If you are looking to improve your rankings on Google there are five key areas you need to manage. If you have a website you are bound to have been approached by “SEO specialists” who will promise you a number one ranking in exchange for large sums of money. Whilst this may or may not work the danger you face is that they use “black hat” methods to improve your ranking and once Google discovers what’s happening your site will be penalised. The method I use is slower but much more successful in the long run. So what are the 5 key steps?
Creating Content
Having a blog which is updated regularly with relevant content to your target market should be a priority. You need a central hub that you send traffic to – your website or blog. If you have a website which hasn’t been updated since the day it was created it is unlikely that you will rank well for your chosen keywords. However, a website with blog incorporated, or a stand alone blog, that is updated on a regular basis with posts that are keyword optimised, will be crawled by Google regularly and over the course of time will begin to rank better and better for your chosen keywords. Make sure that your readers have easy access to your latest posts with a “Subscribe to blog” option on your site.
SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is a huge topic, but there are some simple things you can do to make sure your site is optimised for your chosen keywords. Firstly you need to determine what those keywords are, it’s a balance between how often they are used in searches and how much competition there is for that keyword. You can find this out yourself by using the Google Keyword tool. Make sure when you create blog posts you are using your keywords in the body and if possible in the title of your blog post – but do it naturally so that it reads well. Label all images on your site and blog posts with your keywords as well. (If you need any help with this let us know) Your web designer should have optimised your site for your keywords, however, we would be happy to advise you.
Newsletter
Once the hard work of optimising your site is done and traffic starts to arrive you need to ensure that you capture those visitors to encourage them to return and become potential customers of your products or service. The best way to do this is by having an email sign up for your newsletter. Offer a downloadable document of valuable information as a thank you for signing up. You could also set up a series of emails to give them additional free information over the coming days or weeks – known as an autoresponder, which most email services provide. Decide how often you want to contact your email list and what form your emails will take. You may choose to send a monthly newsletter or if your industry is fast moving a weekly bulletin. Your email service will provide you with valuable feedback on the number of opens, clicks bounces etc which will help you determine what your audience is interested in and what the frequency of your mail outs should be. Be consistent, your mail shots will keep you front of mind and it may take several mailings before you get a response. Think of the times you delete emails until the day one arrives just as you are thinking about that particular service.
Social Media
Of course I am going to say that you need to use social media, because your customers and competitors are. The quickest reviews and complaints about products and services are happening online, and smart companies are responding to them. However, don’t spread yourself too thin and do nothing properly. If you only have time for one social profile decide where your customers and potential customers are likely to be and do that one very well – or get us to help you! Read this article to give you some ideas about which social media tool you should use. Every time you post a blog article share it on social media – and ask your readers to share it too, make it easy for them by using share buttons on your posts. One more social media tip – use your keywords in your bio for each profile.
Analytics
Review, analyse, make changes and review again. Be smart with your analytics do more of what is bringing in traffic, see what keywords are getting you found on search engines, review which links your newsletter readers click, see which posts get shared. Without this valuable information how do you know what works and what doesn’t. Find out more about how to make good use of your analytics.
So that’s it. Simple but not easy – it takes hard work to rank well on search engines, so if you are being promised a number one ranking by next week think carefully before you part with your money.
If you would like some help to raise your profile online get in contact. And if this article was useful please share it. 
It amazes me how many small businesses have websites but don’t actually monitor their visitors. How do you know what’s working and what isn’t if you don’t have any form of analytics set up?
If you have a small business that has been around for a few years the answer is almost certainly yes.
