3 cheating ways to get on the first page of Google

The title of this article is possibly misleading, because the 3 methods I'll be discussing aren't "cheats" in the sense that they're dishonest, or "black hat SEO". They are cheats because they are not the normal ways that you tend to try to get a first page ranking.

Let me just be clear, these are all legitimate techniques, recommended by Google.

Google Maps.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you do a search, the results show a map and some of the results are marked on the map as A, B, C, etc?

These results are not the normal Google listings, but instead they are just Google Maps listings that have been brought into the normal search results.

Now, to be listed in Google Maps, you don't even need your own website. That really is a bit of a cheat! A first page ranking with no website!

You may already have a Google Maps listing because they've taken lots of business information from the Yellow Pages and other business directories. In which case, you just need to find it and claim it. You can then fill in all of the details (because it usually just has the company name, address and phone number), add photos, videos, and lots of other information.

The more information that you add, the better your rankings could be.

But even better than just filling in all of the information is to get reviews on it. The reviews don't just have the obvious effects on helping to improve your reputation, but they can help towards your rankings as well. So once you have claimed your listing, send a link to your customers and ask them to write you a brief review.

Videos.

Google owns YouTube, and in the same way that they bring the Google Maps results onto the first page of the normal Google search results, they sometimes bring the YouTube search results into Google too.

Again, this is completely independent of your website. You can create a video, upload it to YouTube, and if it gets good rankings in the YouTube search, it can get a first page ranking in Google too.

Your video rankings are based on the title, tags and description that you give when you upload it (along with a few other factors). So make sure that you're using your keywords appropriately in these fields.

Also, if you do have a website, make sure that you have a link to your website as the first line of the description of your video, so that it appears directly underneath your video. And make sure it's a link to the most relevant page on your website, not just a generic link to your homepage. Unless of course that IS the most appropriate page.

Products

If you have an online shop (ie. you sell your products on your website) then there is another way to get first page rankings.

Google has a specialist search engine that just list products that you can buy online, and where you can buy and for what price. Google seems to change the name of this search every other week. At the time of writing it is called Google Shopping, but in the past it's been known as Froogle, Google Base, Google Merchants, Google Products, and probably several other names that I've forgotten.

You can advertise your products in this search engine on a pay-per-click basis, and if somebody does a normal Google search for something that Google decides is like your products, it will pull in the best results from Google Shopping into, you guessed it, the first page of results.

You've probably already seen this yourself without realising it.

When you see product photos with prices in the search results, they're from the Google Shopping service.

There are lots of ways to improve your search engine rankings. Call us today on 0845 269 9624 to find out we can help you to get on the first page of search results.