Small Business SEO

Rank For A Common Search Phrase!

Okay folks… here it is, the biggest secret in SEO! Just kidding, what I’m about to share with you is no secret; in fact, it’s simply a process for locking-down a key-term (phrase) within major search engine query results. Using a strictly white-hat approach, this method basically utilizes quality content and links it to a valuable resource - your website!

Now… for those of you who have absolutely no idea about what I’m talking about, here it is in laymen terms!

We’ll start with a fictitious business - Joe’s Hardware, in a made-up market - Chandler, Arizona. We’ll also assume that you (the reader) are the owner of Joe’s Hardware, and you want to rank higher in Google for the term hardware store in chandler, arizona.

Here’s what you do:

Step One: Write 5 Articles

What you need to do first is create quality information that pertains to you and your business. This should be easy for most every business, but especially easy for a hardware store. The articles written should be well thought out, with four to eight links to web-resources used to write the article (or at the very least, related to the article), and 1,000-plus words in length. Here are some topic examples based on our scenario:

(i) Joe’s Hardware - Hardware Store in Chandler, Arizona - Okay, this one may seem a bit obvious; but believe me, if you don’t have a decent explanation of who you are and what you do, the almighty Google will have a much harder time figuring it out. Not to mention we are going to use the webpage that this article is found on as a hub-page, which I’ll explain in further detail in a moment.

(ii) Best Hardware Stores in Chandler, Arizona - Guess whose hardware store made the list! That’s right, yours! Talk about five to eight hardware stores in Chandler and insert links back to their websites. You can pick large competitors, i.e. Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware, Sears, etc. and use their names as the anchors to link to their websites. Personally, I know for a fact that Joe’s is number one on the list; therefore you get a special anchor link… which I will also explain in a moment.

(iii) Hardware Store in Chandler, Arizona - Weekly Deals - If you don’t have any weekly deals, pitch a product at normal price, or create weekly deals… at this point it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that you create 1,000 words of content that discusses your products. Ideally, you would want to do this on a weekly basis; but for our immediate purpose, only one article is necessary.

(iv) How to Install a New Faucet - Create a how to guide for one of your products, i.e. for installing a faucet, a toilet, a medicine cabinet, light fixture, etc. Similarly to the Weekly Deals article, you would ideally want to create many how to guides, but not necessary for now.

(v) Makita Tools Vs Dewalt Tools - Both of these manufacturer’s have plenty of similar tools worth comparing, making a 1,000 word article fairly easy to create. And once again, if you commit to writing regular product reviews, you would certainly benefit greatly in the long-run.

Step Two: Link & Publish Articles

Now that your articles are completed and ready to be published for the world to see, we will need to prep them by inserting appropriate links. Each article will be distributed in different locations and on different websites. For instructions on how and where to publish your articles read the following.

Article (i) As mentioned, the webpage that your Joe’s Hardware - Hardware Store in Chandler, Arizona article is found will be used as a hub-page for all of our other articles to link back to. So, this article will need to be published on your website, ensuring that the page-title of the webpage reads Hardware Store in Chandler, Arizona - Joe’s Hardware, and that the article links out to valuable resources (or websites with high Google PageRank).

Article (ii) Your second article, Best Hardware Stores in Chandler, Arizona, is going to be used to create a Squidoo page. You can use Magic Builder to help with quickly and effectively create your Squidoo page. When linking to your competitor’s websites use their names as the anchors, like so: Home Depot. When linking to your website use Hardware Store in Chandler, Arizona, instead of Joe’s Hardware, and you need to link it to the Joe’s Hardware - Hardware Store in Chandler, Arizona article using its URL. Publish your Squidoo page.

Article (iii) Hardware Store in Chandler, Arizona - Weekly Deals will be used on your company blog, be sure to link out to multiple resources… and of course, your first article with the anchor Hardware Store in Chandler, Arizona, just like in the previous article.

Article (iv) Your How to article will be used to submit to Internet article directories. Begin at the top of this list of article directories, and submit this article to the top 10 directories listed. Often you will be given the opportunity to place one or more links into the resources section of your submission form. Be sure to make one of those links, Hardware Store in Chandler, Arizona, and you know where to link it to - your first article’s URL.

Article (v) The product comparison article will also be submitted to article directories. Using the same list of article directories from above, submit this article to the next 10 directories listed (11 - 20), and be sure to get your anchor - Hardware Store in Chandler, Arizona, and URL back to your first article in the resources section of the submission form.

Step 3: The Fun Part

I’m being entirely sarcastic, what I’m about to tell you to do is not going to be fun; but trust me it will be well worth your journey towards achieving higher rankings for your key-term. I never said this was going to be easy… did I?

1) Social Bookmark Each Article - If you’re not too sure what exactly social bookmarking is, read about it here. To begin your social bookmarking adventure you will need to go to SocialMarker.com and use their social bookmarking service, it’s free and easy to use; but be warned, your first time using the service will take some time to set up, as you will need to create a new user account with each of the bookmarking websites that you intend on submitting your articles to. Remember this means that you need to social bookmark every URL that has been created in the process of conducting Step Two. This means that you have a total of 23 URLs total to bookmark to at least 15 social media websites each (do not submit the same article, even with different URLs, to a social media website that specifically request you don’t submit duplicate stories).

Some social media websites are more beneficial, in regards to getting your key-term to rank higher in Google, but I would suggest that you submit to each of the websites that are available to you and that pertains to the article in which you are bookmarking. For example, you wouldn’t want to submit an article like the first one you wrote - Hardware Store in Chandler, Arizona to Slashdot.org, because this is a site for submitting IT related articles and information.

2) Time to Join the Blogosphere - That’s right, if you want to secure your place on Google for Hardware Store in Chandler, Arizona, you’re going to have to join the conversation. Here is a list of over 200 blogs that are beneficial for your efforts, when you comment on them. Commenting on a blog is as easy as filling out the comment form with your name - you might want to consider using a name such as Chandler Hardware, because more often than not the input in the name field is also the anchor for the URL that you enter into the link field. Guess what URL you should input? If you guessed the URL for your first article, from your website, you’d be correct! But don’t stop there, blog on at least 10 different blogs using each of the URLs created in Step Two - mix the URLs up by sending a few to your main site, your Squidoo pages, your published articles, and your profiles pages on article directories and social media websites.

Keep in mind, that you want to comment on blogs that are somewhat relating to your line of business, and you must be respectful by submitting comments that offer substance and show that you’ve actually read the blog post before commenting on it. Which brings me to my next point - read the blog post before commenting on it - I know this should go without saying, but trust me, it needs to be said.

Your Key-term is Now Locked Down!

Viola! That’s it! You’ve successfully secured your position in Google for the term hardware store in chandler, arizona. Congratulations! You will have to wait about a week or two before you see any improvement, and probably even longer before seeing significant results, but if you followed this guide from top to bottom you will certainly see your website creep towards the top. Remember if you repeatedly comment on blogs you will be contributing towards gaining higher rankings and securing those rankings from your competition.

If your key-term happens to be an extremely competitive one, this method can still be used; however, you’ll need to work on a much larger scale. You may have to create ten, fifteen, or even twenty articles and submit them in a similar fashion as suggested in Step Two.

For help with orchestrating a plan for securing one or more key-terms for your company, contact uddyB SEO to discover our search engine optimization services, and we will save you thousands by helping you with everything that you need to know and do for conducting your own search engine optimization work.