How do I get my website ranked at the top of a Google search?

Google determines the ranking (or value to a searcher) of a website based mainly on links back to it from other websites. Basically this means that getting your website ranked highly on Google should be out of your control. However, there are ways of manipulating or influencing Google.

Before I begin, please be aware that some methods used by web ' optimization' companies can do your brand more harm than good.

Blogs
These are websites that are someone's commentaries on anything and everything. The are not promotional, they sell nothing and they do not enable one to conduct business of any sort. They are just opinion and information.

You can create one, or many, of these and comment on your industry with reference links back to articles and information on your main company website. These links are regarded as perfectly valid by Google.

Free tools like www.blogger.com enable you to easily build and maintain your own blogs for free.

But beware, unless you keep them updated monthly, they are consider to be just junk sites by Google. So building and maintaining blogs, while free, can be very time consuming.

Newsletter/Expert Advice Websites
You can create websites that can build their own income source through selling subscriptions to valuable information on an area of expertise related to your products or services. Alternatively, they can simply be a way of gathering names of potential clients through offering free newsletters or advice.

Again the idea is to make a valuable industry resource that is linked back to your website - providing your company website with extra credibility. This is also a safe and powerful marketing exercise that Google does not frown on.

These sites, however, are also very time consuming and can be expensive to setup and maintain. I would suggest that you have deep pockets and hire quality people to build and maintain this sort of site for you.

We can help you setup, maintain and run these sort of sites - and for companies with dreams of owning the world, this is how to unleash your dreams!

Product Focus or Unique Domain Name Websites
These are websites setup that focus on just one of your products. Some businesses have hundreds of these websites - each with their own unique domain name or a sub domain name like widget.yourcompany.co.nz - where your main domain name is yourcompany.co.nz.

Again, each site is setup to point back to your main website. Like any valid website they need regular maintenance and updating - i.e. not cheap (except if you consider that your time is valueless).

Conclusion
Bottom line, creating a reputable company that is seen as a valuable resource for information and therefore worthy of being at the top of a Google search is hard work.

There is an alternative, if all your goal is to be found at the top of a keyword search on Google - pay Google to put your there. It is called Google AdWords.

From as little as $50-$100 per month you can get your company name at the top of any search. It won't make your company any more desirable for your customers, but it is cheap and easy.