Tel: 01865 920121
Email: info@oxfordwebseo.co.uk
How to Get Listed and Ranked Well in Google Search Results
Just ‘Google it’ – I’m sure that there can’t be many of us who haven’t at one time used that immortal phrase? People use and rely upon search engines everyday to find and gather a diverse range of information – whether it is product or supplier research, sourcing specialist news articles or maybe finding their perfect partner!
The most common engines used on the web are Google, Yahoo!, MSN Search (now Bing) and Ask. However, it is worth bearing in mind that in certain countries, such as China more localised search engines are important, such as Baidu.
People use keywords or phrases to help find exactly what they want. Typically most search engines are able to deliver relevant results to users based on their search terms.
How are people going to find my website?
Thinking about how you are going to reach people via your website is extremely important. Think about the words that you use to describe your organisation, products and services. Then think about how someone would ‘Google’ you. What search terms do you think they would use to try and find your organisation. You’ll be surprised that they may not be the terms that you use everyday. For example, what a local Council may officially call refuse or waste collection, everyday we call it bins, or wheelie bin collections. Sometimes it’s a case of thinking more colloquially and not using corporate jargon.
Different search engines use their own algorithms to rank websites. The algorithms are broadly based on weighting for different elements of your website. For example, scores are given for having page titles, recently updated page dates, hyperlinks, metadata and image tags. You need to submit your website to the search engines and they will in turn visit or ‘crawl’ your site - following navigation links and other embedded hyperlinks to visit all of the pages of your site. Simplistically, when someone searches for a keyword in a search engine, the results listed are ranked according to what these crawlers found on your site and how it rates against the algorithm. This is why your website may not always appear at the top of search results listings.
Try out these tips
There is no one single solution to ensuring that your website appears at the top of search engine ranking results lists. The most that many organisations strive for is to appear on the first page of results in the search rankings list. There are however some straightforward steps that you can employ to try and improve your website rankings. All of these are achievable, but will require some further consideration from you and your organisation about your website.
Try following these simple rules:
1. Measurement - how well your site is performing?
In order to improve your website rankings you need to know how well your site is performing.
You should measure the ranking of your website in the four major search engines and / or any specialist directories that you would like to appear in. To create your benchmark, choose up to six keywords
and phrases that people would use to find your site. Search for these and keep a record of the date you searched and the ranking that you achieved. We suggest that you undertake regular reviews every four to six months. So recheck the rankings of your site against these keywords and analyse the results. Think about what you
can do to improve your results.
2. Website technical infrastructure
You should check to see if your website infrastructure is search engine friendly? For example, is your content management system solution preventing search engines from accessing your site? Make sure that your site fully accessible to all users.
- Relevant page titles - that appear in the web browser
- Metadata tags – an underlying description of the page content using keywords and phrases
- Image ALT tags – all images have description tags
3. Content, content, content
Your website is nothing without its content. When you write for a website, it’s very different to writing a report or a corporate brochure. The tone and emphasis needs to be much more user friendly and easier to read. It’s very important to include the
keywords and phrases that people will use to find your website on the home page and the first paragraph of key pages on the site.
People will only be able to find you, if you use the terms in your content that search engines can match when returning search results.
Check:
- That your website provides good content
- Your content is written specifically for your website
- That you regularly review your content – search engines pick-up on the date of when a page was last updated
- That you provide and reciprocate links
4. Visitor gimmicks and attractions
The main idea is to attract users to your website. You should find ways of interacting with site visitors, as well as retain users. Give people a reason to revisit your site, even if it's just a gimmick such as a news feed, or a quick opinion poll.
5. Website statistical reports
Make sure that you have a good website visitor reports package in place, such as Urchin, Wed Trends or Google Analytics. You need to review your statistics at least once per month and from these you need to look out for:
- Visitor content trends – what’s hot and what’s not!
- What areas of the website are most visited?
- What areas of the website are least visited?
- How can you improve the website?
Based on this information you may need to move content or pages around your website and bring popular content to the front of the site.
6. Paid for advertising
It is possible to pay for advertising, using tools such as Google AdWords, sponsored links, banner advertising, or MSN adverts. These may be relevant to use if you are in a competitive marketplace, or have a particular campaign running around a product or service you provide. This type of promotion can be fairly pricey, especially with lots of organisations competing for similar positions based on the same keywords. Consider getting your website content up to date before anything. Really getting this right should lead to your site naturally working it’s way up the search results rankings.
7. Useful resources and tools
Google provides a number of useful hints and tips in their ‘Webmaster Tools’ area. From here you can find out about Google Site Maps, Google Alerts and useful checklists. For example, Sitemaps are a way to give Google information about your website and is simply a list of pages on your site. Creating and submitting a Sitemap helps make sure that Google knows about all the pages on your site.
References
You may find some of the following references and resources useful:
Online
Google Webmaster Guidelines
Great resource from Google on searching techniques.
Information about search engines, useful hints and tips
Useful articles on promoting your website
Useful resource page provided by Web Credible
Useful tips for writing for the Web.
Writing in ways that everyone understands.
Publications
“Get to the top on Google” by Viney, David Nicholas
Brealey Publishing (2008)
“Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity” by Nielsen, Jakob
New Riders Publishing (2000)
“Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day” by Grappone, Jennifer and Couzin, Gradiva
John Wiley & Sons; 2nd Edition (2008)
"Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites" by Louis Rosenfeld and
Peter Morville
O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 3 Edition
“Information Architecture for the World Wide Web” by Rosenfeld, L., & Morvill, O.
O’Reilly (1998)
“Marketing Through Search Optimisation: How to be found on the Web” by Michael, A., & Salter, B.
Elsevier (2005)
Need Our Help?
If you'd like to know more about how we can improve your website SEO ratings, then contact Tracy Walker.
- 01865 920121
- info@oxfordwebseo.co.uk
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Definitely... And this is a really great initiative RT @Econsultancy: Is SEO a science? http://t.co/uYOOk7Wb
11:22 AM May 11th -
Nice guide.. RT @sewatch: Link Building A-Z Guide – Definitions & Terms http://t.co/t9tK2zmi cc @MajesticSEO
09:17 AM May 9th
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