Reputation management is a difficult subject for many business owners. SEO companies try to make it sound like you need some special formula to obtain ranking in the search engines. Marketing firms tell you that there is no way you will ever be able to create the perfect ad on your own. While for some, it might be best to hire an outside service to handle these tasks, for most small businesses the expense simply isn’t worth it. If you are good at what you do, you know what your customers are looking for. By tailoring your ads and your website to your customers, you have won the majority of the reputation management battle.
First off, take a look at Google’s keyword tool. This will give you an idea of what you are up against. Type in a few keywords that relate closely to your business. The tool will tell you how many people are searching these terms, how much competition you have for that term and list some similar terms you might be interested in. Unfortunately, these searches are less helpful for things like localized searches, which are becoming increasingly important.
Now that you have your keywords in hand, it is time to actually search for one or two of your primary keywords. Take a good amount of time checking out the top couple results. These are the people doing it the best. Look at how the content is set up to make the keywords a prominent part of the page, including images and landing pages. Remember that you will need to make your visitors happy- SEO is not the only thing you should be looking at.
Now it is time to start tweaking your website. While there are times where it is appropriate to start from scratch, when fine-tuning your reputation management strategies you want to make a few changes every week or two. This means that you will have time to see what the results of your actions are before you make another change.
Don’t worry if you don’t get the top spot right away. It will take time and practice to get on the first page for a competitive keyword. This is true for amature or expert alike. If you are just not making any progress, try focusing on a space that has less competition. As your visitor count increases you will have more clout to go after the bigger fish. As with any business venture, you need to be ready to start small and grow along with your customer base.
A webpage for your business is an important aspect of being successful. However, for your webpage to help you business, people actually have to see it. Use the tips in this article wisely to help your site go in a positive direction. You can rank your page just as well as a pro could if you are patient and make smart decisions. Soon enough you will be big enough to pass the torch to a full time marketing department!