How to rank your website with Google my business
If you want to make the most of your small business, you’ll need to learn how to rank your website with Google my business. But it’s not as simple as adding some keywords and hoping for the best. It takes a lot more work than that — but if you’re willing to put in the time, there are a few tips that will go a long way in helping you come out on top. In this article, I covered 7 different ways to rank your website than anyone else for every keyword query related to your industry.
Hi, I am Terence Ballinger! I am a Marketing Professional with over 15 years of experience in the Internet Marketing field and web design. I started out as an entertainer and still perform once in a while. I got started off by creating my own website and quickly learned how to promote my website with local SEO it has been quite the learning curve. Now my company Bulldog Marketing Agency serves over 25 clients in In Canada and the US. Thanks for stopping by to take a look at our website!
When I started writing this article, I fully expected to come back with 20+ ways to rank your web design with Google my business. However, after further reflection, 7 seems like a good number for this guide. If you focus on following every tip in this article, you’ll be able to rank your website very high on Google for almost every keyword related to your business.
1. Use Social Media
One of the easiest ways to rank your website design for any given keyword is through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. I love this idea because I can already see the benefits right in front of me. I’m able to spot other small businesses that are in the same industry as me, and I can contact them on a regular basis to build a relationship and mutually benefit both of us.
I should note, however, that building a good social media presence takes time — especially if you want to start out with an organic following (unlike myself). But the benefits far outweigh any short-term time investment, and it’s something that’s definitely worth the effort in the long run.
Getting your business a lot of exposure on social media is also a great way to break into new markets. You can easily start building your business presence in other countries and expand well past your current location. This is great because it opens up new markets for you… and a whole lot of awesome traffic!
2. Google My Business
This is a no-brainer. If you want to rank your website with Google, you’ll need to have a presence on Google. And that’s exactly what Google my business is for. This isn’t the same thing as Google search, and it has nothing to do with AdWords — it’s simply a way for Google to help people find businesses in their area and easily find the information they’re looking for on those businesses websites.
Even if you don’t have your own website, it doesn’t matter… Google can still point people to your Google my business page. So, it’s definitely something you want to take advantage of. It’s free, too… so there’s no excuse not to use this tool.
3. Have a Good Homepage
There are a lot of different things that go into having a good homepage for your website design. And the right mix depends on the goals and mission of your website. For most people, having a good homepage is the single biggest thing they can do to rank their website with Google. I’m sure you can think of tons of other things that go into helping your business online, but this is by far the easiest and most accessible.
The first thing you want to do is make sure your homepage has a mobile-friendly design. The majority of people will only visit your website in their browser on their computer or laptop, so it needs to be built for that purpose. Make sure it’s easy to navigate, and don’t make it too cluttered with tons of text. Keep it simple and clean — you’re the focused target market for your website, and you shouldn’t (and don’t) need a huge amount of distractions to help you be successful there.
Also, make sure your homepage has a social media share bar (similar to Facebook) above the fold so that people can easily share on their social media channels. VAST and Outbrain are two of the best social media tool providers that help you out with this. VAST is more resourceful, and Outbrain focuses more on traffic (like SEO), but both are great and offer a lot of features we’re going to cover below.
4. Use VAST to Display True Organic Traffic
VAST is an amazing tool that allows you to show off organic traffic and keyword-targeted traffic in the same ad campaign. This means that you can track how much traffic is coming in from AdWords, Social Media, and direct visitors to your website. This is a great tool for learning and improving one of the most valuable parts of your marketing: organic traffic.
If you’re using AdWords as your main source of organic search traffic, then you need to be able to see how many people are coming in from Google organically without any ads being shown. These are the people that are finding your website because of natural search results. And if you use Outbrain, then this is the key to learning how to rank your website with Google using this method.
5. Use Outbrain for Targeted Traffic
Outbrain is an easy way to target a specific audience that might be looking for something similar to what you’re selling. This is perfect if you want a lot more traffic to your website without putting in all the hard work that goes into SEO and organic traffic. Outbrain focuses primarily on social media users looking for content around your industry. So it can help you target those people that are interested in what you have to offer.
If someone does a search on Google for, say, “retail spa services,” then Outbrain will display a list of ads that are targeted directly at that particular keyword. This is perfect for when you’re not so sure what they’re looking for and can’t just target organic search traffic.
6. Use PPC to Get More Traffic from AdWords
PPC (Pay Per Click) is a method that you can use to try and get traffic to your website when you aren’t sure how people are finding the information they want on your website. For example, if someone looks up “retail spa services” on Google, you probably won’t know where they’re finding that information. So PPC is a great way to get traffic from your website without having to do any of the major work.
All you have to do is pay a small amount every time someone clicks on your ad (although you can control how many times people are likely to click before they see the ad again). Most people don’t know how to use PPC, so you should make sure to take full advantage of it.
7. Use social media influencers and niche bloggers
This is a great way to get more traffic without bearing the full brunt of the work that can be involved in SEO and AdWords. It’s a great way for you to build up a new audience with your business while repackaging your content into something that has high value to them. The experts and influencers in your industry usually know what they’re talking about, so this is a great way to get your content repackaged for display.
And that’s it… these are the 7 things that will help you rank better with Google. All of these tools can be purchased even if you don’t have a web design — but it’s highly recommended that you get one to help you with your SEO and AdWords.
Web Design Blog post-July 5th