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Your three POWER LINES are (normally) the title of your website’s home page and it’s metadescription. It’s what comes up in the natural listings area of a Google search from your website (at least). Maybe your web developer never connected the dots for you so you knew how important these three lines are for your online marketing!

Example of two lawyers that haven’t put much thought into their 3 power lines:

Mark has used the full length of his first line just for his Business name!
Is Mark being a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria Australia key information I’m interested in if I was choosing an immigration lawyer to help me with NZ immigration?

Keil Law have told us more of what they do in their first line, but is all their contact details including physical and postal addresses the most important thing I want to know when deciding if I would choose them?

Example of a plumber that has done some thinking!

What will you put in your 3 POWER LINES?

Your USP (What makes you unique)
Your Guarantee
Your Phone number – so customers can call you straight from a search without even needing to click on your website!
An offer
Your current special or promotion

Phase 1 (Search results based on popularity and optimisation)

I search for a Web design company, Google looks at all the webdesign company websites and returns a list for me to choose from based on the popularity of those web design companies websites and how well those web design companies have ‘Search Optimised’ (SEO’s) their websites.

Phase 2 (Search results modified by Geographical relevance)

In October 2010 Google radically changed the way search results show based on geographical modifiers. If I search for a plumber, Google recognises that search as being ‘geographically relevant’ – I probably want a plumber close to where I’m searching from – and since Google knows the physical location of my computer or smart phone it serves up a map with the local plumbers given preference.

Phase 3 (Search results modified by the preferences of my friends and collegues)

If you and I are friends or collegues there’s a good chance that if I really enjoy a particular restaurant you will to – and vice versa. With Google +1, Google now gives search preference to those webpages that people in our Google +1 networks have ‘plus oned’

Putting it together:

Imagine you’re searching for a restaurant, first Google looks for the popular restaurants with up to date active and comprehensive websites (after all if they are neglecting their website – what else might they be neglecting) Next Google looks at your geographical location and gives preference to those restaurants near you (You don’t want to drive  50 k’s to a restaurant – at least that’s what Google assumes and Google would normally be right!)

Next Google looks to see who in your plus one groups has indicated they like any of those restaurants and gives those Restaurants priority – plus Google lets you know who in your network ‘plus oned’ the restaurant!

Now I can see at the top of the search results:

1. Popular, optimised webpages
2. Close to me – if geography has any relevance
3. That my friends recommend – and I know which friends did the recommending!

When most business owners and web developers think about Search Engine Optimisation, they think about getting their website on the first page of Google. In today’s market that thinking is way too narrow!

There are plenty of ways to get your business on page one of Google and it doesn’t have to be expensive – so here’s a few tips on Optimising your business for Google searches.

1. Firstly decide what it is you want to promote and what geographic area you want to target. Be specific.
2. Do some keyword research using the Google keyword tool.
3. See what the search trends are in your area using the Google trends site to further clarify your key words you will be “promoting” in your area.
4. Claim your Google places listing the have it optimised!
5. Create videos relating to your business and product, post them on YouTube (Now the worlds second largest search engine and completely under utilised in business applications)
6. “geotag” images and videos as well as using the keywords chosen in naming them
7. Create directory links to your website
8. Blog regularly. Weekly is best and keep content informative don’t just push product.
9. Publish articles
10. Create mini/micro informative sites to capture leads
11. Use adwords campaigns to test and measure customer response to key words and promotions to build into your website, videos, images etc to move your organic search ranking higher (I have always found there is much greater perception of credibility in Google’s organically ranked search results).

While this isn’t anywhere near all you can do it WILL improve your Google ranking and if done well might just get you to that top spot however it is still critical to have a web strategy and for your website to actually have a purpose other than just a glossy online brochure. Why spend all that time attracting all those potential customers to your website just to turn around and use their normal supplier or another store.

Decide what the main purpose of your website is for each campaign: Sell direct online, capture contact details to build long-term rapport through newsletters, lead generation for specific promotions, get someone to phone in, get customers to walk in to your store etc etc. You the need to add the functionality in your site to lead your visitors through.

All this can be done yourself if you have  full content management system (CMS) and plenty of time or you can pay for someone to do it. I would recommend a mixture of both as by being involved in the process you gain a better insight into web strategies and your target market because lets face it almost everyone researches online before making a decision to buy.