Of course you want to know how to get on the first page of Google, who doesn’t? But how? How do small business owners with limited marketing budgets compete with the big guns? Stop banging your head against the wall. It’s not as hard as it may seem! Learning how to get on the first page of Google is simply a matter of optimizing your website and getting lots of authoritative backlinks. Here are 20 ways to make that happen:

1) Google loves blogs with optimized content. And videos? They rock, too! BUT, if you do videos be sure to transcribe the content of the video into the post with your keywords on top because Google can’t “see” videos!

2) When picking your keywords, use modifiers like location, description, target market, etc. A keyword like “San Diego dog photographer” is much easier to rank for than “photographer” and it results in QUALIFIED lead generation.

3) Visit Get Listed and enter your domain name to see if you’re missing opportunities in local search results.

4) Do a Google search. See that brief explanation of the content beneath the search results? That’s called a “title tag.” To strengthen your search results, write keyword rich title tags for every page of your site. 65 characters is ideal. This helps the search engines determine if you’re a good match for the search.

5) When creating your keywords, think LONG-tail keywords rather than short keywords. BUYERS search with long-tail keywords. Browsers search with short keywords. Long tail keywords are usually 4 words that very specifically relate to what you sell. Generic, short words like “realtor” are not only super difficult to rank for, they are usually very ineffective in driving any buyers to you.

6) When deciding what you want to rank for in Google, think first about what your most lucrative product/service is. Then, consider what your best sellers are. THESE are the things you want to spend your time and effort working on!

7) While on-site SEO plays a role in Google results, it’s your OFF-site SEO that really carries the Google juice. That said, you want to focus on getting authoritative backlinks – meaning, trusted, well-respected sites linking back to your awesome content.

8) When you write a blog post and you want it search engine friendly, write it in “normal” words first. The most important thing is to make your article useful. Then, go back and pick a phrase you want to be ranked for. Add it as close to the top of your article (in a natural way) as you can. Bold it. And then maybe repeat it one more time in the article (again, make sure it flows with the rest of your copy).

9) One really easy way to get backlinks to your site is to create an insightful video or infographic and share it with your target audience as well as influencers in your industry. If it’s super cool, they will pass it on to their network. You have so much amazing knowledge stored up in your brain. Do a brain dump and share it. People will love you for it! I put a video up recently about how to create a custom Cover image for Timeline on Facebook. It was so easy for me to create and man oh man, did I get traffic from it! Fantastico!

10) Have you listed your business on Google, Bing and Yahoo? If not, take advantage of these free opportunities to get more exposure for your small business. There are loads of options, but the top three are: Bing, Yahoo Local and Google Places.

11) Do you have a WordPress site? Make sure you’re using the All-In-One-SEO-Pack plugin. This puppy is an optimization tool! After you write your blog post, fill in the blanks for your title and description to optimize your little heart out! And if you don’t have a WordPress site…well friends, all I can say is that you should. It offers sooo many benefits.

12) Focus on ranking for just 1 or 2 keywords on each of your site pages. When you try to rank for too much on too few pages, you just end up looking like a hot mess.

13) Are you in a networking group? Make sure your group website is linking back to yours! Strong group = strong backlink. Strong backlinks = more Google love!

14) “Authority links” are those that come from reputable sources…like, The New York Times or CBS.com. Those carry AMAZING Google juice! Get a link from them, and you’ll be loving life! It’s not as hard as you may think! Subscribe to Help A Reporter Out & you will see press opportunities EVERY DAY!

16) When you discover a favorite product/service that helps you run your business better, send a recommendation for it (along with a link to your site) to the manufacturer. They’re often eager to publish rockin’ testimonials & may just link back to you.

17) Recently Google announced they want website images to have descriptive file names. By default yours are something like “pic_ 890.jpg.” It’s important to rename them so they are inclusive of your keywords. I read once that the best way to optimize images is to write them as if your target audience is blind. Describe each image in the same amount of detail that you would if you knew the end user couldn’t see it. While it may seem like an unusual approach, it actually makes perfect sense. In this case, your target audience is Google. And Google is indeed blind to images. That said, make it so Google can see it so they can render your site when appropriate!

18) Search engines hold Slideshare in high regard. That said, start sharing your content there! If you have no clue what I’m talking about, change that right now and check it out: .

19) Make sure your website is being tracked by Google Analytics. It’s easy and free and it gives you extremely valuable information that can help you determine what is and isn’t working well for you.

20) I love infographics. They just make everything so easy to understand! Here’s a rockin’ one of how to get more backlinks in less time.

I could list more tips, but then this post may never, ever end, because yes, there really are that many. Consider this a starting point! Got another tip entrepreneurs needs to know? Please post it in the comments section!