Top Ten Waysto be Found on Google

James Ruppel631-615-2983

jruppel@wsidigitalmarketer.comhttp://jruppel.wsidigitalmarketer.com

State of Internet Marketing

• 100s or more pieces ranked by Google to determine position on Results Page

• My personal Top 10 for business• Help inform your Internet Marketing Strategy

#1 Site Age

• Google respects older sites• Shows business is established • It’s a Trust thing

• Can’t change your site age• Think 2x before scrapping old URL• If you do, be sure to re-direct old URLs to new

site

#2 Link Structure

• Use your keywords in your URL• URLs should make sense to a human• If they make sense to human, they’ll make

sense to the search engine spiders/bots

• Scrap random characters in URLs– http://www.MyBusiness.com/shoes– NOT http://www.MyBusiness.com/9876ZYX_WTF

#3 Content is King (1)

• Search Engines index words • More is better – to a point• Write for your target market• Don’t write for Search Engines• Don’t “keyword stuff”• One or two keyword phrases per page• Make it engaging for your target audience/s– Answer the questions they went online for

Content is King (2)

• Start with Keyword Research• What words are your prospects typing into the

search engines?• Use keywords in – Metadata– URLs– Headings– Internal links– Alt. Text

Content is King (3)

• Beware of “cool” stuff • Search Engines read text– Make sure pictures have alternate text for search engines– Use captions to describe photos for both visitors

and search engines– Use Flash sparingly• Flash is “cool” but unless it serves a purpose, it’s just “window dressing”

#4. Content Age

• Google likes age on a site, but not in Content• Old content is “stale”• Indicates outdated content to search engines• Could indicate a site for a business that

doesn’t exist any longer• Fresh, current content is critical for visitors

AND search engines

#5. Site Performance

• Search engines look at what visitors • Visitors who leave quickly, or “bounce”, are not finding relevant information on your site• Search engines will “penalize” your site for poor visitor performance• Engage your visitor with your content, answer

their questions and move them through your site with compelling conversion architecture

#6. Internal Links

• Tell your visitor where to go with internal links between pages– Lead them on an information journey to get them to do what you want them to do• Purchase a product, fill out a form, call you, etc.

• Tell the search engine what keywords are important with internal links

• Don’t link “click here”. Nobody is searching for “click here” (are you listening Adobe?)

#7. External Links

• It’s a popularity contest– Hang out with the popular crowd

• Seek out links from other, popular sites• Sites should be logically related in some way– A women’s shoe store and a gas station have little

in common and are not likely a relevant link• The more popular a site that links to you is,

the more “link juice” they will pass on to you• Reciprocal linking is “out”

#8. Trust

• It all comes down to Trust• Visitors are looking for reasons to trust you• Search engines are looking for reasons to trust• Prove you’re not using “black hat” techniques• Don’t try to “game” the system• Include confidence builders– Address, phone, email, testimonials, third-party

emblems that your target market trust

#9. Speed (1)

• Google loves Speed– It even puts the speed it returns results right at

the top of the search engine results page (next to the number of results it returned)

• We’re all impatient• If your site loads slowly, you’ll be penalized by

search engines AND visitors

Speed (2)

• Speed up your site• Get a fast host• Simplify your site• Get rid of speed hogging large elements• Use Cascading Style Sheets• Remove anything your don’t really need• Avoid nested tables• Don’t over-use Flash

#10. Local Search (1)

• Google placing greater emphasis on Local Search Results

• Helps local business compete with the big boys

• Use geo-modifiers to improve your local search results– City, State modifiers– Anything a searcher might use• “Cheapest Big Screen TVs on Long Island, NY”

#10. Local Search (2)

• Claim and Optimize your local “Places”– Google Places, Bing and Yahoo local, etc.– Ensure information is accurate– Add Photos, Videos– Get customers to add positive reviews

• Claim your directory listings– Search for your business to see what listings are

out there– Claim them, verify the information

#10. Local Search (3)

• Accuracy is Critical!

• Make sure every one of your listings has exactly the same information in exactly the same format– It makes a difference if one listing has your

address as “Street” and another has it as “St.”– Make sure all the phone numbers are the same– Be vigilant

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