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Making your website more prominent through Google ranking is not a science, it is anyone's best guess and some common sense mixed together to get better results. Free applications like Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools, can give you a vast amount of information and ways to track how your site is doing and improve your ranking. If you are just starting to notice the need for ranking high on search engines, here are 5 easy things to do to help bring your site to the first page of search results.
- Know what you are doing
Google has a method of going through web sites and giving a score, or weight, to every word on it (including the invisible code). Some very common words are ignored (eg. if, then, and), but most words are given a weight for comparing your site to other sites with the same word. The site with the higher weight gets up higher on the search results list. What makes things harder is that Google, and other search engines, don't tell you how they weigh words. They can also change the rules at any time, so getting the number 1 spot on a search is a very difficult, and potentially expensive, thing to do. What we can do is use some of the tricks that seem to make a big difference in ranking higher (within the first page of search results).
- Pick your key phrases
What 5 words will people type into a Google search engine to find your business? If you have a unique name, it will be an easy job. But what if you have a more generic description of what you do, for example "kids toys". Getting a high ranking for generic terms is almost impossible, so you need to get creative. Make your key phrases more specific - "high quality environmentally friendly kids toys in Calgary". Once you pick your phrase, use it in a complete sentence near the beginning of your content. Make sure the sentence makes sense! Then use the same words broken up and switched around throughout your content (also in a way that makes sense). Beware - if someone advises you to write your keyword over and over, and possibly in the same color as your background, they are giving you very bad advice which could ban your site from the search engines.
- Title Your Page
There is a tag in your web code called a <TITLE> tag. Google loves this and will weight words within it higher than anywhere else on your web site. You don't see this title right on your web site, but rather in the little blue bar at the top of the browser (by the 'e' icon in internet explorer).
You can maximize this tag by writing a short sentence that contains 2-3 keywords. The closer the word is to the front of the sentence, the more weight it will have. Most WYSIWYG editors have a way to insert this sentence into your title tag (check page properties and look for 'title' or 'page title'. If you can't find it and can access the raw code, put the following line into your code (adjusted accordingly), between the <head> and </head> tags.
<title>Creative Endeavors, a professional graphic and web design company that helps small businesses & entrepreneurs in Calgary, Alberta.</title>
- Use your style tags: <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <strong>
Headline tags are an excellent way to give more weight to your key words or phrases. Once you figure out which words to concentrate on, make sure they appear in your headlines (the closer to the beginning of the headline and the higher up on the page, the more weight they will have). In WYSIWYG editors like Contribute™, Dreamweaver™, or FrontPage™, you can highlight your text and then choose which headline style you want from a drop-down menu. Do not just make the font larger; Google doesn't care about the size it cares about the style tag. Notice that <h1> tags have more weight than <h2> , <h2> has more weight than <h3>, and so on. All of these tags have more weight than plain text.
- Have others link to your site, using specific words
Google likes good information and new information, but they really like sites that are recommended. The way they do this is by weighing how many other sites link to yours (not your friend's dog grooming company linking to your financial planning site, but more relevant links like a mortgage broker linking to your financial planning site, or Women in a Home Office linking to your small business). If you can get your key words or phrases into their link, you've struck gold with regards to Google ranking. A link from another person's web site that uses your key words to get to your web site is one of the best ways to jump your site from the third page of search results to the top 5
Remember, in the world of Google ranking, first place is a pricy and stressful place to be but being high on the first page can get you just as much traffic with a lot less stress and a few simple tricks. Search around the web for more tips, but beware of tools and companies that promise instant success with their secret formulas (which may cost a fair bit of money and could get you kicked off the search engines completely). So, have some fun finding out your key phrases and using them in different ways, then watch what happens. |
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