Top ten ways to rank in Google’s top ten

Google is the most popular search engine. It is so popular that many people use the word Google as a verb as in “I googled you”. This means they used the Google search engine to find information about you. It’s important that your business website be found in the top 10 or 20 results for your keyword phrases. Most users don’t look past the first 2 pages of the search results. Here are some tips so you can rank in Google’s top 10.

1. Choose keywords that describe your services. Narrow it down by including the city or area where you live. If you run a hair salon then your best keyword phrase would be “Vancouver hair salon”.

2. Use keywords in your Page Title. Look at the top left corner of your browser. This is called the Page Title and is controlled by an HTML tag called Title. Be sure to put your keywords here and list them first before your website name. I see so many websites with the words Welcome or Home Page in their Page Title. This will not help you to rank higher in Google.

3. Meta tags description and keywords. These are HTML tags called Meta Tags Description and Keywords. The Description is very important because Google uses the content in the Description tag to display in the search results. Describe the benefits of your services and include a call to action. List up to 20 keywords for the Keywords meta tag. Try to avoid repeating words as Google does not like duplicate content.

4. Page headings and subheadings. Use your keyword phrases in your content headers and subheaders

5. Use clear navigation. Google can’t read Flash menus and will not be able to index your Flash site. It’s a good idea to have an HTML version of your Flash site online.

6. Have a sitemap that links to all the pages on your site. You can use keyword phrases in your link text to each of the pages.

7. Backlinks are links from other sites to your website. Be sure to ask them to use your keyword phrase in the link text instead of the company name. Or use both.

8. Google Page Rank. Google ranks the popularity of your site by the number of sites linking back to you. This is recorded as your Page Rank. You will need to download the Google tool bar (toolbar.google.com/) to see your website’s page rank. To increase your page rank, be sure to have lots of backlinks from sites that have a page rank of 3 or more.

9. Link Popularity. You can use this handy online tool to determine your link popularity. See www.linkpopularity.com

10. Use your keyword phrase in your website address. Using your keyword phrases in your domain name, directory names, file names is very helpful in improving your Google ranking.

Need to improve your Google ranking? Contact Katy for your FREE 1 hour website consultation (Valued at $149.00).

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