How to increase website presence when performing 'Google' search?

[geek84]

Hi folks

Can someone be kind enough to suggest any ways in which I can increase the ranking of my small business website (i.e. come higher up in the list) when someone uses a search engine, such as Google, to do a search on the type of services that I offer?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

[Bestnes]

I would recommend more concentrate on the actual goal of website, for example sales or clients and so on. Rather than a lot of people concentrate on the back links, website rank, and so on, instead concentrate on actual goal,on your target. Ranking will come later, in my opinion what point to have rank 10 of your website, if that website do not make money for you.

 

[Darryl Wright]

From my understanding you need to get your business out there on as many dirictories as possible because these all rank quite highly, so if you have a profile on them your website through them will rank quite highly

 

[pg1671]

For a small business you should focus on your local seo as this can get you on the first page of google for free for keywords that are very relevant. For example when someone searches for an "electrician in kensington" .. substitute your business and location here and check google to see how you go .. especially in the local pack on page 1. If you are not on page 1 try searching google maps to see if you are in the top 50 or so.

To build local seo as an earlier poster said you need to get your business listed in as many places as possible but you also need to make sure your business data is as consistent as possible across all of those citations .. if your business name, address, phone and maybe even web address are different then this might hurt your ability to rank well.

 

[Hammur IT]

I have recently been using Pandabot to help increase my ranking. Following the setup, you then set the keywords for it to find and it simulates a person searching and going to your site and browsing through it.

 

[Clive.Hornsby]

To build local seo as an earlier poster said you need to get your business listed in as many places as possible but you also need to make sure your business data is as consistent as possible across all of those citations .. if your business name, address, phone and maybe even web address are different then this might hurt your ability to rank well.

I agree with the local SEO concept and citations are critical. However it should be quality and not quantity as not all listings have the same authority or audience. Prioritisation is the key to getting the best traffic and links for minimum cost.

 

[Darryl Wright]

Is Pandabot a useful tool? or will Google penalise your website if you use it?

 

[Hammur IT]

I don't believe Google will penalise the use of Pandabot as the hits come from different IP addresses from throughout the world.

 

[Plan A Link]

Be very careful with these black hat methods, I am not saying they do not work and they do produce results very quickly but organic traffic is so much better to draw traffic to the website and keep it there. Using tools that bypass the correct way to build traffic and rankings can cause your domain to be banned so for example you could use PandaBot (or similar tools) get to the top of google for a year be earning x per month and then it all stops because Google found out and have now blocked your website causing your business to be wasted.

What you need to focus on is what problem can I solve for my customers? And once you know the answer you can create content to help them or you can also look at your competitors to see what they are doing, it works and its tested. You will need to check your page is SEO optimized and there is loads of free tools available on the internet. Feel free to PM me, we do a free report using one of the tools we find most effective.

 

[DavidAshdown]

Be very careful with these black hat methods, I am not saying they do not work and they do produce results very quickly but organic traffic is so much better to draw traffic to the website and keep it there. Using tools that bypass the correct way to build traffic and rankings can cause your domain to be banned so for example you could use PandaBot (or similar tools) get to the top of google for a year be earning x per month and then it all stops because Google found out and have now blocked your website causing your business to be wasted.

What you need to focus on is what problem can I solve for my customers? And once you know the answer you can create content to help them or you can also look at your competitors to see what they are doing, it works and its tested. You will need to check your page is SEO optimized and there is loads of free tools available on the internet. Feel free to PM me, we do a free report using one of the tools we find most effective.

I completely agree with this.

I have never used Pandabot and only heard of it today and checked out its website. It does look like the kind of tactic Google doesn't like but I don't know for sure. I do believe though, that Google is interested in sites that gain their traffic organically and through authority and not through 'tactics', therefore I agree with the above.....be careful with the way you gain traffic!

 

[CloudAccountantcouk]

You need to decide what terms you want to be found under and make sure these terms appear quite often on your site. Getting links from companies or directories that also rank well for these terms helps. A good domain name with the words in also helps a lot. Also URL extensions that include the terms ie /accountant-manchester

Regular updates to your site, plenty of text and daily articles.

Best links are from newspapers if you can get your link in any articles or from trade bodies or trade related sites. Or if you are an accountant there a loads of find an accountant directories that you can upload your details to for free.

A quick win to get to the top is paying for your term on Google adwords but can be easy to burn money.

 

[StevePoster]

Can someone be kind enough to suggest any ways in which I can increase the ranking of my small business website (i.e. come higher up in the list) when someone uses a search engine, such as Google, to do a search on the type of services that I offer?

It will be depending on your small business competition: for low competitive it will take 3 to 4 months or higher (if necessary and depending on the skills and experience of the optimizer) while in high competitive market it will take 7 months or more than a year (if necessary and depending on the skills and experience of the optimizer) but worth it because of long term duration. Always reminded that top position in Google search engine rankings doesn't guarantee conversion and sales.

 

[InFront Digital]

Local SEO is probably even more important for a small business, so as has been suggested, use this as an area of focus.
Good quality links and content go a decent way aswell.

 

[CloudAccountantcouk]

Another option is to buy a domain that already ranks highly for the terms you're interested in. Might sound expensive but can save a lot of time and costs. A prior business I was involved in used to offer IVAs and a site appeared in the top 10 for the term iva purely because that was the name of the person who had the site and it was their personal blog. Unfortunately a competitor got in there first.

 

[karm]

I heard that google doesn't like it if you are in too many directories. is this true?

Is it important to have a facebook page, twitter account and google+ account? I won't have time to update them so is it best to leave them off?

 

[astoller]

If your service is as a local provider, you are entitled to a place in local search in your town or city.
eg lawyer, solicitor, tradesman
For this type of listing set yourself up a mybusiness page, add as much detail as you can and link it to your site.
Google will send you a white postcard with a code for you to register with them.
Then you have to sart asking yhour ciustomer/clients fro review to build them up.
There are many more steps you can take, many of whcih overlap with regular seo methods mentioned here.

 

[pg1671]

Karm ... I have not heard anything about google penalising you for too many directories. I doubt they would ever penalise you as for many directories you can be listed without you adding it yourself so it can be out of your control to some extent.

As another poster said you should focus on the better quality sites first though.

 

[intelligentppc]

Why not do a small adwords campaign which sticks to long-tail, location-relevant keywords?

It's instant ranking. IMO investing time and money on SEO is a bit like fighting a losing battle - Google's shareholders ultimately want people to pay for traffic. These days the space above the fold is dominated by ads. On smartphones it's 100% ads above the fold.

 

[ADNattan]

Directories don't have much SEO benefit nowadays, and the Penguin and Panda updates knocked a few of them down the rankings. They won't harm you, but they won't help.

The important thing to do is provide customers with reliable, useful content. If you're solving problems and answering questions, you're off to a good start. After that, it's a matter of keyword targeting and then generating quality links.

 

[PIers Ede]

Contact all the suppliers you use and see if they will link to you. Most of the way Google establishes relevance is down to the number of external links to your site. Failing that, hire and SEO company to do it for you.

 

[Explainaboom Videos]

Local SEO as stated above is important.

BUT

Content is king.

What you have on your website and the value it offers will massively determine your long term search engine presence. I'm sure you've done your research but things like insightful blog posts, podcasts or even interesting explainer videos (*cough* shameless self plug *cough*). Will in the long run really boost your SEO.

If you are considering video and would like some advice/a chat, PM me. I'm always happy to help (no sales chat)