How to Get a Website Ranked Without Knowing SEO

Randy Hilarski

January 21, 2015

It is 2015 and being an owner of a website continues to become easier and easier. The days of having to learn code or hire an SEO expert are behind us. I know this may hurt some feelings, but let’s face it, the online world is changing rapidly. There are many readers of this blog who will label me as an heretic. We all know there is more than one way to get a website ranked so please put down the pitchforks.

I did not come to this gunfight without being armed with some information to back my statements. I recently began promoting two websites and I will tell you exactly how I was able to get them ranked quickly. The great part is that the techniques that we used can be implemented immediately by anyone!

Get a Website Ranked with Content-

Back on November 17th we had a thought. Why not use daily content about Panama and Costa Rica to rank our website higher. Since we are involved with the tourism industry here in Central America it made sense. The website is our business High Impact Media Group Panama. Our business website went from being ranked over 15 million on Alexa to just over 2 million on Alexa as of January 18th, 2015. Yes that was 8 weeks to get a website ranked. For the hot shots in our industry that may not seem amazing, but I know many bloggers who would like to accomplish that!

What we did-

2-4 pieces of daily relevant content.
Promote on social Media.
Utilize communities and groups.
Total cost was 1 hour of time Monday-Friday.

Now you may think, Randy I do not have the time to publish 2-4 posts per day. I know the task can seem daunting. Take a breath and realize that most of these posts were image based and had less than 100 words. We use images because they are the most engaging content on social media. Using image friendly social media platforms that do not require money to promote are our preferred method. Our favorites are Google Plus, Pinterest and Twitter.

Get a Website Ranked with Paid Traffic-

My client Safarick’s Zoo here in Panama had their grand opening in September. They are a family owned animal rescue center on the Caribbean coast of Panama. The issue we were having was that since the website was so new and their social media pages did not have many followers, that they were not being found enough in search and on social media. In two months, with regular social media content on Google Plus and Twitter we were able to reach a level of 6 million on Alexa by December 4th, 2014.

Part of my business is Real Time Bidding advertising which is similar to Pay Per Click, just at wholesale rates and different ways to bid. We also utilize social media advertising for clients, for example Twitter and Facebook ads.

Real Time Bidding is buying online ad space on a CPM or Cost Per Mille Basis. We use Big Data rather than keywords to target online.

For those in the business you understand it can be difficult to ask a client for more money to get a website ranked. Especially when they do not understand. I told them, “let me do some targeted advertising based on demographics, location and in-market categories.” The client agreed and in just over a month they had over 4,000 visitors to their website. They now rank 1.6 million on Alexa as of Jan 18th, 2015. They also had plenty of online reservations for tours to show for their spend. We won their confidence and will now take over their Facebook page as well.

What we did-

Portion of ad spend on targeted demographics. (Targeting based on sex, age, family etc.)
Portion of ad spend on location targeting. (Geographic targeting of Panama.)
Portion of ad spend on in-market targeting. (People actively researching tourism in Panama.)
Portion of ad spend on Twitter promoted Tweets.
Portion of ad spend on Facebook ads.
Total cost was approximately $1,000.

All together we set up a pretty standard campaign and had to coordinate with the webmaster and the owners to pull it off. In the end online ads are a great way to boost a site rapidly, but like candy it only gives you a short term boost. Online ads need constant attention, updates and modifications. We have a saying.

Multiple Banners+Research+Optimized Landing Pages+Testing=Success, Rinse and Repeat.” @RandyHilarski

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What Should I do to Get a Website Ranked at no Cost?-

Regular Content
Relevant Content
Engaging Content

There is no way around good content whether you have a budget or not. I know it is human nature to look for the magic bullet to get a website ranked quickly. Take your time, choose a niche and stick to it. Nothing can beat a website that people come back to again and again to be entertained, educated and informed.

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Randy Hilarski

Co-Owner at High Impact Media Group Panama

Randy Hilarski is a US Navy Veteran who chose to move to Panama to follow his entrepreneurial dreams. He is the Co-Owner of High Impact Media Group Panama. They are a bi-lingual social media and online ads marketing agency catering to the English and Spanish audiences.