Small Business Blog from Atlantic Canada

I am "CA" Atreya (PMP, MBA), the author of this blog. I help businesses in Atlantic Canada achieve their BHAG successfully. You may subscribe to this blog using a feed reader (RSS).

A few months ago, I was chatting up with a CEO of a local firm. He told me, “It’s easy to get listed quickly and with a high ranking in Google if you have the money. But how the heck do I get my site to rank high using generic search?” With millions of web pages clamoring for attention, how do you get to the top 20 in Google search results?

This blog has achieved this feat in less than 4 months and so can you. Ah, the wonders of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in getting you a high page rank in Search Engine Results Page (SERP). It does wonders to your traffic, eh! But, how the heck does one get there? Ideally the goal ought to be within the top 10 but we can settle for the top 20 now, can’t we?

If after reading this post, you decide your time is better spent performing your “core competency” activities, I can work on the SEO for your site. Let’s talk. you might also be interested in our Get Googled Initiative for small businesses. Whatever you choose, you need 3 things:

1. Patience - it can take 3 to 5 months to see the result of your efforts
2. Dedication - sometimes it can feel, it’s just not working
3. Good writing skills - content is the king

If you have these three things, join me in the journey as I unravel the mysteries of landing on page 1 of Google’s SERP. Remember, search algorithms change frequently so your SERP result is also a moving target. But you will do well if you reach the top 20.

1. Define your goal: The journey begins with the GOAL. Yes, yes, I know that you need to increase sales, but what role does a web site play in your strategy execution? Every action your organization takes must be a part of its strategy execution.Your site needs to have a purpose. Define it. A quick enterprise analysis is not unreasonable if you lack this information. Only then proceed to the next step. If you have not defined it, you are going to be shooting in the dark hoping one will find its mark. Waste of time and money!
2. Keywords: Once you are absolutely sure about the site’s purpose, the next step of the journey is to work with a word processor or pen and paper and a browser. Don’t even look at your content management system for now. Understand how people will search for your products and services.
   • Target, target and target: When you sell in the off-line world, do you qualify your prospects? Sure you do. Similarly, when selling in the online world, you need to qualify your keywords. Write down all words and phrases that describe what you do, and your products and services.If you are having difficulty with this, close your eyes and imagine what would you search for that makes your site appear on Google’s search results. It does not matter how many you keywords you jot down; what depends is the quality. Typically, there are only a handful of keywords that describe your business, your product or service. Make sure you cover them all.
   • For each keyword you must answer this question: “How important is this keyword in describing my business?” Jot down your answers as “Very Important”, “Somewhat important” and “Not important”. This will help you determine how relevant each word or phrase is to your rank in SERP.
   • Some tools that you can use: Google Keyword Suggest Tool ( you can choose to display keyword search volume, Cost and Ad position estimates for Adwrods, Volume trends, and possible negative keywords) . You can also use this tool to have Google generate a list of keywords for you – as a starting point. I have also used Yahoo! Overture (now called Yahoo! Search Marketing_ in order to hone my keyword list. But I think you need to subscribe to it before you can use them. But you can use the earlier Overture tool. Here’s the Google search results for the phrase keywords suggestion tool if you need more tools.
3. Keyword Localization: Ok, unless you are selling to Martians (in which case you are way ahead of the curve), chances are you are facing stiff competition for your selected keywords. Now, are you paying attention? This is important. Localize your keywords. If you are a small business, chances are you are selling your products or services in a small geographic area. Or that your city is known for its niche in your area. Or whatever. Identify something (could be a city, country, region, location - whatever) that is unique to a handful of business in your industry. Add your headquarters and all your branches and affiliates (if any) into the list of keywords.
   • For example, try these searches “small business marketing consultants” in Google. 51 million results returned. This blog is one of them and is nowhere in the top 20. Now just add the word Halifax to this key phrase: search for “small business marketing consultants in Halifax”. At the time of writing this post, this blog was the ranked 2nd and 3rd in Google SERP. (The first was also about this blog - but on a different website) See what I mean by localization?
4. Site Architecture: Every structure begins with a blue print - no: more than one blue print. The floor plan, elevation, electrical plan, plumbing plan; fall-back plan, survival plan, whatever. Guess what? So does your site. Think of how the pages will flow, what pages are going to be “Actionable” pages, what are going to be information only pages, what are your “goal pages”, etc. How do you expect your prospects to land on your site? Which page? Every page on your site has the potential to be a landing page. Structure content accordingly. Some other high level pointers:
   • Avoid frames
   • Avoid flash unless it is for banner ad; do not count on flash pages being indexed
   • If you use Javascript links, use text links too, or else bots will be unable to follow your links
   • Do not link each and every page to all pages; it screws up your page rank
   • Create a robots.txt and sitemap.xml and Submit them to Google sitemaps and Yahoo Site Explorer
5. Content is the king: Now that you have selected your keywords, the next step is to write content around these words. This is where it gets tricky. How do you write sensible text AND fill it with your keywords naturally. It comes with a bit of experience and practice. Remember I am letting you on a secret here is a secret that helped me put some pages on this blog as the first result in Google SERP. I wouldn’t put this here if I did not think it was important. So make an effort to write keyword-rich content. Remember, it’s all about being relevant to your keywords. So keep the focus on one topic. If you do not have the time to do it, I can help you. Send me a note. Some general guidelines for writing content:
   • Use <Hx> tags for content headings.
   • Use your keywords in the first and last 30 words of content
   • Write content that builds trust
   • Do not duplicate content
   • Do NOT plagiarize
   • Anchor text: Did you add the TITLE and ALT tags in links and images respectively? No? Go add them.
   • REMEMBER: Content is the king
6. The META world: The larger blocks are now in place. Remember this phrase: The devil is in the details. Well, it’s so true. The following details on each page is a must:
   • Meta TITLE tag: This short and simple meta tag will determine what users will see before they click on the link in the SERP. If you look at the title of this page, you will the page title precedes the brand. Follow this and do NOT reverse this; i.e. do not put your brand in front of the title. It will mess up your SERP. Also keep the title between 10-15 words max. Write your title around your page content preferably content with <Hx> tags.
   • Meta DESCRIPTION tag: Depending on whom you talk to, you will be advised to add this or not. I recommend you add this. Pick out important few sentences from the page and place it in the description tag. It has been my experience that search engines use this to display the description in the SERPs. So do not neglect this tag as unimportant.
   • Meta KEYWORDS tag: Again, you will find a raging debate on whether to add this tag as part of the header or not. If you are a genuine website with quality content, you have nothing to fear and can add this tag. Make sure the keywords you add reflect what’s in the page content. I have personally seen no indication that keywords help but it does not hurt to put it.
   • Meta ROBOTS tag: You really need to instruct the bots coming to your site to follow the links and index your pages if that is what you want. If you do not want your links to be followed and/or your pages not indexes, say so right here. (you can also use and must use- the robots.txt file)
7. Promotion: Once your page is up, it is quite ok to feel invincible. After all, you have done all this hard work and people should read your page/s and buy from you. Yeah right buddy! Remember, the Internet has over 2.7 billion pages? Do not be under the delusion that people will automatically find you and read it. You need to promote your page.
   • Domain: While the URL and the domain name in itself is not the end all, it helps if you are lucky to have a keyword filled domain name and or URL. If you can’t do anything about the domain name at least use search engine friendly URLs. Try to avoid URLs that contain “?” because the search engines will ignore them.
   • Submit your site to directories The Open Directory, Yahoo, Google Directory. I came across a website - SEO Logic - and it has quite a list of directories and other SEO tips.
   • Link Exchanges: One word of CAUTION. Think twice about linking to someone since it is a vote from your site to theirs. Use this with a lot of thought and only link to sites who add value to your site.
   • Develop Relationships: Develop partnerships with other websites; similar to link exchange but controlled. Develop a relationship with expert sites. Comment on their pages and let them get to know you and your expertise. These links are much more valuable than just link exchanges or web directories.
   • Blog: If you are not already doing so, you are missing out on the SERPs. For any topic you search the next time, notice the number of blogs that appear. If you blog regularly, you will have high ranking in SERPs quicker.
8. Monitor, Test, Tweak, Monitor …: If you thought SEO was a static work, then sorry to burst your bubble. Use Google Analytics, Awstats, Webalizer are some statistics tools that you can use to monitor traffic. Of course that are other paid applications too. But for the most part, I find Google Analytics meets my requirements. Running a campaign? Track it on your site. Check how visitors reach your “Goal” or “Actionable” page. The beauty of a website is you can analyze visitor behavior to better serve your prospects. Never stop testing.

As I said earlier, I have noticed my rankings for certain keywords and key phrases fluctuate wildly. That’s Google playing with its search algorithm. Hence you cannot afford to keep a static website anymore. Constantly adding fresh content with SEO in mind will enable you to increase your rankings in SERPs dramatically. As I also said before, if you would rather focus your efforts on your core competencies, contact me and I’ll work on your site’s SEO.

• Carnival of Capitalists at About.com: Entrepreneurs
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Thank you.

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