’s
associations and women networking organizations that women in business might want to get involved with to grow their businesses.
10. Back to Basics Don’t overlook the basics. When I was a ballroom dancer earlier in my career we learned, the better dancer you are the more you need to understand and respect the basic movements of each dance. What are the basics of Search Engine Optimization that helps you get found online? First, ensure each web page has clear, concise descriptions and keywords in the title, and clear, well thought out meta tags. Every word counts. Give titles to your links. This can result in search engines easily finding them and giving you a higher rating. THE HEART LINK WOMENS NETWORK
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11. Anchors Away Anchor text is the hyperlinked words on a web page - the words you click on when you click a link. Link building is an essential part of SEO. The more links, the better. Each link consequently comes with an anchor text. The confusion right now is, does Google still give as much important to anchor text as it does before? Let’s take a look at how Google derives an individual link’s relevance. Basically, there are three major ways: Anchor Text The anchor text is the blue underlined text that is clickable and will take you to another webpage to which it is pointing to. There have been many controversies and exchange of ideas surrounding anchor text – some swear by its effectiveness, while others proclaim its death. That is how it is with the Internet, always changing and many different experts with competing opinions. Recently, Google announced that it will gradually reduce its dependence on anchor text until it has minimal effect. Lots of sources have given infographs about the future of SEO factors – and it clearly shows that anchor text is in rapid decline. Anchor Title The anchor title is the tool-tip text that appears whenever you mouse-over on a link. The importance and weight of the anchor title is not really as big as the anchor text – but it is one of the most visible factors describing the link and what it is pointing to. I personally think that Google derives a link’s relevance from an anchor title too albeit not too much. Context around the link The context that surrounds the link is also used to derive the link and what it is pointing to. Basically, we look at two major factors that comprise the context: 1.
2.
Page Title – The page title is what you see at the top-leftmost part of your browser. It gives you an immediate idea about what the webpage is all about. This affects the link by the page as a whole. A link coming from a page with a very relevant title tag incurs a huge impact in the link’s quality. Content Body – The content body is the whole of the article written in the webpage – where the link is almost always placed. The upper part of the content is arguably the best link placement and should easily describe what the link is about. This is also used by Google to derive the link and where it points to.
Anchor Text’s current importance Right now, looking into an experiment posted in SEOmoz, the facts are laid out straight. Google isn’t there in its acclaimed ‘anchor text independence’ yet. Right now, how the system THE HEART LINK WOMENS NETWORK
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works is how it still does – varying anchor text is still the best as long as there is relevance in the words. For example: If you have a website that sells gift checks, building links with the anchor text “gift checks”, “gift certificates”, “gift items” will get you further up the ranks in the long run than just focusing all your anchor texts on “gift checks”. But not having the keywords “gift” or “checks” or “gift checks” inside the anchor text would lead to it being somewhat useless. If you visit the experiment from SEOmoz, you’ll see that the website with the backlinks having the anchor text “Click here”, “See here”, “This entry”, was nowhere to be found in the long run. The results of the experiment laid it straight out: build backlinks with relevant, but varying anchor text – and you’ll get to rank well in the long run. Here’s why anchor text is so important: It tells search engines what the page is about. Used wisely, it can still boosts your rankings in search engines, especially Google. It is best to tie your anchor text to the article and information you are sharing. Include important key words in your anchor test. This can make a big difference in the final ranking of your site’s pages. If you are unsure of how to use key words use Google’s key word tool box. http://www.googlekeywordtool.com/
12. Google Profiles The launch of Google+, Google's social network, along with its recent decision to open up the network to businesses, too, bodes well for those seeking attention from search engines. I know it is frustrating because there is one more new online way to showcase you and your business that you must learn about, but it is well worth learning. Those profiles can rank high on SERPs for your business name; of course, you should include businessname keywords in your Google Profiles or Google+ About pages. Quick video of my thoughts about how Google+ can affect which websites your clients go to through their social graph. Google+ isn’t just going to be a good social networking system, it’s going to be good at helping people find results that are more relevant to their search. Why? People trust peer recommendations and Google+ has these recommendations tightly integrated into the largest search engine in the world. This reason alone can help Google Plus take off. Take a look at this video by Tech Savvy Agent to help you understand the power of +1 http://youtu.be/zXZdvepYyhE
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13. Review Sites Listing your business on local review sites, such as Yelp, is another way you can own more territory in search. Customers may already be leaving reviews about your business online, so it's important to claim your business profiles on review sites to monitor and manage your online reputation.
14. Use Other Web Sites Traffic and Optimization
That is how we created TROVA Business Directories.
Optimizing your website can be extremely time consuming and very expensive. There is a massive learning curve also involved. We know, we have spent the last year and a half immersed in inbound marketing training from many sources.
We wanted to make using websites that will allow you to be found more easily because of their immense traffic, EASY, as well as, INEXPENSIVE. If you want to learn inbound marketing for yourself, we will happily share with you some important basics. • If you are a business today, you need a business Facebook page or Fan page. Your Facebook
page will be rated higher because Facebook has millions of links. LinkedIn, Plaxo and other social media sites have high ratings.
• As we mentioned, you must blog. • You must appear to be “everywhere.” • But we felt that if you could buy inexpensive online advertising, and have us help you do the
hard “inbound marketing” lifting, why not let us make your life easier?
• As I mentioned earlier, one of the greatest and easiest tools for inbound marketing we
created are the exciting and FUN TROVA Online Business Directories. TrovaBusinessDirectory.com and TrovaWomenBusinessDirectory.com TROVA means “find” in Italian. Now, for just pennies a day, you can easily be found by the people searching for your products and services on the web.
• You can buy an entire optimized mini advertising site where you can upload video, have a
photo gallery, create links to your website, and easily share all of your business information
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and your mini site with Twitter, Facebook and many others. • OR your Trova mini site can actually serve as your website. Seriously, can inbound marketing
get easier and less expensive than that?
• If you have questions about our inbound marketing training and services, email Sherry
Roden at Sherry@TrovaWomenBusinessDirectory.com
About the Author: Dawn L Billings is an ardent advocate for women’s and children’s issues, the author of over 20 books and hundreds of articles on parenting, relationships, entitlement and networking. Dawn is the CEO and Founder of The Heart Link Women’s Network, Trova Women Business Directory and Trova Small Business Directory and The Heart Alliance.com international women’s networking organizations and communities. Take the opportunity to attend a Heart Link Women's Network networking event. Check out our locations and find a gathering near you! You will be so glad you did. Also check out - TROVA Women Business Directory, and TROVA Business Directory for all small businesses. TROVA in Italian means "Find". Would you like for your business to be found easily both locally and nationally? For more information about how to get your women owned business listed for FREE Dawn is also the creator of the NEW Parenting Tool called Capables, a revolutionary parenting tool and Toddler toy that ends whining and tantrums for good. In 2008 Dawn was selected by Oprah Magazine and The White House project as one of 80 emerging women leaders in the nation. Find out more and buy Dawn’s books, and the NEW Toddler Teaching Toys called CAPABLES and Capable Moms Club. Dawn is also the architect of the Primary Colors Personality Test
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