Wheelock Group
If
The
back-links
business
democracy
directories
directory
engine
example
give
grand
industry
keyword
link
links
manufacturers
means
michigan
more
organizations
page
pages
rank
rank)
rapids
search
similar
simple
site
sites
system
target
terms
trade
web
Contact Us Now!
Reputation Management and Trust Management are two other terms you should get to know.
Author: Dave Wheelock
Google Democracy and Page Rank
Does democracy work on the web? Google seems to think it does. Google uses their page rank system to rank their keyword search engine results. The Google page rank system gives your site a proprietary ranking based on your website back-links, directory listings, and lots more.
The current form of democracy that Google utilizes is in the back-links. The idea is to allow the general public to choose what web sites should rank higher in search engine results by its popularity expressed as back-links that are posted on other web sites. In other words, your page rank is somewhat based on your visitors, directories, and other link trades.
There are more 'democracy' features coming soon, but this article only mentions the PageRank system and how it affects your business.
Link Trades Here we Come
Sounds pretty simple. Lets go out and get 10,000 links to our home page, but there's a twist: Google then uses the information from the links on other pages to give your site assigned external link relevant keyword terms. Those terms are used in Google's overall rank of your page and may or may not be similar to the keyword terms you target on your page. Whoa-nelly! Wait a second, so my page will rank by other people's terms for my page on links that they create? Not entirely, but yes...
Targeted Keyword Terms
What does this mean? If you're marketing a web site, it means a lot to your keyword rank. It means that simple reciprocal links from sources that aren't relevant to your terms won't help your page rank (it could actually hurt your page rank). It means that you must target similar or complimentary sites for back-links to your web site. Directories using similar keyword terms are a good place to start, but why would a similar business want to post my links?
Lets take a simple brochure-type manufacturing business web site for example. Would other similar businesses place your links on their web pages to help your Google page rank? Not likely, unless you're an authority in the industry, but you could target professional trade organizations for keyword link placement. You'll also want to step up effort on industry specific directory link placements.
Fortunately, other industry manufacturers are bound by the same constraints, so competition is pretty even. However, when all of your competitors maximize their exposure to these organizations, paid link placements and pay per click campaigns are of the few alternatives. Some would say, that's where Google adds capitalism to their democracy...
Possible Rank Peak
A second point on what this affects is your highest possible rank in Google search engine rank pages. For our example of the manufacturer, their rank on Google hits it's maximum at just under those trade organizations, directories or authorities in the industry.
Why? Well, these trade groups have the ability to utilize all of the back-link opportunities that the manufacturing business has (that matches the page rank), plus they have the ability to be linked directly with all of the manufacturers and authorities in the industry (which exceeds the typical business page rank).
If trade organizations choose to follow through with heavy SEO efforts, this would easily give them a higher Google page rank overall. Specifically, for generalized keywords, like 'industry manufacturer' for example, directories and organizations would be ahead of most actual manufacturers in their keyword rank by default.
How can we win?
So what can we do to out-rank them with general keywords? You may not be able to, but there are some steps you can take to still find your customers.
First, contact each directory, authority or trade organization who ranks ahead of you with your keyword terms to find out what their link policies are. If you can't get the traffic by keyword search engine rank, you may be able to get it through link advertisements on their web pages.
Second, have an SEO professional research keyword terms for you to target on your web pages that allow you to rank better with more specific keyword phrases and long-tail terms.
Third, Google Maps - does wonders for local customers.
Forth... Well, we can't give away all of our secrets...
If you'd like to know more and are serious about optimizing your site to improve your page rank, please contact us now! We are here to help!
Comments
Leave a comment!
Recent Blog Posts
Being an SEO professional in Michigan provides a unique experience and offers us the opportunity for diverse projects. Michigan businesses aren't just automotive manufacturers. There are a wide variety of small through large businesses based in Michigan offering products and services to the global marketplace.
The Michigan population is extremely proud of our local manufacturing plants. Dozens of our local communities here in Michigan are built around various manufacturing and assembly plants. There is a symbiotic relationship between a plant and its local community.
With our roots in these small Michigan communities, we strive to provide affordable and effective alternatives for marketing and advertising needs to Michigan companies. We also provide our clients with solutions and services that offer a high ROI. We are doing our part in helping these local businesses stay local to Michigan.
Okay, so what can a manufacturing business do to prevent catastrophic failure in the current economy? Most are tightening belts and budgets to reflect lower sales and profits. Many are looking toward Lean or other manufacturing technology that will save resources, equipment, and time to save money overall. Some manufacturing companies are trying to differentiate by utilizing the equipment and resources they currently have in new markets. Others are simply closing their doors.
As you slash your advertising budgets and reduce marketing staff, where will new customers come from? Can you rely on manufacturing trade organizations full of other businesses who are in the same sinking ship? Are business directories able to share your complete manufacturing expertise to potential customers? Are your traditional forms of advertising getting out to new potential customers? What has your website done for you lately?
This is a landing page - or at least an example of a landing page if it doesn't rank well. The concept of using a landing page in SEO terms isn't new, but still provides an excellent way for you to capture leads from the search engines.
Essentially, a landing page is one page on your web site optimized for just a few specific keywords. In this case, we're using 'landing page' as our main keywords and we'll try to focus on a couple other keywords to capture leads on the long-tail searches as well. Landing pages are sometimes referred to as 'lead capture pages' for the obvious reason that they are intended to capture leads.
Landing pages are used to grab leads from the search engines through excellent ranking on specific keywords. Not every page on your site can be optimized for your preferred keywords. This is what has made landing pages such a successful strategy.