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How to increase your google ranking

 All businesses with an online presence need to ensure that they are as high up the rankings list as possible - something that can be achieved by following a number of steps

All businesses with an online presence should have a clear strategy for increasing direct sales or enquiries through the Internet. Central to this aim is ensuring potential customers can find your website ahead of a competitor. Your business may have visually the best website in the world, but if more people find a competitor then you will lose potential revenue. One of the most effective ways of doing this is to ensure your website is naturally optimised as 72% of web users click on natural listings rather than being spoon-fed sponsored links generated from pay per click campaigns.

By following the steps outlined below, in the correct order, your business will give itself the best possible chance of getting on Google's first page, and so maximise your sales from the internet.

Step 1
Review your current site. In particular you are looking for any code errors your site may contain, these can come from either dead links or poorly written code, both of which count against a site from Google's point of view. You should also look to ensure that your key message is written in text, as Google's web crawlers cannot ‘see' images and movies.

Step 2
Build a list of relevant keywords. Keywords are reference words and phrases that help Google determine the content of your site. You need to find phrases that have reasonable search volumes, are relevant to your business and have little/moderate competition. Getting this right is central to your strategy - you don't want to be found for the wrong terms, or appear in position 1 for those terms which no-one searches for.

Step 3
Optimise each page of your site. It is likely that your business sells more than one product or offers more than one service. By creating keywords and phrases for each function of your business you increase your chances of appearing on the first page of Google for each of these terms. This should always be done in conjunction with your key marketing message.

Step 4
On page and off-page optimisation. Once chosen, ensure your keywords appear prominently within the text on the page and in headings. Make sure that all off-page data (meta keywords, titles and descriptions) also contain your keywords in the right order and density.

Step 5
Submit the site plan to search engines. You greatly increase your ranking if you submit a site plan to Google and the other major search engines.

Step 6
Add as many relevant links to your website as possible. These should be made up of both internal links and external links. The best sites to get links from are the highest ranking ones, for example a link from the BBC to your site will do wonders for your rankings.

The above is just the tip of the iceberg in the constant battle to get a good Google ranking, and of course it is an ever-moving target as Google are always adjusting their algorithms. However the 80/20 rule certainly applies here and by going from no optimisation to the basics correctly implemented you will see a dramatic uplift in your ranking for your key terms.