One of the things I get asked about by our clients is how they can better the search engine ranking of their website – especially on Google. Of course, one way is have a company (like Vici!) undertake a Search Engine Optimization campaign for you. But there are also a number of free things you can do as well. One of the most important is link building.
Search Engine Land recently had a great article about this, and I pulled out the ideas I liked best from that article along with some additional ways we have found to work, and listed them below.
- Look for well known blogs that relate to your industry and ask to be a guest blogger. Once published, you can then establish a link to the article that you write on the industry website, to your company website. Ask that the industry website allow you to list a link in the “about the author” section of the post so that you get a link back to your website as well. Here’s one Vici’s own Megan Malone wrote on Rain News.
- Forming partnerships with local organizations (i.e. local chambers of commerce, ad clubs, other business organizations and clubs) can be an opportunity to get backlinks from their websites. Ask that they link to your website from a resource or members page that they may have on their website or offer to write a blog post. These types of websites are often looking for content material to post.
- If you sponsor any local events, charities, conferences, always ask that in addition to listing your business name or logo on their website, that they include a link to your website.
- Post content such as articles and tips to your social media pages (LinkedIn and Facebook for sure) and then include links to your website. Posting to your social media pages also encourages people to share the content gaining you further exposure.
- Need content ideas for posts? Go to BuzzSumo and type in a topic that relates to your business. It will show you a list of top articles about that topic. Read through them to get ideas to create your own spin on it and write your post.
Monitor mentions of your business on the web. An easy way to do this is use Brandmentions.com and set up alerts. When a website mentions you, contact the site and ask them to hyperlink to your website. Most will do it! - Create a page on your website such as a “Resources” page. On this page you can list useful links to other websites that your type of clients might find helpful or even to blog posts that you think are interesting. When you do this, many times the businesses will then link back to your page, thus creating outbound and inbound links.
- Blog at least twice a week on your website and include topics and keywords that you want to rank for in your content. Creating content that is useful is important in creating links and also generating traffic to your website which indicates to search engines (i.e. Google) that your website is important and increasing the likelihood of you receiving a higher ranking on a search page. Remember a blog could be other things besides an article. It could be a short video, a “how-to”, a downloadable guide or research, a podcast, case studies or success stories, or infographics. And, don’t forget to reach out to others to do guest blog posts on your site and then ask them to link to it back to their website.
According to Moz’s “2015 Search Engine Ranking Factors Study,” having quality links to your website from other websites and from your website to others, have the strongest association with higher search rankings by the Google ranking algorithm. So what are you waiting for?
Need help with Search Engine Optimization? Ask Vici to show you more ideas!
