Blogs and SEO articles are an effective means of getting the word out and increasing publicity and revenue for your business, but climbing your way into a top listing on an engine search takes a bit of strategy.

First

There are sites that engineer their services specifically to businesses, such as Business.com and Bpubs. Some will request a small fee for their services. Other search engines, such as Yelp, which lists itself as an online community, will offer free services, including online tools to track the number of visitors to your site, but charge a fee for preferred search engine placement and extra listing features. Google Places is a free online service, with the added advantage of being one of the most frequently used and widely known search engines.

Second

The best way to place high in business indexing is to write original and informative content. You can treat your content in one of two ways; as a friendly, conversational blog, or as a formal, subject matter specific, article. Search engines give highest priority to sites that deliver fresh views and demonstrate activity by adding new content on a regular basis. Content should be written in your own words or in those of a skilled SEO writer. Search engines, such as Google, will penalize sites that “scrape” or copy content from other similar sites by not including them in a business search.

Third

Add quality links to your website. This is done by searching other sites that have similar interests to your own, have a good reputation as a reliable source for information and services, but that are not in direct competition. If your product is garden tools, you may wish to link to sites that contain gardening information or horticultural landscaping design. Many sites are willing to link if you offer a guest blog exchange. Quality links are defined as links to sites that remain active and maintain steady viewer traffic. Search bots will not consider links to “dead” or inactive sites used only for the appearance of receiving traffic.

Fourth

Your site will be most effective and attractive with good internal linking. Over time, you’ll find pages accumulate at your site as you add fresh content and new product information. These pages can become buried and forgotten, as they will not come up automatically. Make it easy for search bots to find hidden articles by placing fresh links in a new one. Do not use the words, “press here”. Your built in link should be for a keyword that will allow the reader to know exactly what the linked page is about, creating more willingness to press the link for additional information.

The quality of your site will be determined by the presentation of your material, interesting content and the strength of your links. You will gain more traffic by keeping your site active, adding new information and updating existing criteria. Register with a business directory and watch the interest in your website grow.