Search Engine Optimization

At this point, you’ve probably heard and seen it all. Emails from random addresses with oddly misspelled words, promising you ‘1^st place rank on Google’ or ‘guaranteed results’ – shouting at you with offers of high rankings and huge sales; proclaiming to know your business (though they’ve never spoken to you), and offering you the world for a few hundred or thousand dollars a month. Hopefully, you’ve ignored all of this.

You want results, without all of the nonsense above. So HOW do you do it?

The answer is…not simple. But then, if it were simple, everyone would do it; and there are only 10 organic listings on the first page of Google, so the math doesn’t really work out, does it?

Here’s the secret to performing well in organic search results:

Clean up your website! You can’t build a solid house on a shaky foundation. If the bones of your site are no good, the layers you add on top will all come crashing down. Start here first.
Add Content: blog posts, stories, videos, images, articles, and press releases. Make it unique, make it something people will share, make it something that will help you stand out, and add it to your site regularly. Then share it.
Give people what they want when they land on your site and make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for. Don’t worry so much about search engines (really, if you write for people, the search engines will find you); focus on the person who has landed on your website.
Connect with others who will share information about you: bloggers, media, fans, and customers.
Give your customers a great product, service, or experience. Really – a great one, not a mediocre one. One that they’ll talk about.
Ask customers to talk about their experience with you. Do something interesting, surprise them, be funny/inspiring/unique/original/authentic. Mean it. And ask them to tell others.
Talk about yourself: Promote the great things you’re doing, and the people you’re helping, with the media (yup!). Pat yourself on the back with posts on social media and mentions on your website, share great stories, and spread the word.