When it comes to SEO for small businesses, most folks with a basic gist of SEO understand that it has something to do with making sure your web page has keywords on it, and that they are in certain places. While this is definitely a component of search engine optimization, it’s actually not the biggest factor in your ranking.
Google cares, more than anything else, about WHO is linking to your site. Yes, the busy little indexing spiders are watching out for the no-nos like keyword stuffing, spamming, etc.. When it comes down to your final resting place in the search results, you really need other websites linking to your site.
To put it simply, if you have a website selling paint brushes and there are 10 websites out there that think you are awesome and are linking to you – those are 10 great inbound links. If your competitor sells the same paint brushes, has an equally well made website, but has 100 people who think they are awesome and link to them, guess who’s site will appear first in the search results?
Getting links takes work. There isn’t a slick piece of software or a killer service that will get you tons of backlinks for a few bucks. There are plenty that CLAIM to do this, but please, please, PLEASE beware and do not fall for this. You will end up paying for loads of spammy backlinks and could very well get yourself penalized by the big G. We’ll talk more about some creative ways to find and get great backlinks in the next installment.
[sam id=”10″ codes=”true”]