Many business owners wonder how they can improve their listings in search engines like Google. It basically comes down to two things. First, can Google read your site to figure out what it’s about? Second, how many other sites link to yours. The first issue requires someone who knows about developing Web sites to make sure the underlying code is “friendly” to search engines. The second one is something even the most non-technical business owner can do something about. You can increase your listing in Google by encouraging other sites to link to you.
As a business owner, you may have clients or vendors who own Web sites. You can ask them for links. Before you begin your “linking campaign,” however, it’s good to find out which sites already link to yours. It’s easy to do.
Go to the Google search engine at http://www.google.com. Instead of typing a search phrase into the search box, type this:
link:www.mywebsite.com
where mywebsite is the address of your site. So for example, if I want to try this with Logical Tips, I’d type:
link:www.logicaltips.com
Google tells me that 369 pages are linking to Logical Tips. Many of the links are ours, since we have a lot of Web sites. But as it turns out, Logical Tips is mentioned on some blogs I’ve never even seen.
Once you know who is linking to you, you can go from there. When it comes to Google, it’s just like high school. You want your site to be “popular” and mentioned by other sites. The more popular your site is, the more people will find it.