One of the things we get asked most often by our clients is, “How can we improve the search engine ranking of our website – especially on Google?”
The most beneficial way we know of to accomplish this is to employ a marketing firm (like Manning Media) to perform a Search Engine Optimization campaign for you. However, there are a number of free things you can do that will also help give your website a boost. One of the most important things is referred to as “link building”.
Search Engine Land recently published a great article on this very subject. We pulled out a few ideas from their article and combined them with some additional techniques we find especially effective to help you boost your rankings.
- Look for well known blogs that relate to your industry and ask to be a guest blogger. Once published, you can then establish a link to the article that you write on the industry website, to your company website. Ask that the industry website allow you to list a link in the “about the author” section of the post so that you get a link back to your website as well.
- Forming partnerships with local organizations (i.e. local chambers of commerce, ad clubs, other business organizations and clubs) can be an opportunity to get “backlinks” from their websites. Ask that they link to your website from a resource or members page that they may have on their website or offer to write a blog post. These types of websites are often looking for content material to post.
- If you sponsor any local events, charities, conferences, always ask that in addition to listing your business name or logo on their website, that they include a link to your website.
- Post content such as articles and tips to your social media pages (LinkedIn and Facebook for sure) and then include links to your website. Posting to your social media pages also encourages people to share the content gaining you further exposure.
- Need content ideas for posts? Go to BuzzSumo and type in a topic that relates to your business. It will show you a list of top articles about that topic. Read through them to get ideas and then create your own spin on it by writing your post.
- Monitor mentions of your business on the web. An easy way to do this is use Brandmentions.com and set up alerts. When a website mentions you, contact the site and ask them to hyperlink to your website. Most will do it!
- Create a page on your website such as a “Resources” page. On this page you can list useful links to other websites that your type of clients might find helpful or even to blog posts that you think are interesting. When you do this, many times the businesses will then link back to your page, thus creating outbound and inbound links.
- Blog at least once a week on your website and include topics and keywords that you want to rank for in your content. Creating content that is useful is important in creating links and also generating traffic to your website which indicates to search engines (i.e. Google) that your website is important and increasing the likelihood of you receiving a higher ranking on a search page. Remember a blog could be other things besides an article. It could be a short video, a “how-to”, a downloadable guide or research, a podcast, case studies or success stories, or infographics. And, don’t forget to reach out to others to do guest blog posts on your site and then ask them to link to it back to their website.
According to Moz’s “2015 Search Engine Ranking Factors Study,” having quality links to your website from other websites and from your website to others, have the strongest association with higher search rankings by the Google ranking algorithm.
Manning Media can help elevate your website search results by utilizing their reputation management tools, giving your business the lift it needs. Call us in Frederick, 301-620-7700 or in Hagerstown, 301-733-4500 or fill out our online request form by clicking HERE!