Up Your Ranking: Six ways your website can move above competitors’ in a Google search by Cindy Waxer.

Have you ever conducted a quick Google search of your company’s name? You might be shocked to discover that your website doesn’t even appear in the first few pages of results. In fact, according to a 2012 study entitled “Small Businesses Just Don’t Get SEO,” conducted by Online Marketing Coach, a whopping 62 percent of small businesses don’t even rank on the first page of Google for even one keyword or phrase.

That’s because many entrepreneurs simply don’t understand how Google rankings work. Simply put, a ranking is a series of algorithms Google’s search engine uses to find the most relevant documents for a user query. Results are based on everything from locally relevant content and page links to keywords and authority.
Unfortunately, getting outranked or, even worse, stuck on a page behind your competitors can cost your business hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue and prospects. Luckily, there are ways you can optimize your small business’s website to earn top ranking without having to break the bank on technical bells and whistles.

Just ask Lourdes Balepogi. President of Chispa Marketing, an interactive marketing firm in Miami, Florida, Balepogi says there are a few simple and cost-effective ways growing businesses can boost their company’s Google ranking. Here’s how

1. Don’t judge a website by its cover

Just because your website is appealing to the eye doesn’t mean it’ll earn a high ranking within Google. In fact, a website’s aesthetics have very little bearing on its overall search positioning. Instead, variables such as fresh content, page titles, and navigability are far more likely to influence where your website will surface in a search. “There are sites that are absolutely hideous that make millions of dollars on a monthly basis,” says Balepogi. “In the end, it’s not about how beautiful the site is.”

2. Consider content

The right keywords—words that best describe your business’s products and services—are critical to your website’s ranking. But rather than focus on single keywords, Balepogi believes in the value of selecting keyword phrases. Adding relevant titles to each page on your website can also help as Google displays search results as a link using the page’s title description. Plus, adding a title might just give you a leg up on the competition: an Online Marketing Coach study reports that only 51 percent of small business web sites use home page titles for strategic keywords.

3. Shop for domain names

Purchasing unused domain names can be a cost-effective method for driving more traffic to your site and boosting your search engine ranking. “For example, if you’re a marketing firm in Miami, find out if “www.miamimarketing.com” is available as a domain name,” recommends Balepogi. “If so, I would purchase it and reroute any traffic to my actual marketing company. Repurposing domain names with special keywords is a great and inexpensive strategy.”

4. Embrace social media

By starting a blog that offers consumers everything from tricks of the trade to educational resources, you can significantly increase traffic and boost your Google ranking as a subject matter expert. “If you’re a carpenter, blog about places to find the best wood or teach customers about the different types of wood,” says Balepogi. “These keywords play just as much a factor [in improving a site’s ranking] as a big search engine optimization campaign that you would be paying thousands of dollars for.”

5. Make the proper connections

Google looks at links both to and from a site to determine page rank. That’s because Google considers the words a website uses in its links to help determine the content of Web pages. For this reason, Balepogi recommends that small business owners introduce a healthy number of links – two or three per page – to related sites. Exchange text links with other relevant websites or make a point of including hyperlinks in each blog posting on your site. Just remember: no matter how you choose to incorporate links, make sure you keep them current.

http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com/community/growing-your-business/internetecommerce/blog/2012/09/19/up-your-ranking-six-ways-your-website-can-move-above-competitors-in-a-google-search