Good things come to those who work for them, and first page ranking on search engines is no exception. People who never leave the couch don’t win Olympic gold medals, and sites that don’t optimize for search engines don’t win high search engine rankings. Becoming the Usain Bolt of search engine ranking might not require any running, or for that matter any leaving of your computer chair, but it does take effort. To increase search engine position, sites need to meet the criteria search engines look for when picking those gold medalists that make page one.
Here, we’re going to use the example of a carrier pigeon service. Joe’s Pigeon Palooza offers pigeon rental in New York City. Looking to increase search engine position, Joe decides to optimize in order to increase his search engine ranking.
Step 1. Joe determines which for which keywords he would like to be a result. Though the term pigeons may be too generic, Joe thinks that carrier pigeons, carrier pigeon service, and NYC carrier pigeons may be good starting places. So, he takes a look at Google Adwords to find out how competitive the search terms are and how often the search terms are used. Turns out that carrier pigeons is pretty competitive, but carrier pigeon service and NYC carrier pigeons are less so and are entered with some frequency. Bingo.
Step 2. Joe thinks bigger. Part of planning to increase search engine position means optimizing for key words that might not seem obvious. Instead of considering only keywords that are directly relevant to the carrier pigeon industry, Joe thinks about the things carrier pigeons send. Love notes and secret messages seem plausible, so Joe decides to optimize for NYC flower delivery and NYC spy gear in the hopes of drawing new unique visitors and improving his search engine position.
Step 3. Joe thinks about the lovely people of New York. When attempting to increase search engine rankings, it’s easy to get caught up in pleasing the almighty Google, forgetting that SEO is about drawing users. So, Joe gives them what they want. Knowing that people interested in carrier pigeons are interested in being unique and maybe a little ironic, he creates an onsite blog with content about the most unique things to send by carrier pigeon and the weirdest things ever sent by carrier pigeon. Knowing that the people of New York really like bagels, he writes content for his blog about carrier pigeons delivering bagel orders. And never forgetting the almighty Google, he does all that while making frequent use of his keywords. What a guy.
Step 4. Joe launches into a labeling frenzy. He makes sure that every page on the his site has a relevant title and description, and wanting to be helpful, the pigeons remind him to use his keywords in the titles as frequently as possible. Google is pleased. Joe is well on his way to earning high search engine rankings.
Step 5. Joe and the pigeons become popular. Really popular. Because they update their site regularly, people keep coming back for more and sending their friends. Because of Joe’s Pigeon Palooza’s high traffic, it has found favor in the eyes of the Google and is rewarded with higher search engine ranking. The pigeons celebrate.
So maybe you’re not Joe and you don’t have any carrier pigeons. But, you too can please the almighty Google with a little work and content production.
