A guest consultant advises a Mainebiz reader on the best strategies for optimizing a website’s appearance in Google’s search results.
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Q: I have a website. What do I need to do to get on the first page of Google?
ACE advises: Do you actually need to be on the first page of Google?
There are so many ways to be discovered today with the addition of social media. Are you in a business that needs to be found, or do you provide a service where most of the visitors would be looking you up after they have met you? With the 1.5 billion websites online right now, your SMB business will always struggle to be found.
If you are selling products, use Google’s paid advertising to place your business on the first page. If you aren’t in that type of business, don’t panic.
Make sure your website is optimized. Consider what phrases prospects would use to find your product(s) and make sure those words are included on your website. Learn about long tail keywords. Those are several-word phrases very specific to what you are selling.
Look up “keyword generator” online, put in some keywords, and see what phrases show up. The more specific the phrase, the more likely the visitor is ready to buy. However, write your copy for the visitor, not the search engines. The search engines are smart enough to figure out what needs to be indexed.
Determine where your customers hang out on social media and be active there. Point some posts back to your website. You will probably need to use paid social media advertising to grow your audience.
A website is the foundation of your online presence, but it is only useful if you push traffic to it.
Judi Jones can be contacted at judi@infoharbor.biz.
