Chapter 8:
How to Show up in Google Ahead of Your Competitors.

One of the most powerful ways to dominate your market is to make sure that your website shows up first when potential customers search for certain keywords in your market.

While the way Google works may seem random at times, your ranking for certain keywords is actually based on a formula that you can use to your advantage. This is called "Search Engine Optimization" or "SEO" for short.

Ranking higher in Google for certain search terms is something that most people think is very complicated. With a little patience and some basic knowledge of how it all works however, it's a lot easier to rank in your local market than you might think.

There are literally hundreds of things you could do when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. When we're working with our Local Clients and we launch a "SEO Campaign", we tend to focus on a few key elements that we've found make the greatest impact.

It all starts with making sure we rank for the right keywords and expands out from there.

Let's cover the core things that we do when we work to Rank Our Clients Higher on Google.

What Brick and Mortar Businesses Need to do to Rank #1 on Google

#1: Figure out the Keywords that Make you Money.

Not all keywords are created equal. One of the core things that you need to figure out before you start optimizing your website is what keywords that you want to rank for.

#2: Make Sure Your Website is Search Engine Friendly.

Once you've established a set of keywords that you'd like to rank for, it's important that you optimize your website to reflect that. Making sure that your site makes use of those key phrases (without overdoing it) is a small, but important, part of actually ranking for those keywords.

This is something that most of our clients have no interest in doing themselves due to the tedious and unpredictable nature of the work involved.

#3: Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Ready.

One of the keys to being "Google friendly" is to make sure that your site is mobile friendly. This means that your website looks equally good on a phone's screen as it does on a computer's screen.

Your site being "mobile friendly" or not can drastically affect where your site ranks in the search results.

#4: Regularly Create Keyword Focused Content that is Interesting.

One of the most important ways that we help our clients rank for certain key terms is through the use of regular new content on their site.

The key to doing this correctly to write content that is interesting to your core clientele but also plays well with the Google's Search algorithms.

This is something that is often overlooked by traditional SEO firms, but it vitally important as Google's algorithms have evolved.

#5: Get Strategic Links from Others.

One of the core elements to ranking higher in a local market is to have a strategic strategy of getting the right websites to link back to your site.

Often this involves getting other important local websites to link to you using the keywords you wish to rank for. This sends a signal to Google that your site is a local authority on a topic and results in higher rankings for that term.

#6: Leverage Your Facebook Page to Spread Your Content.

If you've laid a good foundation with your site and Facebook page, it's important to link the two up.

Google is always looking to see "social signals" that are related to a topic. Getting your latest blog posts to show up on Facebook can be a big boost as it can start the process of getting your content shared by other people.

We focus a great deal of effort on making sure our clients have great content and that it is something that is "share worthy" on Social Media. This ultimately helps in our effort to rank our client's websites high in the search results for our desired key terms.

Watch Below:

The Core Elements of Ranking a Website on Google.