Ten Thoughts on Creating a Website: 7. How Do I Get First on Google
Unless you have:
1. An incredibly unique name
2. A ton of money
… it’s unlikely that you’ll be “first on Google”. Where your site shows up in Google and other search engine rankings depends on many factors including how your site is coded & built, what & how many links you have, if you are part of any pay-per-click advertising programs, and many more. This area is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and it is a multi million dollar industry. Search Engine Optimization Specialists use a wide variety of techniques to boost your site’s rankings but their services can be pricey. A good approach is to start with the basics in your site’s coding, submitting your site to Google and some of the other big directories, and make sure that you are doing real world marketing.
Unless you are selling ads or have a shop on your site, paying for SEO work is unlikely to be cost effective. For some people, it’s irrelevant. If you are a yoga instructor who teaches five classes a week of 20 students, getting 5,000 hits a day on Google is really not going to matter (although I would suggest you start selling advertising!) However, if you have the staffing and capacity to add a lot of clients, then conducting an SEO blitz might be money well spent.
Also keep in mind that your results will, inevitably, decline over time. Why? Because your competitors are also hiring SEO Specialists to get their sites to rank above you! The bottom line is to take Google and other services in perspective. Your site should be easily found using your unique information (searching on your name or business name for example) and then you can work on gathering results for more vague entries over time (searching on “San Diego Yoga Instructor” for example).
