A challenge! What off-page strategies would you employ first when ranking a brand new small business website?

[MarieHaynes]

I'd love to hear what you guys do.  I think the game has changed now in the era of Penguin.  Gone are the days where you can build a few quick links and suddenly your new site is ranking fairly well.

Obviously, the first steps are to get the on page SEO right - titles, good keyword use, etc.

Eventually, the goal may be to build some content that will attract natural links.  But, we all know that is going to take time.

So, here's the scenario:

You've got a new client with a website in a fairly non-competitive niche, say, a piano mover in Seattle.  The site is indexed, with no external backlinks.  You're happy with the current on page SEO.  The site is currently ranking on page 3 for "Seattle Piano Mover".  What would you do next?

[Johnny4B]

Is this a test Marie .... or are you after advice

As for me, I'd kick back and pat myself on the back and say job done good  ... Number 3 aint nowt to be sad about

I once did a site for a client, and offered basic SEO as part of the build, clearly stating that I would insure the site structure would be fine, proper use of heading tags, good meta description, the basic stuff.

Anyway, he said he would love to rank high for School Cleaning Ireland, the phrase itself was so niche, as soon as the new site was indexed, he ranked number 2 in Google.ie

The guy was over the moon with me ... Got three new jobs from referrals (just web build) ...

Anyway, the moral, I have not done a thing with his website in over 8 months, my job was just to build it for him, I have just checked Google.ie, and he now ranks number one for that very phrase, without an iota of content changing on his website, I know that for sure as it is a static HTML ...

Sometimes niche words need very little work at all

Regards

[inhouseseo]

He probably just needs a handful of links from local sources. Maybe local business associations, etc.

If it is very niche and local, you have very little work to do compared to a site that needs to rank for a competitive keyword nationally. But you already knew that!

[OCSEO1]

Good additional strategy is to purchase and 301 redirect an expired, aged domain (or several) that already has a few dozen authoritative domains linking to it, preferably a domain with history in the same niche.. this usually results in a nice boost - but it may take several weeks to take affect. Fire a few links at the expired domain to speed up the process.

[EGOL]

These might not work for piano movers but for small professional office here are some low-hanging fruits that I can think of for links.

- landlord (some brag about their tenants)

- chamber of commerce (often link to members, write blog post, become an officer for profile link)

- community directories (they feature local businesses, write blog post)

- professional associations (link to members, write blog post, become an officer for profile link)

- clients (write a blog post for them)

- suppliers (often link to local product vendors/customers or write blog post for them)

- professional schools (often link to successful grads, write blog post)

- license boards (link to licensees, write blog post)

- other local businesses with synergy (write blog post, become one of their "recommended")

- local newspapers (write article for online edition)

- local BBB (get in directory, write blog post)

- write for professional journal online edition

- local city government/organizations (directory, blogs, supporters, volunteers)

[MarieHaynes]

These are great!  Thanks!

[Paligap]

I would also suggest claiming and tidying up the Google+ Local/Google Places entry for the business (or creating one if it does not exist) and ensure that the business is listed consistently in all the major directories in order that it is clear where they are and how to contact them.

Asking satisfied clients/customers for reviews or feedback, or pointing them in the general direction, can also help.