Getting to the Bottom of Being on Top

June 6th, 2008 at 12:42pm Bill Swick

Ever wonder why you stumble on businesses named A-1 this or A-1 that?

It goes back to the golden, or should I say yellow, days of marketing.

The extent of many marketing plans for several generations of small businesses was a listing in the Yellow Pages. A company named “A1 something or other” would be right at the top of that list in phonebook and theoretically the first to get called.

Sound familiar?

(Hint: search engine rankings)

Unfortunately, your rankings on a search engine are not returned alphabetically. (Google returns just under 16 million sites for “A-1” – and many of those involve steak sauce).

Keep in mind that to younger (and most likely all future) generations, if your business isn’t on the internet, it doesn’t exist. Furthermore, without being found on a search engine it’s difficult to get noticed on the Web.

Getting better rankings on search engines is a tricky process. There are books written on the subject that have as many pages as this blog has words – and just as many companies out there willing to “improve” your search-engine rankings for a fee.

There are a few simple things you can do to improve your website’s ranking.

First, submit your website to the search engines. It takes only moments on sites like Google and Yahoo! to submit your url – and then they will know you’re there.

Content is extremely important. Having good, relevant content with regular updates makes search engines happy. Make sure there are keywords on your site that relate to what you do, and how you want search engines to notice you.

Get linked. Search engines “crawl” the net and check out just about every link on every page. The more pages that link back to you, the better. Yes, paid advertisements link back to your site, but so do cleverly placed links on blogs, forums, press releases, articles and so on. Sometimes, just politely asking the webmaster from another site for link is all it takes as long as your site has something to offer their readers.

You could spend hours, days, or make a career out of improving rankings in search engine results. Take these tips to heart and remember that your company’s website, and its rankings on search engines, should always be part of your overall marketing plan.

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