A Straightforward Guide to Boosting Search Rankings

In today’s online world, the only search engine that that really counts is Google; at this point, Yahoo and Bing, even combined, mean almost nothing. If you have China customers, especially if you are active in HK online marketing, then Baidu is important too. But the rules for Google and Baidu are similar, making them the only search engines that really matter right now… though in the future, that may change.

When researching online marketing packages for business, then, keep these rules in mind. The search engines want to see three things about websites. They are:

1. The sites are technically accurate, so the search engine software (and the people searching the engines) can understand them. Otherwise, your prospects will not be able to find you as easily, if at all. What does it matter if your site lands on the first page of the search engine results if it lands on the WRONG first page?
2. The sites are full of relevant, meaningful content. Generally, that means good, on-topic articles that are well-researched and well-written. This will not only aid your search engine ranking, prospects will view you as an authority on the subject, which is crucial for conversion.
3. The website and the business are well-respected. This means the site includes links from other reputable websites, and there are mentions of the website and business in reputable places. Even if your business is new, you can accomplish this by maximizing the quality and integrity of your site and business, by forging strategic partnerships with respected websites and businesses, by making guest posts on reputable sites, and by writing articles for those sites, focusing on your specialities and your high level of quality and expertise.

Key Points

No matter where you are in your SEO quest, you must guarantee these three things about your web content. To do so, we recommend you use simple but powerful tools like SEMRush and PowerSuite Website Auditor. They may cost a little money, but that money is well-spent. You cannot profit with SEO marketing if no one knows where to find you online. If you don’t lack the time or ability to hone your own content for maximal SEO response, then consider purchasing one of our SEO marketing packages. We’ll take care of bringing new prospects to your small business.

Whether we do the work or not, it has to be done if you expect to attract today’s tech-savvy audience to your websites.

Analyze Content

If you have problems implementing SEO on your own, one way to get ahead is by not only analyzing your own content, but by also looking into your top competitor’s content, using one of the tools already mentioned. Pick the company at the top of the game, and if you have the time, pick two or three, especially if they consistently out-perform you. Check the very same factors with your competitors’ copy that you checked with your own. Dig as deep as you can; focus not just on the homepage, but on the “inner” pages as well, because some of the more attractive material may be hidden on specific product pages.

After analyzing your competitors, adopt their most effective practices as your own. Some business people prefer not to use other businesses as models, but modelling is a standard practice for new and reorganizing businesses, especially with competitors that use a similar or identical service strategy. If you are in a business with a great deal of competition, you must set a goal of doing what you do better than all your competitors, in terms of quality, quantity, or both, so you become the obvious first choice for anyone shopping for what you sell.

The Benefits of Modelling

Take the best parts of their business plans, and turn them up to 11. Discard the rest. Your competitors may not like it when you start beating them with their own strategies, but it is entirely legal and moral to do so, especially when you improve on their methods. In fact, this benefits not just you, but the customer and the marketplace. Do NOT copy them directly, of course; they should serve as a model, not a template. And never, ever directly copy their content! That falls under the definition of plagiarism, which is both immoral and illegal and will instantly destroy public trust if discovered.

Always take note of your competitors’ strengths, so that you can emulate them; and be sure to document their weaknesses, so you can avoid them. An example of a large company that does this very well is Microsoft, the creator of the Windows PC operating system and many other products.

Making the Changes

After deciding how to proceed with your SEO efforts, make a schedule to implement your changes. This is not rocket science; just know that you need to allocate sufficient resources to get it done in a reasonable period, including time and manpower. If you do it yourself, we recommend assigning specific staff to maintain your SEO superiority. A single fix will leave you drifting, months or years later, as the economy and business change, so steady maintenance is crucial. Your assigned staff may not have to make constant changes, but SEO superiority does require hard work, and you have to keep at it continuously. You will also need to review your strategy and plan as an ongoing process. Find a custom-made digital marketing course/workshop to keep up-to-date. What’s trendy and golden rule of thumb two years ago can become poisonous today. 

Tips for Hiring a Pro

If you just lack the time or manpower, or your previous efforts have fallen short, consider hiring an SEO service provider specializing in online SEO marketing for business. Be sure they have a proven track record (in the form of a list of happy customers), understand Internet marketing as people use it to find goods and services in HK, and are willing to analyze your business thoroughly before touching your content. Have them participate in discussions in which their focus is on your business goals, not just lists of keywords and how many times they plan to repeat them.

Refuse to be misled by promises of instant success from SEO snake oil salesmen. It takes a true professional some time to get things up and running the right way—so that you end up making more money, not spending more to repair SEO errors.

Floyd Largent is a freelance writer/editor with 25+ years of experience. Since he became a full-time freelancer in 2005, he has written literally thousands of SEO articles for a variety of clients, as well as hundreds of productivity and business articles, and has ghostwritten eight books on subjects as varied as marketing, productivity, and veganism. Educated as an anthropologist and historian, he worked as an archaeologist and technical writer for 15 years before beginning to write fully-time. He believes a good writer can write on any subject, and has also written games, a play, several novels, dozens of short stories, close to 100 history and archaeology articles published in U.S. magazines, a dozen scholarly papers, more than 100 cultural resources reports, hundreds of pieces of web-copy, as well as numerous technical specifications and white papers; and he has edited more than a hundred fiction and non-fiction book manuscripts. He can be contacted directly at [email protected].