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26 November 2010
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200 Ways to Make Google’s First Page

Google is always working to improve the search results for a given query. As of last count, Google uses over 200 factors to come up with the right results. The most popular of these is known as PageRank or the number of incoming links. Yet, PageRank is just one of 200. And, to make matters a little more confusing, these factors change as Google determines new ways to create better results.

So, how can a business get highly ranked on Google? The first rule is to give up on trying to get highly rated for a broad query like “restaurant” or even “dallas restaurant” and focus on narrower queries like “restaurant near 75205″ or “indian restaurant in highland park”. Make sure your website has the location and text that Google can find. Then, follow these other tips that help:

  • Take advantage of all the standard website practices for search engine optimization. Avoid heavy use of flash and other content that Google can’t “read”.
  • Use the broad queries to identify the online directories that Google likes for a given category. Then see about getting your business listed in those directories.
  • Claim your listing on Google’s local business list.
  • Look for other opportunities to get your business listed on other websites such as online yellow pages List your business in all available online directories.
  • Blog and blog a lot. The more your blog, the more content you create and the more likely one of your articles will match a query.
  • Don’t cheat. It may be tempting to try to create bogus content or a site with lots of links back to your site. But Google has been scammed by much more elaborate efforts and their a number of the 200 factors are designed to punish the “cheaters”.

If every business was great at the above steps, it might be difficult to get on the front page of results. But surprisingly, most businesses still don’t take follow these steps. Remember it’s not important to be the best, you just have to be better than your competitors to get Google to notice.

Jeff is the President and CEO of BubbleLife Media, the publisher of http://bubblemedia4.wpengine.com, DFW's largest neighborhood news source, and a leading provider of neighborhood marketing solutions. Jeff has always been a technology entrepreneur including founding and leading one company that ranked 26th on Inc. Magazine’s list of Fastest Growing Private Companies, held an IPO and sold to McAfee.