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How do I get on Google? And what is SEO or Search Engine
Optimisation exactly? These are questions we, as an SEO company, are
frequently asked. Before answering them, it’s first important to
understand what is Google (and also Google Local).
Google is a system
that indexes web pages in a database and lists them in response to
searches in the order that it judges to be most relevant to the keywords
used in the search.
The important word here is relevance. Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin,
devised a relevance algorithm that is astoundingly fast at returning
results from a gigantic database of billions of entries, but also at
choosing pages that exactly fit the keywords entered into the search
box.
Google’s ability to
do this is quite uncanny. The pages that it lists in response to keyword
searches are always of a very high quality in terms of content and
always fit the search well – and as refinements are made, the
ability to pinpoint results becomes ever more accurate.
The exact nature of
the algorithm and how Google works are commercial secrets that are not
disclosed by the company. But Google does advise web designers on how to
optimise their pages so that they can be found easily, and much information
can be deduced by trial and error methods – making systematic changes
to the contents of a page and noting how each change affects the search
results.
To determine
relevance, Google reads each page in its index and measures the
frequency, density and prominence of each keyword. It also looks at a
number of other key features (described in more detail here) all of
which contribute to that page’s ranking in the search results.
An SEO company like
SEO UK has the expertise to analyse a website to ensure that the keywords
most relevant to the organisation are represented with the correct
frequency, density and proximity.
Google local is
Google’s geographical business finder – similar in operation to a
street directory. The contents of a website should also be optimised to
rank well in local searches.
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To get your website indexed by Google so that it appears in
search results you must first submit your site to Google: www.google.co.uk/addurl
Also re-submit your site each time further
SEO optimisation work is carried out with a note such as "Site
updated".
Google's robot software (Googlebots or
web crawlers) will visit your site and index each word of each page,
storing them in its database.
The frequency with which Google's robots
will re-index your site depends partly on its page rank (high traffic
volume sites are crawled more frequently) and also on how frequently the
site is updated.
Getting indexed by Google is only the
first step. If you want your web site to be found in searches and rank
high in those searches, you must write web copy that uses a keyword vocabulary
appropriate to your products or services.
How do you determine your
keywords? Start by writing down three or four keywords that you
believe describe your product or service, or that you believe potential
customers would use when searching the internet for a supplier.
Use one of the many free keyword tools
available on the internet to see how frequently people search on your
keywords. You can then compile a list of keywords that you know are
searched on frequently, in order of priority.
Next comes the task of writing your web
copy so that it makes sense and appeals to human visitors but will also
be indexed by Google's bots such that your site will rank high in any
search that is performed on your chosen keywords.
Writing web copy is quite an art and it
something we at SEO UK are very experienced at. The text you are
reading now, for example, is a keyword-rich text that has been optimised
for the keywords that are relevant to our own business, such as 'How do
I get on Google?'.
Finally, proof read your web copy very
carefully for correct grammar, syntax, spelling and typographical
errors. Nothing undermines the site visitor's confidence quite so
quickly as finding an obvious spelling mistake in the middle of page
one! This is one of the compelling reasons for considering using
professional web copy writers to provide well-written copy and an
outsider's eye.
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Knowing how to be on Google
and how to rank high on Google
searches is an important first step in your web marketing strategy but
it is not enough by itself.
When deciding how to rank pages in its search
results, Google takes into account three main factors: keywords, inbound
links and traffic.
You must also support your keyword
strategy with an inbound link building strategy and devise ways of
driving traffic to your web site.
Equally important, once you have increased the
number of site visitors, you must persuade those visitors to take the
action you wish them to take, whether it is buying your T-shirt, signing
up for your new software, or merely giving their email address in
exchange for something of value such as an e-book.
The commonest method of driving more
traffic to your site at present is the use of social media in all its
forms - including blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and similar social
networking sites.
Bear in mind that once you decide on building traffic
by, for example, blogging regularly, it's important to keep up a regular
series of posts. This is a major commitment and one that many
people quickly tire of, which is why so many blogs are left to wither on
the vine after a few months.
This is another good reason to consider using professional writers to
provide regular keyword-rich blog content that is also of real interest
to your potential customers.
Building links to your site is a slow process
that is best tackled one link at a time. There is no substitute
for personal approaches to the webmasters of important sites with whom
you wish to exchange links.
Offers of links for sale from link farms
should be avoided, not least because Google checks the relevance of
links in the same way that it checks the relevance of your own site and may
well penalise what it considers to be short-cut attempts at cheque-book
optimisation.
Bear in mind that site optimisation is a
long-distance race, not a sprint, and is a process that never ends, not
least because Google continually updates its own internal operating
system.
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