I get asked this all the time… how come my site isn’t on the first page of Google? Well, even though I did my part and designed a professional looking website, I optimized the pages with the right keywords and phrases in the tags; If you don’t have a lot of quality inbound links coming to your site, it’s going to be really hard to get ranked number one.
What do I mean by quality inbound links? Google interprets a link to your website as a vote. The more votes you have, the higher your page rank will be and this increases the chances that your site will be on the first page of Google for your key phrase.
How can you get more inbound links to your website?
– Submit your site to relevant directories, and lots of them. If you are an intuitive healer, do a search for holistic or alternative directories and submit your site to them. These directories can include both free and paid ones.
– When submitting your site to these directories, make sure your keyword phrase is included in the site title, if they ask for it. For example, I make sure my link says “Third Eye Studio Holistic Web and Graphic Design”, or “Third Eye Studio Healing Arts Web and Graphic Design” and other versions. Vary the sentence a bit. This will really make a difference in getting more votes for Page Rank.
– Exchange links with websites complementary to yours, and of course, make sure your keyphrase is in the link you send.
– Other forms of promotion are social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook, Meetup.com, blogging, and making sure your website link is included in posts and/or sidebar links. Video and audio podcasts, YouTube… etc.