Thread: How do you get Google to put you at the top?

So I tried googling my city and name, bellydance teachers in my city, and a dozen different variations and I dont come up anywhere :(
Granted I just published my website 2 weeks ago, but how can I gain more exposure through search engines?

It takes time, and optimizing your site for search engines is complex -- there are people who make a career of it, we can't possibly learn all about it in just a few hours of study.

However, Google offers lots of advice in their 'webmaster tools' area and they'll even diagnose problems for you.

It's a combination of keywords, title, the text on your site, how many other high-quality sites link to you, etc. It also can take weeks to appear in the listings after you submit yourself.

There are sites like Search Engine Marketing Experts offering Free and Paid Search Engine Submission, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Website Marketing services – ineedhits that will submit you, optimize your site for the search engines, offer you loads of advice for a reasonable fee. I've used some of the services at this site myself.

I just checked your site (you're missing the 'c' in 'com' in your sig line, by the way) and noticed that you don't have any meta tags. I don't know what kind of site builder you're using, but you might want to inquire whether there's a way to add them.

Also see if your web host offers any kind of submission service. I host my sites at bizland.com for under $10 a month and they submit me monthly to all the major search engines, plus provide me with great reports on my traffic.

First of all, be patient. It takes time for search engines to "find" your site.

Secondly, make sure your home page is optimized for search engines to find. I just visited your website, and I recommend the following changes to help you with your visibility:

- Think of the list of keywords. These are words that you think potential visitors will use when looking for belly dancers in Fort Myers

- Include the main keywords in your title bar at the top of the page. If you want to come up in the search results for belly dance your city, put that in your title bar, such as: Belly Dance Bellydance Fort Myers Classes Performances Jadzia (do put both common spellings of belly dance/bellydance in your title bar). You can include more keywords if you like. Here are two examples: Belly Dance in Dallas with Tamra Henna - Bellydance Classes and Shows - 214-616-8017 and Belly Dance Bellydance Dallas Belly Dancer Belly Dancing Belly Dancers Sa'diyya Sadiyya Dance - Belly Dance Dallas Fort Worth Texas Classes Lessons Middle Eastern Dance Raks Sharqi Events Parties Shows

- You may consider using more text on the page itself. A few paragraphs repeating your keywords and including more from your list while describing your offerings will help the search engines determine that you have a site that is worth indexing.

- Include content on your website that others may want to link to, such as articles you've written, and link to content from other dancers' sites.

- BE PATIENT. It can and will take a few months before you see significant movement in your ranking.

Oh, and I do include my phone number in my title bar and I've noticed I get more calls that way.

OH! And I noticed that your url in your signature is missing a "c"

Doh! I fixed my title bar....
Wow I never knew it took so much work to maximize visibility. I'll try adding more to my title page, and contacting google. Thanks for the help Lauren and Tamra!

Originally Posted by midnight_star56

Doh! I fixed my title bar....
Wow I never knew it took so much work to maximize visibility. I'll try adding more to my title page, and contacting google. Thanks for the help Lauren and Tamra!

Those things will help. It is complicated, like I said, maximizing search engine results is a whole profession of its own -- so it's a little like asking 'how do I do an appendectomy?'

BUT unless your city/town has hundreds of dancers, it shouldn't be too hard to get your site to come in a search. You do need some meta tags, if it's possible for you to add them, and it's best if you submit your site to the search engines. There are free services for that.

Also, Google Analytics is a free service. You go and register and then they give you a tracking code to put into the code of your pages. They will then begin issuing a report that shows where ppl come from (country), what key words they use to find, whether it is a direct link, search engine , etc. Really useful stuff!

Google Analytics

I've never bought the delux package but google is amazing..the free stuff they offer is really worth your time.