RCTHosting Internet Solutions

How to get a better search engine position

We’re often asked here at RCTHosting by our clients how to get higher up in the search engine position, such as the search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo (the Big 3). Unfortunately there is no magic and free formula or process that can guarantee you a first page position for your business web site.

Any company that approaches you stating a guarantee of a first page result if you part with a large monthly fee is being very misleading. However what you can do is adopt techniques and processes that can improve your likelihood of being higher up in the search engines.  In this article we look at some of the proven and tried and tested techniques of how to improve your results.  Some of which you may be able to do yourself, others will need the help of your web developer.

Before we start?

The Big 3 are not like other online directories such as Yell, Touch Local, BT.com and other similar directories. It is NOT just a simple case of listing your business and watching your listing go to No. 1 position or in an alphabetical order.  There are billions of search engine listings from all around the world on every possible topic you can think about.

The search engine listing results are not about you, your business, or your profit margin; they are about retrieving the most relevant knowledge for the person doing the search.

If you want to see your business climb the search engine ranks ask yourself these very important, yet often difficult to truthfully answer questions:

1. What knowledge does your website contribute to the search engine?
2. Why would it be relevant to the person doing the search?

Think of the Big 3 as a knowledge directory not a link directory and you’ll see your listing climb.

So what steps do we take next?

Your first step should be to first truthfully answer the two questions above, followed by implementing changes on your web site which answer those two important questions.

Here they are again, and in bold, for you to write down and answer.  There’s no point in proceeding until you are able to answer them.

1. What knowledge does your website contribute to the search engine?
2. Why would it be relevant to the person doing the search?

After you have answered those questions, contact your web developer who can then re-organise your web site content (the text on your website) to reflect your answers to those questions.  This will always at least involve altering the words on your existing web pages, often the creation of new pages, and sometimes even the recreation of the entire website.

If you take the time and bear the cost of implementing the changes that follow will see your search position soar from non-existent to a much higher position in the Big 3.

Why hasn’t my web site developer already done this for me?

A very valid question that has two very simple answers:

• How knowledgeable is your web site developer on this topic?
• How much did you pay him?

Many web developers do not have the knowledge or techniques to know how to SEO a web site. Most have come either straight from university with just the text book techniques, or via a graphic design/print background and will not have the skill or experience in this field.  There are some things you just can’t get 100% from a book.

Secondly crafting a website for high search engine results takes many man hours.  A typical website without SEO would cost at least £800 - £1500; one with SEO would cost a lot more.  Let’s put this into perspective; take a big online retailer such as Amazon and think how much they must be spending to constantly achieve number one in the search engines and compare it to how much your web site is costing your.

How much did you pay for your website? If less than £800, then your developer has worked within the budget that you have given him, to get your business online.  In most cases, you have got what you were prepared to pay for. Your business has a website presence, a domain name, and probably email and annual hosting; that’s what you wanted, that’s what you paid for, that’s what you’ve got.

Let’s be blunt about it again. A web site with SEO takes many man hours to create and somewhere somehow those man hours have to be paid for. 

So where do I go from here?

1. Submit your site to online directories.

Look for online directories such as Yell.com TouchLocal and any other directory that may be appropriate.  For example if your business was a guest house, look for tourism directories, specialise holiday accommodation websites, and possibly even outdoor clothing web sites.

http://www.google.co.uk/addurl/

http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html

http://www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx

Link backs

A link back is a term used for a web site that is linking or has your web site listed on their website.  For example a link back to a pet web site could be from web sites such as kennels, dog walking/grooming web sites, pet information web sites etc.  A sports clothing web site could have links from football/rugby club web sites, exercise web sites, gymnasium web sites etc.

Establishing link backs from relevant and popular websites is a proven and known method of improving your own web site listing.

To increase your ‘link backs’ search for relevant websites, and contact the owner of the site and ask for a link to your web site.  The owner will often as for a link from your web site to theirs in return, so you will need a page on your web site onto which to place these links.

Become an expert – write an article

Another proven technique for which you would need the initial help of the developer is business articles.  Remember the Big 3 are about knowledge and people search for knowledge.  Consider placing regular articles on our web site in your area of expertise.

For example: Pet stores may have regular articles and tips/hints on looking after your pets, what food is best for them, how to groom them, how to treat the basic ailments etc.

A finance web site may have articles of the current financial climate, hints/tips on actually saving money, tips on what types of investments are performing the best.

Once you have a series of articles on your website, TELL THE WORLD.  Submit your articles to specialist article web sites, and submit them to specialist publications, newspapers and magazines; and don’t forget to tell your existing clients as well.  A public relations expert could help you do that if you didn’t have the time yourself.

Keep in touch with previous clients

I’m amazed at home many businesses overlook this simple, yet powerful technique.  Keep in touch with your clients by email, phone or letter.  Contact them every month or two with an update of your articles (see above), let them know how well your business is doing, remind them of opening hours, and especially of any offers that you have on that would benefit them.

The well known online retailer Amazon is an expert in this, sending your regular newsletters that just happen to contain products and books that more often than not are of interest to you.  They know this by your previous spending pattern.

Your web developer can help to

Subject to your budget and answering those two very important questions these are the techniques your web developer would follow:

Some of the techniques mentioned would need to be undertaken with the help of your web developer.  However remember, this will always result in changes to your existing pages, some extra pages, and possibly even a total revamp; to which there will be an appropriate cost involved.

All these changes take up a lot of man hours which have to be paid for.  Instead of thinking how much it is going to cost you, consider what it would cost you NOT to adopt these techniques because you can guarantee if your competitors are not doing it yet, they will be soon.