Fast First Page Ranking for Free

There is no easier way to get on the first page of Google than through signing up for and using Google Places. People spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to get their business and website to rank in Google search results.  Yet in local search results you can be on the first page by putting in a little effort, filling in some information about your business and get first page results for free.

Google, and the other major search engines, Yahoo and Bing, want people to use their search engine.  They are trying to find ways to attract and keep searchers.  They have all decided that an important way to do that is to help people who are looking for products or services in their local communities.  Therefore they have created special services to help people do that.  And local businesses can list their business for free.

Getting Your Business to the Top is Easy

We have shown you how to check out Google Places.  To use the service you have to create a Google account.  That is easy, quick and just a way for Google to contact you and verify that you are real. I appreciate the practices that they have introduced into this procedure to make sure only legitimate businesses get listed in their local area.

After following the directions on creating your account, log in and complete or create your business profile.  And remember that the more information you include the higher your ranking will be.  Fill in everything that you can, including your Web site address, hours, business description, what forms of payment you take and all the information that they provide for that is applicable to your business.

Your business address and local phone number are important.  If you have a toll-free number include that, but Google is looking for local numbers.  They do not want somebody to use a toll-free number and appear as a local business but really just be a web presence selling everywhere on the internet.  I know that nothing fries me more than to be looking for a local business in Santa Rosa and getting all these listing for web-based businesses that are not local.

Get All Your Google Juice

One of the most useful things to do is to include all the services or products that you provide in the categories section.  You can list up to 10 business categories.  Some are suggested.  If you don’t see yours, go ahead and create new categories.

So if you are a bookkeeper, but you also do tax preparation for individuals and corporations, are an accountant, help with business valuations and are a business consultant, be sure to get all those categories.  This is like throwing out a bigger net with smaller holes so that you catch more of the folks who are looking for your products or services.  What are people who want to use your services searching for in your local community?

There is even an area where you can offer up to date coupons or specials.  You can include an incentive to encourage people to try you out or include a notice about a special event or experience that is coming up.  People like stories and they like to connect and here you can personalize and add local flair to your entry.  You can test different offers and see what brings people into your business.

When people are searching locally they want to connect locally.  Filling out all the information that Google allows makes you seem more real and approachable.  Let Google help you capture your local market.

You know people are looking for what you want to sell on the internet.  It is essential to optimize your site for the search engines to find you if you want to be successful with your website.

The first thing to do is determine the keywords  people are using when they are seeking the type of product you are offering.  It is not necessary to guess what words they are using.  With the internet, all that information is kept track of and compiled.  This may be scary, but it is oh so useful.

We can find out what exact phrases are being used by real people in real time to search for different, related items.  What combination of words and the order of words.  It is then possible to produce content on your website  that matches the way people are searching.  The closer  the match the more likely the search engine will rank you for the search.

Ajalon can research which key phrases are most appropriate to bring you the most qualified traffic.  And it is often possible to find other possible phrases that might not be immediately evident to you.

Once you know what the phrases are that people are using to search for your products, you must build them into your website.  You can use this information to improve your search engine rankings and build content in and on your site that strengthens the site for keyword searches and increases your conversion rate.

This keyword search and content creation must be focused on what your customers are looking for.  You must create content that is attractive to your audience.  It must be interesting to them and satisfy a need they feel.

Written by David Walrath

Ajalon Printing & Design

When you sit down and think about it, most of the people who will be visiting your web site will have put some words into a search engine that they think will help them find what they want.  People do not just turn their computer on and presto, find you.

The Good News

Following from this observation you know something important. When visitors come to your site they are looking for something. More importantly, they are looking for something that is on your site.

This is tremendous.  It is like somebody walking into your store who wants to buy.  This is an ideal marketing situation.  You don’t have to capture their attention and you know they are willing to buy.  You don’t have to distract or attract them, they’ve come to your site willingly.

In traditional advertising or marketing, a lot of money is often spent just to get qualified leads.  With internet marketing you start with a qualified lead because anybody who comes to your site found you because of something on your site.  They are looking for what you have.

This was the appeal of yellow page advertising.  You wanted to have an ad in the yellow pages because if people picked up the book to look they were committed and serious.  Yellow page advertising has been falling off  precipitously because business owners have learned that consumers are not searching the yellow pages as much, but are using their computers to find what they are looking for.

Even people who don’t have computers go to the library to use a computer to find a car or whatever they are looking for.

And, it’s not just young people. Every age group is participating.  The other day when I was in the Apple Store drooling over the new iPad, I noticed around the display table that there was one person so young that their head barely reached over the table and there was a couple on the other side that could have been her great-grandparents.  Young and old alike are using computers to search for what they want.

We will continue in our next blog discussing how you can attract those eyes that are looking for your product or service.

Written by David Walrath

Ajalon Printing & Design

Most of us got into business because we loved doing something and thought it would be cool to make a living doing it.  Michael Gerber, who used to live right here in Santa Rosa, called this an entrepreneurial seizure.  It befell us because of a fatal assumption: if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work.

What does this have to do with making money you say? Well I’m just trying to quickly get to the point that the way to make money in any business is by attracting clients who will pay for what you do.  And to do that you have to market yourself.  Few of us got into business to be marketers.  We wanted to do work we loved.

So now that we are in business we discover that the work is to get customers, not do the thing we love.

The Good News

The good news today is that with the internet and search engines and websites, it is actually easier for your potential clients to find you and for you to meet up with your clients and not try and guess how to reach them.

They are out there searching for your type of work.  You don’t have to hunt them down and try to get their attention.  We all are bombarded with thousands of advertising messages each day.  Traditional marketing tried to get your message out there in a way that interrupted a person’s attention long enough to get them to consider contacting you.

With the internet today there are always people out there searching for what you are  offering.  You just need to connect with them and follow through on helping them get what they want.  This shift is an important one to recognize and take advantage of.

The Bad News

If you put the bulk of your marketing effort into trying to interrupt people’s attention, and neglect the people out there that are looking for your work, somebody else who is out there connecting with those who are looking on the web  is likely to capture their business.

If you are like me, you put up a website sometime ago because it seemed to be the thing to do.  You did it as inexpensively as you could.  Maybe some years later you realized that this web thing was only getting bigger and maybe you went out and spent more money  to put up a better site.

Now you might be hearing more about search engine optimization and social media marketing and  you wonder what way to turn.

The Solution

For certain the internet is not going away.  Maybe it won’t impact your business too much before you retire.  If you aren’t engaged with it though, it will decrease the value of your business.

What we can offer you at Ajalon is to sit down with you and sort out what the best course of action is.  We have been here in Sonoma County for over 50 years.  We have survived and have helped many other businesses with their marketing by staying closely in touch with what works and what is economical.

We have gone through internet marketing.  We personally have got our website to the top of Google rankings.  We did it ourselves.  We didn’t pay somebody to do it for us.  We can help you make the educated choices to take advantage of this great new resource and to avoid the pitfalls.  Call us for help in your marketing today.  707-528-0288.

Written by David Walrath

Ajalon Printing & Design