Win the Google results game: SEO for CEOs.
You want your website to get noticed. There are millions of businesses clamouring for the attention of customers so how do you stand out from the background noise?
Search results are one of the biggest drivers of web traffic. When a buyer is looking for a product or service, they use Google to figure out where to spend their money. If your website is on the first page of Google results you’re much more likely to connect with new clients.
So how did the companies at the top of the Google search results accomplish their high rankings? The answer is SEO.
How SEO works.
SEO — Search Engine Optimisation — is the way top-ranking websites get their Google search dominance.
There’s a lot of misinformation around SEO. Over the years as the online culture evolved and Google refined the complex formulas they use to rank websites, SEO techniques that worked well in the past stopped being effective.
In the early days of web-based marketing, all you needed to do to get your site onto Google’s front page was splatter your website with words related to your product. This technique was known as “keyword stuffing”. If you were selling toasters online, you’d just use the word “toaster” a thousand times on your website, and the Google algorithms would list your company first for anyone searching “buy a toaster”.
This simplistic process led to all sorts of manipulation by canny web marketers, and Google realised they needed to come up with a more refined formula.
Google search results are now the product of a very sophisticated set of analytic formulas that measure websites’ traffic numbers, user ratings, reliability and authority.
Links from authoritative websites have emerged as the foremost driver of Google search result rankings. Google’s objective is to give its users results that have been recommended and vouched for by other trustworthy websites.
Websites linked by high-authority domains like news media and industry journals are given preferential treatment by Google.
So, what does all that mean for you and your marketing strategy?
Keywords are still useful, but they’re not enough to get you on Google’s front page.
A high Google search ranking and traffic growth depend on being acknowledged by established, high authority websites.
That sounds daunting for many business people. How can you break into that elite club of respected high traffic sites?
The most effective strategy for escaping web obscurity and pushing your brand up the Google rankings is content marketing. There’s no secret trick to it. There’s no special gimmick. Content marketing works because it builds credibility, and that’s the winning element in the SEO battle.
Learn more about using content marketing to achieve your SEO goals, in my "Content marketing 101" article.
Hi, I’m Emmanuel Marshall.
I create marketing campaigns that deliver useful, inspiring content to target audiences. I help businesses build communities around their brands and generate qualified leads. Let’s talk about how I can help grow your business.
