The internet is a competitive place for any business, and standing out is more difficult than ever. You need to focus on increasing your visibility if you want to get noticed and beat the competition, but how can you do this? There are a number of tactics that everyone uses, so here are five slightly more unusual ways that can help you to stand out.
1. Optimise Pages Related to Your Business
 Rather than only focusing on optimising your website, focus on optimising other pages that relate to your business. These could include your social media pages, guest blogs on high-ranking websites and any press coverage you have received. If these are on established websites, it may be easier to help these pages to rank than to rank your own website.
 Although these links will point to other sites, the more links you can get in the search results to content relating to your business, the greater your overall visibility will be.
 2. Change Auto-Complete Suggestions
Google’s auto-complete suggestions will suggest keywords that you want to search for as you type them, primarily as a
How to Increase Your Website Visibility
time-saving tool. However, these may not always be good for your business and could even hurt your reputation. But here’s something you should know about online reputation management – it is possible to change Google’s auto-complete suggestions.
If you can change them to make the first one more compelling, this could encourage more people to search for that keyword and come across your business. Or you could simply try and change them to get rid of negative associations. It may take a bit of time, but it could be a useful tactic.
3. Be Controversial
If you can be controversial without offending anyone, this can be a great way to get noticed. Rather than publishing the same bland blog posts and social media posts as everyone else, if you can take an angle that will generate debate, you are more likely to boost your visibility. It does not have to be offensive, but simply a different point of view. As long as it does not harm your brand image, there is nothing to lose.
 4. Sponsor Local Events Using PPC
Sponsoring a large event can cost a lot of money, and your small business may not be able to do that. But use PPC and you can sponsor an event for free.
If there is a local sporting event in your town, start a PPC campaign for a keyword related to the event. When people search for it, your ad will then appear, often without any competition, and you can use your ad to say something about your support for the event. This is a great way to increase your visibility and if anyone clicks through to your site, that’s a bonus.
5. Use the News
Use Google Alerts to search for stories about local events and stories relating to your industry, and then get in quick to make relevant, intelligent comments that other people will read. Such stories will attract a large number of readers, and it can be a great way to get noticed as someone who really knows what they are talking about.
Make Your Site More Visible Today
Increasing your site’s visibility can be hard work, but it is essential. Make sure you utilise different techniques and don’t do the same as everyone else. Always think of new ways that you can get ahead of your competition and the effort will pay off.
Sorcha Mullis is an Online Marketing Specialist with White Chalk Road, a leading search engine optimisation (SEO) and online marketing firm in Perth, Western Australia. White Chalk Road provides SEO, SEM, PPC and online reputation management services to clients based in Perth and wider Australia. Connect with Sorcha on Google+.
