I do a lot of marketing research and search engine optimization
work for websites, and my clients always ask me the same
question when we start: “How do I make my website the #1
result in a Google search?” After I respond with the obligatory,
“Pay me to put it there,” I tell them the truth that you can’t actually
pay anyone to put you in the first result on Google, and there is
no simple way to get there overnight. I invariably have the same
lengthy discussion with them explaining how Google ranks its
search results, after which they usually ask me, “So do you
know anyone else I can pay to get the #1 result?”
While you can’t simply pay someone to guarantee you the
top search result on Google, and you can’t even pay Google, with
some time and effort you or an SEO consultant can optimize your
website so that you might be able to rise up through the ranks.
I’ve compiled a list of the top 10 techniques I use to assist clients in
obtaining better search rankings in Google (and oh yeah, those
other search engines too).
Identify keywords that visitors will find interesting
One of the most important aspects of any search engine
marketing campaign is identifying keywords for content. The
problem is, most webmasters identify keywords as those terms
which they find interesting, not ones which people will actually
search on. For example, let’s say you started a new company
called “MyCo” and created a website to sell your new product, “the
MyCo MyWidget,” which is the latest and greatest can opener on
the market. You may think the terms “MyCo” and “MyWidget” are
great keywords to use, but you’re wrong. No one is going to visit
Google and enter a search on “Myco MyWidgets,” because no one
knows what they are yet (for more info about promoting a new
website or company, read the Purpose of Press Releases in
Search Engine Marketing). Instead, choose keywords which
describe your product in generic terms which a potential
customer may actually search on, such as “can opener” or “open
cans.”
If you’d like to do some research to find out what terms are
popular and who’s searching for what, check out Google Trends
Labs. Just enter a search keyword and Google will let you know
the volume of traffic they get searching for it. The Google
AdWords tool is another good place to find keyword search
volume. Also read how to use Google to find the best keywords
for your website.
Look at your website the way Google does
A good website designer already knows how to code their
website’s HTML so that it will present the same no matter what
browser your visitors are using (Internet Explorer 6 or 7, Mozilla,
Mac or Windows). But search engines like Google don’t care what
your website looks like, they care that they can easily sift through
your code and images to find the actual searchable text in the
content on your website. They also can’t index graphic images or
Flash elements, so keep that in mind when designing your
website. If you’re home page is just one big Flash graphic, you’re
not helping your search results at all.
Try using a Search Engine Simulator in order to strip all the code
and graphics from your web page and just view the actual text.
Make sure the resulting text still has the keywords you’re looking
for in it.
Code for SEO
In order to code for search engine optimization, you have to
understand those parts of your code that search engines are
going to consider the most important.
Title tags need to be unique to each page, and about 60 characters
long (Google apparently accepts up to 63 characters, other search
engines may accept a bit more). A good rule of thumb is 10
words or less. You should use your company name in your title
tag, but make sure you also use accurate, popular keywords
which describe your company. Any keywords in your title tag
should also appear in your page content, as the more
relevant to the content the greater weight Google will give it.
The Meta Description tag is the next most important tag. Google
may take this tag as verbatim when your website appears in
search results, so it is essential that it be a good description of the
page’s content, and of course that it uses keywords which you
want to target. Again, the description should contain keywords
which also appear in the actual page content. According to the
Official Google Webmaster Central blog, descriptions should be
clearly informative, not duplicated, and not repetitive. This means
use a unique description for each page on your site, and don’t
repeat keywords within the description.
For the most part you don’t have worry too much about the Meta
Keywords tag; Google doesn’t bother with it. Semantic markup
heading tags, such as H1, H2, and H3, often carry greater weight,
so use your best keywords in them. Image ALT and especially
TITLE tags should accurately describe the images they are applied
to for accessibility purposes, but it doesn’t hurt to use keywords
in them. Read about other Useful (and Useless) Meta Tags in SEO
and Web Design.
Search Engine Friendly URLs
Your web page file and/or directory names are another great place
to use keywords. Google applies weight in rankings when your
URL matches the search term. It would be best if your domain
name matched the search result, but even if it doesn’t you can still
create a URL structure which can increase your result rank. A url
which looks like “www.myco.com/mywidget.html” is not
as good as “www.opencans.com/my-widget-can-
opener.html”. If you use a Content Management System (CMS)
or other website software which creates dynamic URLs which
look like this, “www.myco.com/index.aspx?page=1234″ then
you’re in trouble. Google and most search engines don’t like
dynamic page URLS at all (pretty much any URL with a question
mark in it). In this case you’re going to want to use some kind of
URL re-writing technique to create what we call search engine
friendly URLs. A good example of this is the forum software
which my company publishes, ITCN ASP.NET Discussion Forum
Software, which automatically converts all URLs into search
engine friendly alternatives.
Content writing
People have been saying it for a long time, and it still rings true:
Content is King. It doesn’t matter how many search engine
optimization techniques you apply, if you have lousy content, or
content which has been duplicated from another website, the
search engines just aren’t going to care about you. Make sure
your content is something people are going to want to find if they
do a search for it, and then re-write it to make sure it includes
keywords for which people are actually searching.
Also make sure you have plenty of it; no one will want to link to or
even visit your site if there’s nothing there for them except what
you’re selling. Become an authority on a subject related to your
market by writing or blogging about it profusely. Try writing
product reviews, giving out awards, or even just writing some
personal notes. If you position yourself as an authority in your
field, people will want to read about what you’re doing, and by
extension, what you’re selling or promoting.
Keyword Proximity and Density
Now that you’ve identified some good keywords, used them in
your content, and also repeated them in your title and meta
description, get ready to re-write again. Chances are you didn’t
think about keyword proximity or density. Both are important to
understand, as one can help you and one can hurt you. Keyword
proximity is the art of ensuring that keywords people are
searching on appear near each other — in close proximity. For
example, if someone is searching for your MyCo MyWidget Can
Opener, you may have found that popular keywords are “metal
can openers” or “plastic can openers”, so you included the term
“Metal and Plastic Can Openers” in your title tag. Looks good to
you, but not necessarily to search engines, since the terms
“metal” and “can openers” and not in close proximity. Better
useage would be “Metal Can Openers and Plastic Can Openers.”
Make sure somewhere in your content you separate the wording
as two different terms so that they will exactly match the popular
keywords. Also read about Long Tail Keyword Marketing and my
Guide to LongTail Keyword Marketing.
But be careful, because if your keyword density increases
too much you can be penalized for keyword stuffing in
search results. If Google finds the term “metal can opener” 20
times on your page and there are only 22 terms, you’ve got over
90% keyword density and your page can be dropped to the
bottom of all search results!
Google doesn’t publish at exactly what threshold good SEO ends
and keyword stuffing begins, but a good rule of thumb is to keep
keyword density between 6% and 10% for a couple important
keywords on your page, and about 3 to 5% for less important
terms.
Don’t be too good
Since Google doesn’t publish the algorthym which explains how
much weight they give each of these techniques in their search
engine results, we can’t say which technique will get you to the
top of the list in all search results. However, I can say that I have
noticed this: If you take a look at the first result on just about any
page of results in Google and run it through a Page Analyzer
(software which checks the relevancy of your title and meta tags,
and keyword proximity and density), you’ll find it doesn’t score
100% for many, or sometimes all, of these techniques. That’s
because it would appear Google doesn’t like anything automated –
if it even thinks your page has been run through a page analyzer
to have a 100% score, they seem to think you’re trying too hard.
It may also be simply because Google doesn’t attach as much
weight to keywords as it does to one-way non-reciprocal
backlinks – sites which you don’t link to, but link to your website.
Get some backlinks!
This is probably the best way to increase your visibility
within Google. The more sites which link to yours, and the
better those sites are, the more Google will trust your site as a
good candidate for high search result ranking. Get as many as
you can – 300 is a good beginning target to shoot for, but not just
any old backlinks. These should be links from established websites
which are actually related to yours by subject or field. And don’t
pay for backlinks – according to the Official Google Webmaster
Central blog, sites may be penalized if Google finds out you paid
for links (or maybe not?).
Also make sure your links are “dofollow” links, and that they don’t
have the rel=”nofollow” attribute on them.
But if you can’t buy them, and you need them right now, how are
you going to get them? Well, that is where the art of linkbaiting
comes in. It’s going to take time, lots of time, and lots of
perseverance. But you have to actually offer content (or
something free) to which visitors will actually want to link. Then
you have to spend time each day personally contacting other
website or blog owners in your field about your content and/or
freebie, and hope they link to you.
Sounds difficult and time-consuming? It is; unless, of course, you
can generate a viral marketing strategy. If you offer something of
great interest (it may be a funny YouTube video, something
weird, or just a great free offer), you’ll find it will take off on the
web with a life of it’s own. Think of it this way; if you handed a
$20 bill to everyone who knocked on your front door, it wouldn’t
be too long before you had a lawnful of people waiting to knock
on your door. You’ve just got to figure out the content equivalent
of that $20 bill for your website and email it around; word will
spread quickly.
Keep links to a minimum
Google also takes a look at how your site is linking to others. If
you have more than 100 links to other websites on a page, there’s
a good chance Google will remove that page from their results, or
move you to a zero or non-existent PageRank. This is because of
link farms – websites whose sole purpose is to create links to
other web pages to increase their search results. If you’ve got that
many links on one page, Google assumes they are either not all
relevant to your content, or possibly paid links, neither of which
are good for your results. If you need that many links, consider
using the rel=”nofollow” attribute on them or excluding link pages
in your robots.txt file.
But don’t let that discourage you from linking to other websites;
just don’t put them all on one page. In a good-sized page of
content, there shouldn’t be more than a dozen or so links to
external websites. Link to other websites related to yours, and
webmasters who check their logs to see who is referring visitors
to their site may notice your website and link back to you.
Pay attention to PageRank
PageRank is a number, from 0 to 10, which Google assigns to a
web page to describe it’s importance, or more accurately, it’s
value. So you would think the higher the PageRank of your
web page, the higher your rankings in search results, but
you’d be wrong. It doesn’t hurt to have a higher PageRank, but
even a website which a PageRank of 3 can come up before a
PageRank of 5 if Google feels its content matches the search
better. But if you only have a PageRank of 0 or 1, you’re probably
not going to end up on the first page of results for any
competitive terms.
The quickest way to increase your PageRank is to get some
backlinks, but don’t get them too fast. If Google finds 1,000
random backlinks to your site overnight they may think you’re
buying them. And don’t expect your PageRank to be increased
overnight, they only tend to update PageRanks every 3 months at
Google.
About the Author
As the president of ITCN NJ Web Design, Programming and
Marketing, Barry Wise has been designing, developing,
programming and marketing web applications in NJ since 1995.
Source: www.barrywise.com/2008/04/top-10-ways-to-improve-your-search-results-in-google/
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