Have you ever sat there and wondered how Google chooses the order for their search results? How some websites make it to the top of the list while others stay hidden in the Internet black hole? The truth is there are thousands of factors that come into play for Google's (Page Rank) PR algorithms.
My given name is Brett Miller. You may know a few people named Brett and I'm willing to bet you know a lot of Millers. Try searching "Brett Miller" on Google you'll be left with an astonishing 18,000,000 results! How do you get exposure with that kind of competition?
Which brings me to this experiment. Because my name is insanely common it seems like the perfect variable for a search engine ranking experiment. First we need to take a look at what steps are involved with SEO.
Step 1: Keyword Optimized Site
Start by building a site optimized for your keyword. Use tools like Google Adwords or Market Samurai to find popular keywords with minimal competition. Unfortunately, I don't really have a choice in this case. Changing my name is not an option I'm considering. Try to get the keyword in the URL. Make sure your meta-description contains your keyword and try to use it in your H1 tags, first paragraph etc. DON'T OVERUSE KEYWORDS. Google with smack you for it.
Step 2: Content
Although this article is slightly self-serving, I'm attempting to add value by providing SEO education. If you produce crappy content people won't share it. It's that simple! Your BLOG posts, articles, videos and more should be relevant and well produced. That goes for guest posts, Tweets and anything connecting back to your brand.
Step 3: Social Media Superstar
Google released a major update to their search algorithms in July which punished spam sites and highlighted social media. I'm guessing this has something to do with Google+. Make sure to have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Take advantage of the linking back opportunities to you site.
Step 4: Backlinks Are Critical
This leads me to the original point of this article. Backlinks are links from other sites pointing back to yours. Ideally those site are relevant to the topic of your site or the hyperlink they use contains your keywords. The more relevant backlinks on the web, the higher your ranking. The bottom of this article with contain backlinks to my personal website. I'm currently ranked 1 on Bing and Yahoo, but 12 on Google. I plan on submitting this to 100 article directories and waiting a month to see what happens. Wish me luck!
My given name is Brett Miller. You may know a few people named Brett and I'm willing to bet you know a lot of Millers. Try searching "Brett Miller" on Google you'll be left with an astonishing 18,000,000 results! How do you get exposure with that kind of competition?
Which brings me to this experiment. Because my name is insanely common it seems like the perfect variable for a search engine ranking experiment. First we need to take a look at what steps are involved with SEO.
Step 1: Keyword Optimized Site
Start by building a site optimized for your keyword. Use tools like Google Adwords or Market Samurai to find popular keywords with minimal competition. Unfortunately, I don't really have a choice in this case. Changing my name is not an option I'm considering. Try to get the keyword in the URL. Make sure your meta-description contains your keyword and try to use it in your H1 tags, first paragraph etc. DON'T OVERUSE KEYWORDS. Google with smack you for it.
Step 2: Content
Although this article is slightly self-serving, I'm attempting to add value by providing SEO education. If you produce crappy content people won't share it. It's that simple! Your BLOG posts, articles, videos and more should be relevant and well produced. That goes for guest posts, Tweets and anything connecting back to your brand.
Step 3: Social Media Superstar
Google released a major update to their search algorithms in July which punished spam sites and highlighted social media. I'm guessing this has something to do with Google+. Make sure to have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Take advantage of the linking back opportunities to you site.
Step 4: Backlinks Are Critical
This leads me to the original point of this article. Backlinks are links from other sites pointing back to yours. Ideally those site are relevant to the topic of your site or the hyperlink they use contains your keywords. The more relevant backlinks on the web, the higher your ranking. The bottom of this article with contain backlinks to my personal website. I'm currently ranked 1 on Bing and Yahoo, but 12 on Google. I plan on submitting this to 100 article directories and waiting a month to see what happens. Wish me luck!
About the Author:
Learn more about Brett Miller. Stop by Brett Miller's marketing site where you can find out all about Web Marketing Strategy and what it can do for you.
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