This month we’re relaunching our Virtually Sorted website as a WordPress site – essentially it will look exactly the same, but will let me update it with special offers and new content more readily, which the search engines will love! Whilst this is great for the future search engine rankings, it does mean we need to be careful when we suddenly yank away all the content which has been built up over the last 7 years!
So, how do you get your site to the top of the search rankings? With over 70% of searches being done by Google, we’ve compiled a list of what Google wants!
- Inbound links – They rank these in terms of number (more people linking to you is good) but also in terms of quality (so linking from 10,000 link farms will get you blacklisted!). Look for relevant sites which can link to you – directories under “Secretarial Services”, industry-specific sites like SVA, your clients, articles you’ve written, forums you frequent…
- Pick your keywords carefully – Optimising your site for “virtual assistant” may not be the smartest move, since it’s a very competitive search term and most people looking for that search term want an offshore VA. Instead optimise for specific niches you have, your location and what you do. Couple of keyword tools you can use: Adwords by Google and SEO Moz
- Use titles/headers/tags – Google scans using robots who look for specific important info. So what words you use in your titles, headers and tags will all jump out as being important to them. Where possible do one page per search term you are trying to optimise for – it’ll be easier to use relevant keywords. Don’t be tempted to fill an entire page with your keyword so that it doesn’t make any sense… Google checks for sense and they’ll downgrade your listing if you attempt to rig the results from the robots.
- Fresh content – Google loves it when you add new content to your site. This is the number 1 thing you can do to improve your search engine ranking. If you are writing blogs, remember that in order for it to do any good for your SEO, the blog should be hosted on your own domain rather than blogspot, wordpress.com etc. I know a lot of you have issues with finding stuff to write about but my top tip is to plan in advance, keeping a Word doc on your desktop which you can make notes in as ideas come to you. Pre-schedule posts so there’s always something fresh on there. Set aside a regular time to write up your blogs and post them. For topics: Think about the seasons (Christmas, summer, school holidays, tax season etc.); look at what is being talked about on Twitter/forums; think about how you’ve helped other clients and what their needs are.
- Search engine submissions – This is what I’ll be doing lots of over the coming weeks…. It’s very dull, but as Google’s robots can take up to 3 months to visit your site, it’s the quickest way of getting listed. Few to start you with: Google, Yahoo, TopBlogsites, BritBlog, British Mummy Bloggers.
P.S. If you are impatient like me…. CHEAT! Use Google Adwords to drive traffic to your site – they are the little adverts which appear on the right-hand column of search results.
P.P.S. If you aren’t an SEO guru, that’s okay – there are loads of companies out there who will help. But a word of warning: Check what they’re doing… A very well known VA got caught out recently by using “Black Hat” (AKA: dodgy) SEO techniques – despite claiming she gets all her results organically and can teach you how to do the same on her training course. It got broadcast on Google Alerts for the term “virtual assistant” and caused much embarrassment all round. Where in doubt err on the side of caution and build your SEO organically and without shortcuts.
What’s worked for you in terms of Search Engine Optimisation? Any gems to share? And for every person who replies on the comments, I’ll happily share the surprising results of which town in the UK gets most searches for the term “virtual assistant <town>” with them as a thank you for sharing their top tips!
PREVIOUS SVA PREMIER POSTS:
- https://www.societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk/?p=1028 May 2011 “Cash in the bank – get money in NOW!” Password: angeleyes
- https://www.societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk/2011/08/14/you-too-could-have-a-6-figure-income%e2%80%a6/ April 2011 “Earn a 6 Figure VA Income”
- https://www.societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk/?p=839 March 2011 “5 x 5-minute follow up techniques” Password: eatthefrog
- https://www.societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk/?p=391 Sept 2010 “101 Ways To Market Your Business” Password: cornice
- https://www.societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk/?p=307 August 2010 “Clients A-Z (or how to kick the Z clients to the kerb)” Password: apples