How to rank higher on Google?

Getting a high ranking in Google's search results can have a huge effect on how well your business does.

You can hire a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company or, if you have the time, you can make some changes to your website yourself.

Step 1: Look for keywords.

What do you think people would type into a search engine to find your products or services? One word can be a keyword (for example, "optimization"), but multiple keywords or keyword phrases are usually better because they are more specific and more likely to be what your customers are looking for (for example, "Search Engine Optimisation Australia").

As many as you can think of, write them down. Think of ideas with your team. Try to think of other words. Think about geographical phrases if your customer cares about them (e.g. "house cleaning nearby"). Also, look at the sites of your competitors to get some ideas. Try to come up with a list of 20 to 30 keywords.

Pick the two keyword phrases you think will get the most searches. But also keep in mind that the harder it is to get to the top of the rankings for a keyword, the more competition there is for that keyword. If you want to rank high in Google for the keyword "insurance," you have a long way to go. So do your best to choose two keyword phrases that are most relevant to your business but are neither too general nor too popular. Each phrase should have at least two or three words (e.g. "wedding catering services")

Once you've chosen your top two keyword phrases, the next step will show you how to improve your home page.

Step 2: Copy for the web

All of the words or text on your site are called "web copy." Since content is king in the world of search engines, you need to place your keyword phrases on your page in a way that makes Google think that your content is very relevant to those keywords. The better, the more they stand out. (Remember that search engines are important, but customers are more important, so make sure your copy also reads well.)

Here's how to make each keyword more important:

1. Put keyword phrases near the top of the page;
2. Instead of a link that says "Click here to read more," rewrite it to include your keywords, such as "Read more about our [a href="https://blog.ibizexpert.com"]Free Blog Submission Site[/a]".
3. Put your keywords in headings, preferably at the beginning of the heading;
4. Put keywords in bold or italics where appropriate;

One important hint is to also put these keywords in the "title tag" of your HTML page. You can make these changes yourself by using your content management system, or you can ask your web developer to do it for you if you don't know-how.

Once you've fixed up your home page, you might want to add new content like FAQs and articles that tell people more about your products and services. (If you don't want to write these yourself, you can find them online for free by searching for "articles directory").

Also, remember that search engines can only read the text and not pictures. Web designers often put words in images to make them look better for visitors or use Flash to make animations, but this is a big problem for search engines.

Step 3: Linking

Search engines see each link from another website to yours (but not from your website) as a vote of confidence in your business and will raise your rankings as a result.

But what matters most is not how many links there are, but how good they are. The other websites should be related to your industry and, if possible, well-known in their own right. Ten good links are worth a lot more than 500 links from random sites. The same way that your personal business network can have a big effect on how well your business does, so can the online network you build.

Think of all the relevant websites that could link to you, like those of companies that don't compete with you and industry groups. Write each of them a friendly email explaining how their visitors would benefit from knowing about your business and asking them to add a link to your site. Most people won't answer the first time, so you usually need to call them again.

How do I keep track of my progress?

Over the next few months, type your chosen keywords into Google's search box and keep track of where you rank. Also, look at your hosting reports to find out what search terms people are using to find your website.

You can also do the same thing on each page of your website. Don't forget to keep adding new content and to keep adding more links to your website.

As your rankings go up, you should see more people visiting your website and a big jump in sales inquiries. Make sure to keep track of where your customers come from so you can see how well your marketing is working.

Don't forget that if you measure it, you can make it better.