So you have a website. You add awesome content to it all the time, but it never seems to rank for anything your write about. Why is that? Is it a conspiracy? Does google not like you? Maybe… but I doubt it.

One thing your website probably needs is authority. What is website authority? It just means that your website is legit and has some pull. It means that people come to your website and actually learn something and might even leave a useful comment and maybe even link to you. It means that the search engines like your site for specific reasons and when you create a useful post that content will usually get indexed fast and rank just as fast.

That sounds great! How can I get some authority to my website?

I am glad you asked! Here are 5 simple ways to start building authority to your website.

1.  Submit A Press Release

• Press releases go out to many outlets which in turn will get you some nice back links. Press releases show that you are willing to put out money for your website. This shows your site is not some spam junk site.”not to say spam sites don’t, just the majority don’t” Most releases get indexed in Google news which is great to have a mention in. Listed below are a few sites to use for press releases.
• Prweb.com This site is one of the biggest. A must if you are serious about your site.
• Transworldnews.com – Great service. You can get a press release live in about an hour with anchor text. Usually in google news within an hour of release.
• 1888PressRelease.com – Another great service. Will normally have  you in google news as well. Nice distribution also. I use this a lot. It is cheap.. It will get you in google news… and it is syndicated fairly well.

2.   Directory Listings

• I can hear it now! Directory listings? C’mon! Directories listings can be a great part of gaining authority. Don’t believe me? Go pay and get listed in the Yahoo directory. There are so many directories out there. The ones I am talking about are the paid ones. Anyone can submit to 1,000′s of the free ones, but a very small % will actually pay money to be listed. Again this shows the search engines that you are willing to put out money to promote your website. You are serious about your site and you are willing to pay for that. Below are a list of sites that I feel you should be listed in if you are truly serious about your website.
• Yahoo Directory – Sure its $$$, but I have seen sites jump pages in rank after a week of being accepted into this directory.
• Business.com – Another great directory, but will cost you a few dollars.
• Botw.org – I would say out of all of these get a listing here. They also have some awesome trial ads you can get as well. Give it a shot.
• JoeAnt Directory – Another good one. Cheapest out of the bunch. Human edited and all that fun stuff.
• There are more, but these are a great start to gaining authority.
• If you are starting a new SEO campaign I would start this first.

3.  Links From Established Niche Sites

• If there is any one key factor that will gain you authority it is getting recognition from an Established site! C’mon you have to know someone who has an established site with some authority? Use  your connections and get some links. Most importantly you should have something to offer for that link or maybe you can just get a hook up. I would rather have 5 links from established sites in my niche then 1000 junk links any day of the week.  Sometimes you only need that link for a few months to get in the search engines good graces, but your site better be pumping out quality content to stay in those good graces. Below are a few things you might offer to get those links if you don’t have any friends
• Create a tool for people to use. Make it niche related i.e. if your site is about tanning lotion create a tool that will let you figure out what lotion is good for your skin type.
• Create an e-book and offer it for free! Yes free, it will be worth it in then end.
• Solve a problem. If your site is about web hosting, create a video tutorial showing people how to create email accounts via CPanel.
• Start thinking about the above ideas and how you can make life easier for others. If you can truly do that, people will link to you.

4.  Great Content & Interaction

• Yeah yeah I’ve heard it all before content is king!! Well… good content is King, crap content is just that… crap. The content you want is the content people are going to comment on and ask questions about. I can tell you 9 times out of 10 the sites that I run that invite dialogue from my visitors rank the best! Prime example is here “Iphone 3g Exchange Set Up” I have an iphone “which is awesome btw ” and I run an exchange server. I was having a tricky time getting it running and finally figured it out. I posted about it and at one point was getting about 50 visitors a day from that one post. There aren’t hundreds of comments on the site, but there are comments and people are contributing and thanking me. If you can create a post that gets people involved then  you are on the way to gaining authority. Think about it this way. With new comments and interaction that page is always being updated so it’s not stale. People sometimes will start there own back and forths because they are helping each other out. Create engaging content and people will talk about it!

5.  Using Digg, Stumble Upon, Reddit etc…

• Again I know you have heard it before, but if you can truly create something that will get on the front page of digg or reddit you my friend are on your way to having authority. But….. I have tried and no matter what I do I can’t get too the front page…. whineeeee. I know its hard. Is your content really that good? Prob not. Did the content you created just take you 10 minutes to create? Ummm.. Yeah? Below are some ideas for you to get your content on the front page or at least a good amount of respect and people re-posting it.
• Ok say your niche is Tanning Lotion – Nobody is going to digg or reddit your post about some Tingle Tanning Lotion. A way you could spin it is to  create a slide show of really bad sunburns. You know the ones with the big blisters or funny pics where someone wrote something on somebodies back with lotion lol. This sort of stuff will capture peoples attention and in turn will get them digging it, forwarding it off to friends, even linking to it.
• Say your a pool company. Pay some college kids to do belly flops off a 20ft diving board and video tape it. Submit that and people will come!
• Those are just a few ways to put a spin on your niche. You need to be creative and come up with the unique angle. Your creative, you can do it!!

Conclusion

I know a lot of this has been said before. The main goal here is to look at it from different angles. When you take a deep look at almost any site that really has something to offer you can find that angle! Find the angle, create the content, and run with it. After awhile you will have that mind set and will be thinking and reeling in these angles left and right! Once your site does get the authority it is a beautiful thing. There is nothing better then creating new content and having it indexed in less then 10 minutes.

Feel free to leave some comments.