A high ranking in Google search results can have an amazing impact on the success of your business. You can use the expertise of a Search Engine Optimization company, or if you have the time, there are some changes you can make to your website itself.

STEP 1: KEYWORD RESEARCH

What keywords do you think your customers will type in to find your products or services? A keyword can be a word (e.g. "optimization"), but many keywords or keyword phrases are often preferred, because they are more specific and more likely to be what your customers are looking for.

Write down as much as you can think of. Brainstorm with your team. Think of alternative words. Consider geographical phrases if they are important to your customer (e.g. ?Hornsby house cleaning?). Also, get some ideas from the websites of your competitors. Try making a list of 20-30 keyword phrases.

Choose two keyword phrases that you think are most searchable. But also remember, the more competition for a keyword, the harder it is to achieve top rankings. If you want to rank high on Google for the keyword ?insurance?, you have a very long journey into the future. So try your best to choose two keyword phrases that are most relevant to your business but not vague or competitive. It's a good idea to have 2 or 3 words in each phrase (e.g. "wedding catering services")

Once you?ve selected your two best keyword phrases, the next step will show you how to make some improvements to your home page.

STEP 2: WEB COPY

Web copy refers to all the words or text on your website. Since content is king in the world of search engines, your keyword phrases need to be strategically placed on your webpage to convince Google that your content is highly relevant to those keywords. The more prominent they are, the better. (Remember that no matter how important search engines are, customers come first, so make sure your copy reads well as well.)

Here's how you can increase the prominence of each keyword:

Put your keywords in the headings, preferably at the beginning of the heading;

Include keywords towards the top of the page;

Bold or italicize keywords where appropriate;

An important tip is to also include these keywords in your HTML ?title tag?. Use your content management system to make these changes yourself, or perhaps ask your web developer to do so if you're not sure how.

Once you?ve set up your home page, consider adding new content, such as detailed descriptions of what you offer, FAQs and informative articles about your products and services. (If you don?t want to write them yourself, they can be found for free on the internet - search for ?article directories?).

It?s also good to remember that search engines can only read text, not images. Often web developers embed words in images to look better for website visitors or use animation, but this is a big hurdle to search engines.

STEP 3: LINKING

Every link from another website to your website (not from your website) is considered by search engines as a popularity vote for your business and will improve your rankings.

But the quality, not the quantity, of the links matters. Other websites should be relevant to your industry, and preferably highly regarded themselves. Ten quality links counts more than 500 links from arbitrary websites. In the same way your personal business network can have a huge impact on the success of your business, as can the online network you build on the internet.

Think of all the relevant websites that might link to you, such as non-competing companies, and industry bodies and organizations. Write a friendly email to each other describing the benefit their visitors will get from knowing about your business, and ask them to create a link to your website. Most people will not respond the first time, so a follow-up phone call is usually necessary.

HOW DO WE MONITOR THE RESULTS?

Track your rankings on Google over the next few months by typing your chosen keywords into the search box, and recording your ranking. Also check your hosting reports to understand what search terms your visitors are using to find your website.

The above process can also be repeated for each page of your website. Remember to constantly update your content, and continue to increase the number of links to your website.

As you see your rankings increase, you should see a corresponding increase in web traffic and a substantial increase in sales queries. Be sure to record the source of your customer inquiries, so you can measure the success of your marketing efforts.

Remember, if you measure it, you can improve it.

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