Chapter 8 Improve Google Rankings

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1 Chapter 8 Improve Google Rankings By Evan Keller Definition Most purchases start with a local internet search, so top Google rankings of an industry s keywords can be a major source of new leads for a business. Search engine optimization is a set of strategies to get one s online content especially websites and Google+ pages ranked high by search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Expert Quote Factors work together. No single factor guarantees top rankings or success, but having several favorable ones increases the odds. And some carry more weight than others. Search Engine Land s 2015 Period Table of SEO Success Factors (

2 90 MARKET POSITION Assessment Questions 1. Does your website show up on page one of Google for your top keywords? 2. How many leads and/or sales do you get through your website? 3. How many Google+ reviews do you have and how positive are they? 4. Do you know what your top keywords are? 5. Does SEO scare you or are you leading the charge? Benefits Be accessible. Make it easy for your target market to find you. Choose your clients. Because local search can connect you with more people who want exactly what you offer, you have the luxury of turning down sales that are lower margin or too risky for some reason. Reduce pressure. Less stress about growing your revenue will do you good. Barriers Secrecy. Google s search algorithm is secret and ever-changing.

3 IMPROVE GOOGLE RANKINGS 91 Complexity. The multitude of factors Google considers brings a daunting measure of complexity. Cost. SEO is framed as an initiative for experts only, and is often sold in an expensive, long-term contract. Underlying Values Investment. Very few uses of your time and energy will have a bigger payoff. Trust. You can start building that all-important connection with clients before the even meet you. Presence. People are online, so you must meet them where they are. Your online presence is your new front door. Steps to Implement Navigate the complexity. Bad news first: Search Engine Land identifies a whopping 26 positive and 8 negative factors to consider in your SEO efforts! But while the multitude of factors that Google seems to consider in its rankings can be daunting, the good news is that you don t have to ace them all. If you do a good job on only a very few of the right ones, you can get superb results. Not all factors carry the same weight, so you can choose to focus on the ones that

4 92 MARKET POSITION are most important to Google. Fortunately, 40 leading SEO experts have identified for us which 8 factors carry a disproportionately large amount of weight. The results are compiled by moz.com in their latest Local Search Ranking Factors (see recommended reading at end of the chapter). My top five simple SEO steps below take the easiest to accomplish of moz.com s eight factors. I omit link building because it takes a long time and depends on other organizations saying yes then uploading your link on their sites. To repeat, you don t have to do everything to be successful. Here s an unpopular thing to say: most companies waste a lot of time posting to social media, whereas moz.com measures social signals as only being 5.8% of what Google notices. Soliciting lots of great client reviews is almost twice as important (9.8%) do you spend twice as much time on that? So, here are my top five simple steps to SEO: Add regular, valuable content. By regular, I mean weekly to increase rankings and monthly to maintain solid rankings. While it shouldn t be your only new content, the easiest way to add content is to blog. Each time you post, Google sees it as a new page being added to your site. To blog, simply write a paragraph about what s going on in your business and include your top keywords in it. Make sure you properly catalog your posts using categories and tags which helps Google see your new content. That sounds like Greek if you haven t blogged, but it s actually quick and easy. Don t fret if few people follow your blog; you re writing primarily for Miss Google! Be sure to write unique and useful information for your site so that over time it becomes an authoritative source in your industry. By adding such great educational value, you build trust, and trust is the currency of business. People buy from those they trust. Content is mostly well-written, relevant text, but also includes good photos and especially videos. Content is king so don t let the bells and whistles of a site crowd out the content.

5 IMPROVE GOOGLE RANKINGS 93 Skip the fancy intros don t use Flash just give us a sharp, simple, compelling site that is rich in relevant content. Here are short and sweet content tips directly from Google: Embed the right keywords. Keywords are words or phrases that you think customers will type in a search to find the products or services you offer. You should choose your most important keywords and then intentionally embed them into your website. If you sell nationwide or worldwide, you don t need to include a geographic element in your keywords. Not so if you only serve food locally, care for local animals or teach local students. So, for localonly businesses like my own, keywords should include a geographic element. Where + what makes a good keyword. Remember to think like a customer when choosing your keywords, and make a habit of asking your internet customers what keywords they search with. People are more likely to type a city rather than a county in their search terms. For example, here in Central Florida, there were 4.1 million searches for Daytona in a month, but only 450,000 searches for the county it s in: Volusia. Never underestimate the impatience factor we abbreviate whenever possible. In that same month, about half (2.2 million) searched for the full name: Daytona Beach. So, thinking like a customer is the key to choosing the right keywords. What do your customers want and need? What are they concerned about? Are people searching for your most popular products rather than your business category? This article addresses all facets of using keywords: Here are several keyword tools to help you identify your own:

6 94 MARKET POSITION Once you choose your main keywords, it s time to embed them into your website. Here s where: 1. In your code the unseen stuff that is programmed in. You or your programmer should embed keywords in your title and description tags. 2. In your content weaved into the paragraphs of each page on your site, especially the first 100 words of each page. But don t over-stuff; Miss Google will penalize you! 3. In your URL, your web address. If your website isn t wellestablished yet, consider switching to a URL which includes your top keyword. Build many consistent citations. Completely fill out free profiles on directories such as internet yellow pages and any directories used in your industry. Uploading your basic business info on such sites is considered a citation (The premium paid listings are usually a waste of money.) The most important thing I can say about your citations is that the info on each one should be absolutely identical. So standardize your name, address, phone and website URL, so all are listed the same across the Web. If you put LLC after your business name in one place and leave it off in another, the search engines may consider them separate businesses. Same if you vary your address slightly. This is very important to search engines. My citation tips: 1. List your business name, address, phone, and website URL on scores or hundreds of sites. You could do this yourself, but I d recommend paying someone like 51blocks.com to do this for you. They got me 300 citations for a dollar each.

7 IMPROVE GOOGLE RANKINGS Here s a list of the main internet yellow page sites such as Superpages, Dex, YP.com, and Angie s List: It also lists data aggregators such as infousa and Localeze that will further disseminate your info across the Web. 3. The only one I d avoid is Yelp. They filtered out my 42 positive (and absolutely legit) reviews and only displayed the two bad ones. Really? Many other businesses have had the same problem. 4. If you re looking for local traffic, use a local phone number rather than an 800 number. Google loves local area codes! 5. Never agree to using an advertiser s tracking phone number, which is just a ball and chain to keep you advertising with them. It also dilutes your online identity. Optimize your Google+ page. Go to Google My Business the dashboard that has replaced Google Places and claim your business if you haven t already. Build out your complete profile with physical address, hours of operation, photos and videos, tagline and introduction. Link it to your website. Publish to it and use your keywords in your posts. The handout has a link with 8 steps to optimize your page, including how to claim your page s custom, branded URL: Be sure to get this one right because the SEO experts say this is the single most important factor in Google rankings! Moz.com s Local Search Ranking Factors says Google considers your Google+ page as a full fifth of all considerations it uses to rank your site, nearly four times as important as your presence on other social media! Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Why wouldn t Google emphasize its own product?

8 96 MARKET POSITION Request Google reviews. Google values the quantity, velocity, and diversity of your reviews. Most customers who promised to write reviews for me never did. They had good intentions, but life is fast and furious. Some who actually try give up when they find that they need a Google+ account. You just have to keep asking a high volume of happy customers and accept that a small percentage will actually do it. Asking for reviews is a regular part of our customer follow-up. Our office personnel ask customers for permission to remind them a week after the initial review request. That permission makes the reminder easier on both parties. We only give a single reminder so as not to become a nag. It s not really ethical to reward reviewers with a gift. Here are other best practices for gathering reviews: Case Study The key to the growth and success of Tree Work Now was pivoting from a focus on our local smaller county to the greater metro Orlando area 45 minutes south of us. We built a second website whose content and keywords focus on Orlando, and we are diligent in requesting Google reviews from those we wow. There are currently over 75 reviews (with a 4.9 star average) showing on Google and we ve had hundreds more on other sites we advertised on. Our next competitor has half the amount of reviews and a 4.4 star average, so that creates instant value. We have 161 A reviews on our free Angie s List account. That s the only third-party lead source we use anymore and don t need paid search since our own website is at the top of Google s first page for our top keywords:

9 IMPROVE GOOGLE RANKINGS 97 Orlando tree service, Orlando tree trimming, and Orlando tree removal. The only caveat is that with that intense focus, our rankings have slipped in our own county. But we have a strong clientele and reputation there to make up for it. Leading Self, Employees, Systems SELF As I stressed in the previous chapter, generating new leads is one of the most important aspects of growing your business. Why would you delegate that to an employee or outsource it to an expert? Ranking high in local search has potential to be your biggest source of leads, so even if you don t do it all yourself, you should understand it so you can decide which success factors your company should pursue, and keep folks responsible to make progress in them. EMPLOYEES Although the story that s weaved throughout your website needs your voice, the right employees can be of help in the following two systems. SYSTEMS Requesting Google reviews as explained above should be a central part of your customer follow up process. And there should be a regular trigger for adding new content to your website such as a weekly blog.

10 98 MARKET POSITION Summary While SEO professionals often capitalize on keeping it a deep, dark mystery, you can actually understand SEO and take these simple but powerful steps toward achieving top Google rankings: add regular content, embed the right keywords, build many consistent citations, optimize your Google+ page, and request Google reviews. Then use the free Google Analytics tools to track your results. Of course, you must then convert those leads into sales see chapter 11. Application Questions 1. How much of this SEO will you tackle yourself? Which of the technical aspects will you contract out? (Instead of an ongoing monthly arrangement, I d suggest a paying an SEO expert on a project basis for tasks you specify.) 2. What are your top keywords and who will embed them in your site and when? 3. What content can you build into your site that will educate your customers and help establish you as an expert in your field? 4. What actions will you take based on my top five simple SEO steps? Which will take priority?

11 IMPROVE GOOGLE RANKINGS 99 Recommended Reading