Get seen on Google and Yahoo

So now you have a content management site through WordPress and you are able to make your own changes. A friend calls and asks “I couldn’t find you on Google.” Before sounding the alarms, realize you can make some changes. Before they hang up, ask them a few questions:

• What search engine were you using: Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc?
• What were the exact keywords the you typed in?
• Did you look past the first page of search results for my site and if so, what page was I on?

Once you have that info in hand, reflect on it. “Are these the type of keywords that other clients could be using to search for my site? Are these keywords more relevant than other keywords for optimal search results?” If the answers is yes, then login to your WordPress backend.

Once you have logged in, you can make changes a few places and do a few things:

• Settings>All in One SEO. If you have this pulgin, this overrides your homepage keywords. You will want to add, change those keywords or possibly the title there.
• Pages- go to your homepage into edit mode. Be sure there is some relevant text on the homepage content page itself using those exact keywords. Use them in the content of the page AND then down in the All in One SEO below (if you do not have that plugin, I highly recommend getting it and installing it).
• Blog post- make a new blog post with those keywords in the title, the body content, and the All in One SEO pack. Add a relevant picture and make sure the ALT tag has those keywords (but only if it’s relevant).

Other things you can do are set up free business places on Google, Yahoo and Bing, where those keywords are on the description and the category. External links that come from valid areas will help a bunch too. You can also do this by adding a Facebook FanPage, adding yourself to Yelp, or a million other places. When you do, be sure to add those relevant keywords as part of your descriptions.

It can take some time to be seen this way so while you wait for the search robots to revisit your site, you may want to take out some online ads where those particular keywords come into play (but that’s another blog post unto itself :). Again, this is all part of a larger online marketing plan. Once you have the site, you can’t just leave it be- you need to work on it to get it out there. If you don’t have a plan or need help, consult a designer or marketing consultant to help you.