Why is my Site not Ranking? 5 SEO Tips to get you Started

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It’s time! You’ve prepared, you’ve invested and you’ve worked hard getting your new website ready. You’ve set a launch date and it passes but nothing happens. Where are the droves of visitors and customers that my web developer told me about? Where are my sales, and why am I not showing up in Google?

A Website Alone is not a Marketing Strategy

Fear not. These days, getting found on search engines is not about who has the best tricks or even techniques. It’s about good ol’ fashioned marketing with some new tools. It’s not good enough anymore to just have a website in order to rank online. You have to treat that site like another physical location for your business. It needs to be pushed and shared before it can be recognized by real people, which in turn brings up your search rankings.

That's a little chicken and the egg, isn't it?

It certainly doesn’t hurt to have some marketing groundwork laid before your foray to the web, but it all has to start somewhere. You just need that starting point where you can start to see movement. Lucky for you, it doesn’t take a multi-million dollar budget or a celebrity endorsement to be found. It just needs you, your vast knowledge of your market and most of all, time.

5 Quick SEO Tips to get you Back on Track

Participate in Social Media – Get onto the big four networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google + and start interacting with people. Social media is actually starting to outperform the search engines as the place to be found – but keep those messages useful. Don’t get too spammy by talking only about yourself. Remember to point folks back to content on your site that you think will be helpful to them. This will lead to others sharing your content and shares = SEO gold.
Ensure your Business Profiles are Filled out on Popular Websites – In the beginning, your site won’t have much clout. It’s the new kid on the block and you really need some help in order to be found. There are thousands of indexing sites and online directories but Google Places for Business, Yelp and the Yellow Pages are amongst the best quality and better yet, they’re free.
Title your Site with the Keywords you Want to be Found for – Keywords are still important. Gone are the days when we used to list a bunch of keywords on each page in order to help rankings. Now, having strategically picked keywords in titles, meta descriptions, alt tags and your content can give you a strong base that you can build on with the next two tips.
Update your Site Regularly – Would you visit a store that looks like no one has been home in a while? Why would you come back to a site that is never updated? By updating your site consistently it promotes your thought leadership in your industry. When that content is good, helpful content, people will share it, link to it and search engines will take notice.
Provide Great Content and Offers – It is extremely important to offer content that is of value and helpful to your visitors. Any offer or content on the site should help your visitors. It could be simple things like offering free things that get people acquainted with your brand. As we mentioned earlier, getting shares and links is important to get you found online, so don’t hold back. Create great content that solves your visitors problems.

Give it Time and Test, Test, Test

Google is like the untrusting parent. They aren’t going to just take your word for it and lend you the car right away. They first need to trust that you aren’t going to try to Evel Knievel the family Corolla off a bridge somewhere. Just like those hosers, you need to gain Google’s trust by utilizing the methods we’ve outlined today before you can begin to see the rewards of gradually moving up the ladder.

And that's when you get the keys to the REAL chick magnet. Station wagons are just ballin'.

Bonus tip : Try a Little PPC

PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click advertising. These are the text-based ads that appear at the top or on the right side of search result pages. PPC works quite well as they are extremely well targeted. Sure, you will indeed pay for each click but the great thing about PPC ads are that you only pay for results, and you are also able to set a budget and stick to it. It’s a handy way to supplement your efforts until you begin to see your website show up in the regular organic search rankings.

Take it to the Next Level

We’ve only really touched on the basics of achieving organic search ranking. Of course there’s lots of other little things that can be done like submitting, doing off site SEO, guest blogging, landing page offers, and much, much more – but with a good blog and some social media presence under your belt, you’ll be ready to take those next steps in no time.

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