Proprietary Public Relations Program Boosts Google Rankings

First in a Series
By Paul Entin

I'm often asked about how to get higher rankings in Google. Some people insist on spending large sums of money with search positioning companies that guarantee top placement fast only to get mixed results at best. I recommend a system that has already been proven to increase Google rankings. It works because it's not based on tricking, cheating or staying one step ahead of Google. Instead it's based on taking full advantage of how Google was designed to work.

Google is a fully automated search engine that sends out spiders to catalog Web sites. Once they catalog your site, it ranks in the results of appropriate content searches based primarily on:

  1. The number of links from other Web sites to your Web site
  2. The relevance of those links to the search request

Therefore, if you want to increase your rankings in Google, you need to increase the number of links from other Web sites to your site, especially among Web sites that relate to your industry. Some people have created dozens of new Web sites just so they can add links to their company Web sites. The ingenuity people show while trying to trick Google is impressive and clearly, there are some ways to instantly increase the number of links - but they're also a sure way to get kicked off of Google entirely as a cheater. If you think ranking #10 or #20 is tough on business, try being penalized and not showing up at all!

One sure way to get links from relevant Web sites while ensuring you won't be penalized by Google is by placing relevant news releases in print publications. That's right... in print publications. Nearly all trade magazines archive the feature articles and news releases published in their print editions on their Web sites. And in nearly every case, they also include a link to your Web site. By placing a single, worthwhile news release in five or six magazines, we might secure five or six links. Do this once per month for a year and we might secure 72 or more links!

For example, search for “trim and scrap removal” a key search phrase for Precision AirConvey (PAC), Newark, Del., a manufacturer of trim and scrap removal systems for converters, plastics processors and other companies. The company appears in 9 out of the first 10 search results. A news release published on its own site is at #1 while other news releases placed in key magazines and republished on their Web sites with links back to the PAC Web site are ranked at #4 and #6. Links from additional news releases placed in Textile World, Paper, Film & Foil Converter and other magazines, as well as from the epr Web site and ThomasNet, contribute to the high ranking.

By relying on an epr public relations program that consistently places news about the products, equipment and services your customers search for online, you can ensure your Web site is constantly moving up in the Google rankings. And if you aren't moving up in the rankings while your competitors are moving up, then you're really falling farther and farther down.

-Paul Entin is president of epr, a full service marketing and PR firm based in Bloomsbury, NJ.

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