Pulling Rank with Google
Tons of Tips for Ranking in 5 Other Google Engines
It’s not all about traffic. It’s about conversions.
But it’s hard to get conversions if you don’t have the traffic, and while Google is one of the best potential sources for traffic, Google has other search engines besides web search that people use all the time, and it will not hurt to rank in them too.
Traffic Generation and conversions are the goal. Visibility is the strategy.
Unfortunately, like most strategies, they take effort and paying attention to detail. The web may be taking a huge turn toward social, but search isn’t going anywhere. You need to be found where people are looking. That’s where your best targeted traffic generation will be.
1. Ranking in YouTube
As you may or may not be aware, YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine behind Google - way ahead of other video streaming sites. Those businesses using online video are going to want to maximize their YouTube efforts by employing some easy strategies to gain more visibility.
A few tips mentioned a while back at SMX West include:
- An accurate and descriptive title
- Make sure your description is just that - descriptive. It should be accurate and unique, and use complete sentences.
- Descriptive keyword tags
- Avoid keyword stuffing
It’s best not to overlook the social element of YouTube as well.
Active participation on the social level will contribute to your views. And let’s also not overlook the fact that YouTube can actually help you rank in Google itself.
Other tips discussed at SMX were:
- Use Keyword Rich Descriptions and Tags
- Include the word “Video” in your titles because people do search for it.
- Use a link for the very first thing in your descriptions.
- Make sure and utilize your thumbnails. YouTube pulls these from the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 marks. Make them count.
- Encourage participation by enabling everything.
- use meta data
- use captions and subtitles
- use watermarks
- use Google Maps integration
2. Ranking in Google Image Search
Dev Basu at Search Engine Journal has a great post up about leveraging rich media for SEO. He talks about video, presentations, and other things, but he also gives some good tips for images.
He notes that one in five searches are image searches, and that alt tags and file name optimization are key.
He says, “Other tips to double dip in image SEO include”:
- Add images to your Google Local Business profile
- Enable Google Image Labeler in your Google Webmaster Tools account.
- Add images to local business citation sources.
- Add images to blog posts or news articles for syndication in Google news.
3. Ranking in Google News
Covering a recent Search Engine Strategies session, Virginia Nussey with Bruce Clay notes,
“News page views are up to trillions monthly.
More and more people are getting their news online. That’s why the newspaper industry is struggling. I don’t have the hard numbers, but I’m willing to bet a significant amount of people are getting news from Google News.”
She pulled away these things to keep in mind for Google News:
- Only indexes articles three days old or less
- Only indexes it once
- Read Google News Help for Publishers
- Google News XML Sitemap and monitor it
- Section names (keywords in News XML Sitemaps)
- Host “most popular” and “breaking news” sections on your site
- Sub-headlines or beginning of article copy is pulled in as Meta description
4. Ranking in Google Maps/Local Search
While this one may seem fairly obvious, you need to think about terms a local searcher would use to find your business.
They’ll most likely use the city and state in their search, so you’ll want your site to be optimized for those as well as business-specific keywords.
For example, if you run a record store in Nicholasville, Kentucky, you’ll want to optimize for phrases like “Record Store, Nicholasville, Kentucky”, “CD Store, Nicholasville, KY”, “Music, Nicholasville KY”, and so forth.
If your business is located in a small town, you may also want to optimize for the nearest larger city.
Ryan Caldwell at Search Engine Journal discusses some other tips like:
- Anchor Text + Authority Matters, But Less
- Local Groupings
There is some good advice in a thread at the Small Business Brief forum, including a post by A.N.Onym who suggests the following tips for ranking in local search:
- have pages, mentioning your area of service
- your phone number
- your physical address
- directions on how to reach your office
- use landmarks (“after you pass the Street A and Street B intersection, you’ll see the Eiffel Tower” that’s three landmarks altogether)
- have links pointing to you from local websites and directories
- have a domain hosted locally (if locality is your primary concern)
- have ccTLD (country-specific domain - google.ca, for instance)
Bill Slawski of SEO By the Sea has a great article about Authority Documents for Google’s Local Search that is a must-read in this category.
5. Ranking in Google Blog Search
Back in ’07, Slawski started a thread in the Cre8asite Forum looking at positive and negative things that can have an affect on your Google Blog Search Rankings.
Among the positives he included were:
- Number of RSS subscriptions
- Clicks on SERP post links
- Blogrolls - number of “high quality” blogrolls the blog is in
- ability for visitors to tag posts
- whether or not people are tagging them
- References to the blog by sources other than blogs
- Pagerank
Some negatives he mentioned:
- if posts come in short bursts or predictable intervals
- if post content differs from feed version
- If content includes a lot of spammy words
- duplicate content - if posts are the same size
- Link distribution
- If posts mostly link to one site
ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse also looked at Google’s Blog Search patent application and pulled some takeaways from that. (http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/04/18/how-google-blogsearch-ranks-your-posts-in-their-own-words/)
Wrap Up
It’s important to note that results from other Google search engines often turn up in regular Google results, in case you need any extra incentive to pay attention to them. This is part of Google’s Universal Search. There are lots of opportunities to get your site found in Google other than just regular web search. And this is just organic stuff. There are certainly paid search opportunities to think about too.
Your are right: you don’t have to comment or retweet, but would it help if I told you it would be much appreciated? 
About the Author: Ana Hoffman is the founder of Traffic Generation Cafe and wants you to know that Thesis + Scribe = SEO Made Simple. Get more from Ana on Facebook.
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This post brought to you by Ana Hoffman
Ana is the founder of Traffic Generation Cafe and wants you to know that her 7 Steps to Complete Search Engine Domination free SEO report = SEO Made Simple. Don't forget to pick up your own copy today - just click on the link above!
Ana has written 229 great posts for Traffic Generation Cafe.
I am a wife to a great husband of 14 years (here ya go, now I have to make changes to this sentence once a year), a mother to a beautiful and, no doubt, genius little girl, and a successful internet entrepreneur. I also devoted my life to Jesus Christ many years ago, and He remains my true priority, focus, and hope.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I think its a good idea. Ranking in other search engines quite interesting.
I must make a way for that. I hope this can increase the traffic towards my site.
good tips.. sounds great.. i think i should implement them..
Thanks, Abdur - these tips are nothing without implementation.
A great article as always Ana!
Thank you for all what you bring to the table…
All the best,
Mavis
Always my pleasure, Mavis!
Hey Ana, great article and site as a whole - thanks and look forward to more IM info.
Very good article. Keep it up
WOW ANA, great job.
This is what I'M TALKING ABOUT. V-A-L-U-E!!!
I looked over your article and it is great. It is so good that
I printed out a copy and will have really go through it and
write down those GOLDEN NUGGETS!!
YouTube is a very powerful marketing weapon and using it to leverage
your blog can push your business over the edge.
Thank you for the continued value in your posts Ana.
Tommy
I appreciate the enthusiasm, Tommy; glad I found something you did not know yet:).
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