How to Improve Your Website's Google Ranking
Everyone who has a website wants it to rank high in the search engines like Google and Yahoo.
A higher rank means more visitors, and more visitors mean more sales, or more advertising revenue.
Following steps you follow for higher rank on search engine.
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Google's search engine, www.google.com, uses a variety of methods to determine which pages are displayed first in the results. Their exact formula is a secret, but there are a few things you can do to improve your positioning. The term for this is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
These tips may not make your website the first one to appear in the list, but they just may help you move up a little.
Ignore spam and websites that offer to submit your website to hundreds of search engines. At best these are wastes of time or money and at worst they can actually hurt your ranking.
If the phrase(s) you're trying to rank well for aren't competitive (that is, few other sites are using the same phrase) then getting good placement is pretty easy: Just put the phrase(s) you want to rank well for in the <title></title> tag and in at least one other area on the page. For some reason this isn't obvious to everyone: I can't remember how many times someone has sought my advice about how to rank well for some phrase, and I check out their page and that phrase is nowhere to be found! A while back a friend asked me how to get her homepage to rank well for her name, which was unusual enough that she should have been at the top of Google with no problems. After I checked out her page I felt like asking her, "And it didn't occur to you to put your name somewhere on that page?!" Actually, her name was on her page, but in a graphic. Google can't read that, they have no idea what words are contained in an image. And her <title> tag just said "Home". How is Google supposed to know that her page was about Sally Thunderpizza? (Not her real name.)
So anyway, for non-competitive phrases, just put the phrases you want to rank for in the <title> and in the body copy of your page. For example, you should be able to get to #1 in Google within a month for the phrase martian pudding headache. Go ahead, try it.
Okay, but what if your phrase is competitive? Then you're going to need to develop some good content for your site, too. Here's the complete recipe:
Name Your Pages
Give your pages a descriptive name with the <title> tag. This is vital. Google displays search results as a link using the Web page's title. A link called 'untitled' isn't enticing, and nobody is going to click on it. When appropriate, use the page's keyword phrase in the title.
* Write a <TITLE></TITLE> tag for each page that accurately describes that page (no more than about 64 characters).
* Try to create two new pages every week. If you can't do that, try to do one page each week. At a bare minimum, create a new page each month.
* As much as possible, your new pages should be unique, interesting, authoritative, and compelling.If you want to rank well for the phrase electric widgets, then make your site the best resource about electric widgets available.
* Link to quality relevant sites. After you do so, ask those sites to link to you, but don't make your link to them contingent on whether they link back.
* Follow standard website design tips and avoid the problems listed on Problem Websites. Your site should be not only attractive, but super-easy to use, and completely free of annoyances.
* Most importantly, purge your mind of trying to think of ways you can "trick" your way to the top of the results. Do NOT think about the specific nuts and bolts of how a search engine will rank your pages. Instead, build good, quality pages for your visitors, and trust that the rankings will follow.
But many webmasters don't get this. They write to me asking such things as:
* How many times should my keywords appear on my pages?
* What's the optimum ratio of keywords to non-keywords?
* Should I seek links from several PR4 sites or one PR6 site?
* Will doing "X" cause me to rank higher?
Such webmasters are missing the point. You get good rankings by building a quality site, not by trying to figure out exactly how the search engines rank pages. It's counter-intuitive, but you get good rankings by ignoring rankings and focusing on quality. Focus on quality and the rankings will follow. It works the same way in business: If you focus on the money you'll probably make less money. But if you focus on creating a great customer experience then the money will follow.
But many of you came here hoping to find tricks, so before you dismiss that, consider this: Your site doesn't rank as well as mine, otherwise you wouldn't be here. You want your site to rank better, which is why you went looking for this article. And my site does rank well, which is why you found it. In other words, I know what I'm talking about. My sites are all over Google and Yahoo for a variety of popular terms. When I tell you the best way to get good rankings is to ignore rankings and focus on building your site, it's not just theoretical, and it's not a cop-out: It works, and it works well.
But maybe you figure that you don't have time to build a quality site, so that's why you want some easy tricks. In that case, your site doesn't deserve to rank well. And don't be surprised when it doesn't. If you want better rankings, you must make your site worthy of those rankings. Look at the sites that are beating you. Assuming you already have good <title> tags, is your site truly better than the ones which are beating you? If yes, then you'll probably outrank them eventually. If not, then why are you even trying to get the search engines to give preferential treatment to an inferior site? Make your site better than the rest, and the rankings will follow.
Algorithm -- The long, complicated, secret set of formulas that a search engine uses to figure out where sites should rank.
One problem with using tricks is that the effects are temporary. Put yourself in Google's shoes: Do you want to list the very best sites or do you want to list the ones that are most adept at employing tricks? Obviously you hate tricksters because when you return a list of crappy sites instead of the very best ones then that reflects poorly on you. So you do everything in your power to weed out the tricksters. As soon as webmasters start using some trick, you change your calculations to ignore that trick. The algorthims are secret, and they're always changing to boot. (About six changes a week, according to the NY Times.) As a webmaster, obviously your time is better spent making your site better than screwing around playing cat-and-mouse games with the search engines.
Many webmasters also can't see the forest for the trees. Google wants them to create quality pages which have certain attributes. Many webmasters mistakenly focus on those attributes rather than the quality of the page. Here's a good analogy: Years ago scientists found that people who ate more fruits and vegetables and less meat and dairy were much healthier and lived longer, and noted that fruits and vegetables are low in fat. The proper response then would be to eat more fruits and vegetables. But instead Americans started eating processed low-fat junk food instead, which didn't do them any good. Google doesn't want you to fill your pages with crap in hopes of impressing them, nor do they want you to get links from any and everybody. Google wants you to build a high quality website. Why would they want anything else?
People seek out my advice about search rankings because they know my sites rank well for a whole host of search phrases. And I promise you I didn't do anything special beyond what's listed above. I certainly didn't worry about keyword density, META tags, submitting my site to the engines, reciprocal link requests, or any other nonsense. I simply tried to build quality sites. In fact, early on I didn't even consider my search rankings. I just built good sites and then noticed that they ranked well. Really well.
So what attributes does a page need to be considered "quality" by a search engine? The same things it would need to impress most of us, such as:
* The page is relevant to the terms being searched for
* The page is considered an authority about its topic
* Relevancy -- How well a page matches a user's query (more...)
The page has good, useful content
* The page has been around for a while
* The page is part of a site with lots of information
Keyword Phrases
Rather than focusing on a single word, try adding a few words to make a keyword phrase. You may want to read about effective Google searches to see how keyword phrases help with searches.
If you were searching for your own website, what keyword phrase would you type into Google for each page? Would you look for super fast widgets? Would you look for cooking with widgets? It may be helpful to get a different perspective. Ask someone else to read your page and suggest what they think your keyword phrase might be. You can also check Google Trends to see if one phrase is starting to gain popularity.
Try to stick to one subject per page, and stick to one keyword phrase per page. That doesn't mean you should write stilted text or use odd phrases. Clear writing is both easier to search and easier to read.
Keywords -- Search terms that a webmaster wants to rank well for. A "keyword" is usually actually a short 2- to 4-word phrase.
The page loads quickly
* The page doesn't have a bunch of broken links
* The page isn't filled with a cheap list of keywords
Density
One of the things Google looks for when it catalogs pages is the density of the keyword usage. In other words, how often the keyword occurs. Use natural phrasing. Don't try to trick the search engine by repeating the same word over and over or making text "invisible." It doesn't work. In fact, some of that behavior even get your website banned. Read more: Google Dont's - Bad Tips and Dirty Tricks That Will Get You Banned.
Give a strong opening paragraph. Google may or may not search beyond the first 200 words or so of your web site, but it definitely looks at the first paragraph for keyword density.
So ranking well generally means:
* Creating many fast-loading, content-rich pages, with the words you want to rank for on the page and in the <TITLE> tag, and
* Getting links to your pages from other sites, especially from pages similar in content
Truth be told, that is 90% of it right there. Of course there are more details, and that's why there's thirteen pages of explanation that follow, but the summary above is SEO in a nutshell. Honest.
Here's more about what the engines consider high quality vs. low quality, according to what they recommend in their guidelines.
Link Early, Link Often
One of the biggest factors Google looks at is the hyperlink. Google looks at both links to and from your website.
Google looks at the words you use in links to help determine the content of your page. Use links within web pages as a way to emphasize keywords. Rather than saying, "click here to learn more about SEO" you should say: Read more about SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Links from other websites to your website are used to determine PageRank. You can use Google Toolbar to check your current PageRank.
You can improve your PageRank by exchanging text links with other relevant websites. Banner exchanges are not as effective. You can also improve your PageRank by making sure your website is listed with important directories. In other words, check the PageRank of the home page of the directory.
Submit Your Site to the Right Directories
Submit your website to the open directory project, if possible. Google considers this directory to be an important link. Be patient. A real human has to check your site, before it's listed in the Directory.
Submit your site to specialized directories. For instance, a work at home mother owned business (WAHM) should submit her site to WAHM directories. A site on butterflies should be sent to biology or entomology directories.
Don't get too submission happy, though. Google, in an effort to combat click fraud, often filters out websites linked from link farms, or pages with nothing but links to other websites. This is one reason why free services to register your website may hurt you. Stick to specialized directories and organizations. They're more likely to help and not hurt your rankings.
Social Networking
Social networking sites can be a good way to promote a site, but not all of them will affect your rank directly. Digg and Del.icio.us are social linking sites that could potentially have the most impact.
Make Your Graphics Search Friendly
Keep the Flash to a minimum. People may enjoy reading Flash, but search engines tend to skip right over it. Google has gained some ability to read Flash, but it is still limited. If your menus are in Flash, they might as well be invisible. Consider making plain text links in addition to or instead of Flash.
Give your images <alt> tags. Not only does it make your website more accessible to the visually impaired, it also gives you another chance to place your keywords where Google can see them.
Good Design Is Popular Design
In the end, strong, well organized pages are pages that Google tends to rank higher. They're also pages that tend to become more popular, which means Google will rank them even higher. Keep good design in mind as you go, and much of the SEO will design itself.
High Quality
Yahoo
* Original and unique content of genuine value
* Pages designed primarily for humans, with search engine considerations secondary
* Hyperlinks intended to help people find interesting, related content, when applicable
* Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a
web page
* Make pages for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users, or present different content to search engines than you display to users.
* Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"
* Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.
* Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our terms of service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.
Low Quality
Yahoo
* Pages that harm accuracy, diversity or relevance of search results
* Pages dedicated to directing the user to another page
* Pages that have substantially the same content as other pages
* Sites with numerous, unnecessary virtual hostnames
* Pages in great quantity, automatically generated or of little value
* Pages using methods to artificially inflate search engine ranking
* The use of text that is hidden from the user
* Pages that give the search engine different content than what the end-user sees
* Excessively cross-linking sites to inflate a site's apparent popularity
* Pages built primarily for the search engines
* Misuse of competitor names
* Multiple sites offering the same content
* Pages that use excessive pop-ups, interfering with user navigation
* Pages that seem deceptive, fraudulent or provide a poor user experience
Google
* Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
* Don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects.
* Don't send automated queries to Google.
* Don't load pages with irrelevant words.
* Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
* Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
