How to Get Some Google R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Here's a conversation with a client of mine, (local dog trainer), who would like her site to be in Google's rankings for keywords: "dog behavior". Thought i would share the insight -

Client said:

"when people google things looking for a dog trainer... I'd like people to just go on their google and type in dog behavior, and have my website appear. Is that a possibility?"

I said:

Ok, so we want to basically just push 'dog behavior' as the main keywords that you want to target, then.

I can't guarantee any placing in organic search results, Google is all about ranking websites by relevancy, content, and a number of other things, but I can do my best. (Or you can think about paid sponsored links, but for the sake of this email, we'll talk about organic seo)

The words 'dog behavior' are also very generic - you are going to have lots of competition for those by some websites that have been around for a long time. Sites established for a while will have higher ranking over yours simply because of the time factor. That's why I usually try to add something like 'dog behavior your city, state 'dog behavior certified dog trainer'.

'dog behavior' can mean lots of things - people can be searching that phrase for a number of reasons not just people who might be looking for a dog trainer in your region.

That's just a little info on SEO - just so you know that it's hard to use such a vague term and expect good results, quickly, with such a new site. But we can still try. Good organic search engine results take time and patience. It has taken me just a little over 1 year to get to page 2 of google for "pet website designers".

So - this is what I would recommend:

Competition website analysis - If you want to target this phrase, I would recommend doing a thorough study on your competition also targeting this phrase, analyze their meta tags (as below) and site content (note, the competition has LOTS of content on their sites - lots of relevant content is GOOD) and plan your seo based on those examples.

Please note, that this isn’t going to GUARANTEE any search engine placement - but it will make your site better noticed by Google, and other search engines in relation to your competition. In addition to the competition analysis, you should also (1) consider starting an incoming link strategy. As many relevant incoming links to your site as possible will be very helpful, and (2) CONTENT!! If you want to show Google that your site is relevant for 'dog behavior' than, you better show them! Write articles, gives tips and advice, make your site noticed. Google makes you work for your rankings.