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Today’s question is from Matthew Pantzlaff at Total Real Estate Solutions in Madison, WI

“NC Answers” is our series of answers to real business owners’ questions about their online presence. Have your own? Send it to us. We’ll talk. =)

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Well hello you sexy question. Everyone wants you. Everyone wants to know you better. You’re desirable, mysterious, and seemingly unattainable. Except some people have it so… why not me??

If you want the short, TL;DR answer: Content. Quality, original, consistent, relevant content.

There are a ton of articles on Google’s latest algorithms. Here’s one. Here’s another. And another.

There are dozens of sites completing full data analyses of their trials and results to boost their ratings. Here’s a monster post on extremely in-depth SEO testing strategies. Yummy.

But seriously, who has time to do all that research and planning? You have a business to run! And maybe you’re not super technical. Suddenly you have twice the research to do just to understand what these posts are trying to tell you. What are SERPS? What are crawlers? Meta data? H1 tags? Huh???

As the saying goes: Some don’t want to know how the sausage is made…

 

What Makes My Site Rank Higher on Google? a.k.a What’s In The Sausage?

A really strong online presence. I call it an “online presence” because the digital field now requires a fully interconnected network of online channels through which customers can find you, the information you can provide, and get a fast response from a person when needed. What successful business has “sworn off” Facebook or Twitter? How many businesses have online support and interactivity with public responses (think Community Forums)? Look at the ones who top your Google searches and you’ll find most – if not all – do all those things, and they do them very well.

We like to think of your online presence like an employee. It can greet visitors, provide information, increase subscriptions, connect people to where they want to go, drive sales, and more. You have something different to offer than those big companies. You know it – now you want everyone else to know it, too! I mean, it’s SO OBVIOUS. That’s why this sexy idea of being #1 on Google seems so appealing. That means you’ve won.

That Is Sexy. So How Do I Get People to Find Me?

Again, think of your online presence as you would an employee. Neglect on the training of how to do its job? Skip paying it a few months? Forget to follow up on what it should be doing? Imagine doing that with one of your current (or future) employees – what do you think the result would be? (Pro tip: it’s probably not good.)

SO, going back to the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how to rank higher on Google: to have your online presence do whatever it is you want, it has to be seen by relevant (key word here) people. That’s where smart, targeted, original, consistent content comes in. From my experience and research, essentially Google rankings nowadays boil down to…

• Who is providing people with what they want?
• Who is providing them with what they want consistently?
• Who is a respected member of this community (financial, real estate, design, etc)?

Yes yes there are tons of technical details of how Google magically figures this out and ways people are going to try and manipulate the system. Good on them – it makes Google better. If you’re not one of those people, I suggest you buckle in and do what you do best: Be an expert in your field.

At the risk of turning this into an ad, a big part of delivering those three points includes research. We have this cool thing called a Content Volcano where we do that for you, record you in a 30-60 minute interview, and turn it into a bunch of stuff. Okay enough commercialling – totally a word – but seriously if that sounds awesome give us a shout.

What Else Can I Do Right Now?

Go out and post on other sites that talk about what you know. Find local forums and boards where you can give expert-level answers and become a respected online community leader. Link to your personal blogs that are relevant to discussions. Display your expertise to those who are seeking an expert. It’s a snowball effect – the more people who visit your site and stick around because they’re finding the information they need, the higher your site starts to rank, which means more people visit your site and stick around…. you get it.

We’ve got a post about why #1 Google Rank claims are bogus. This is totally true, and Google continues to improve the way it searches for the right content for its users. While Googling some links for this post, I saw one that was 13 steps to a #1 ranking. It was comically complicated and absurd, with “data” from a site that claimed to have #1 slots on 14 keywords. It was extremely manipulative and essentially was trying to reverse-engineer how Google produces results. I promise you: approaches like this will NOT work in the long term. Stuff like this is called “black hat” because it’s super shady.

Taking good care of your online presence will allow it to take good care of you. By steadily climbing the ranks through quality, original, consistent content to relevant people in communities seeking expertise you can provide, it will show off your sexiness to your one true love: Google. Sexy, sexy Google.

Love,

Jason

PS – Here’s another very nice post by a top SEO expert saying what I’m saying.