There are nearly 200 different factors that Google uses to determine where websites rank within searched results for keywords. That’s right. With all this going on, how can you get your website found on Google if you don’t know all 200 different factors?
There are two basic approaches to get your website found. This post will outline the two approaches and give you specific tips to help your website the visibility it deserves.
Why its Important to Get Your Website Found on Google
First of all, just because you’ve built a beautiful website with lots of interesting content which targeted people are looking for, doesn’t mean that it will necessarily be found. In order for it to be found, your website must be ranked highly on search engines. Think of your own search habits when looking for something online. It is not likely that you look beyond the first few listings, perhaps the top 10 or so ranked websites, on the initial page of search results. Highly ranked equals highly found. Why focus on being found on Google? Because Google currently spits out nearly 66% of all search results, dwarfing the market share of Bing, Yahoo, or other smaller search engines.
Being highly ranked means more people will click on your website in search results. With more people clicking on your website you will get more traffic and therefore more people exposed to your products or services. With increased rankings come increased traffic and increased business and more profit.
The 2 Basic Avenues to Get Your Website Found on Google
The first avenue to getting your website found is to smartly set up your on-page content on your website so that Google search engine crawlers will most easily find your important content. One way to do this is to have rich, relevant content for your target audience. This means not only having a depth of content (multiple pages devoted to various facets of your business offering), but also having content that is rich in specific words called keywords. Ensure that you know what your potential customers are looking for online and what search terms they would use to get to that content. Ask your target customers and do your keyword research.
Another important on-page consideration is the architecture of that content. Is it structured and coded by yourself (or your website designer) so that it is most easily found by search engines like Google. Paying attention to page titles, the headlines, the meta descriptions and meta keywords are vital to getting your website search for by the automatic search crawlers.
By carefully crafting keyword rich content that is relevant to your target audience and by making it easy for search engines to crawl your website – you are on your way to higher rankings and getting your website found.
The second avenue is off-page. This involves efforts on other sites to help boost your website’s popularity (otherwise known as Page Rank). One strong method to gain higher Page Rank is to attract links to your website from other relevant website content. The more popular the content that is linking directly to your website – the more powerful it will be in boosting your search rankings. This method is called organic search engine optimization. Linking strategies are one of the most powerful factors in search engine ranking. This can take time and practice and patience.
Another off-page method for gaining high search rankings is to buy Google Ad Words. This is known as search engine marketing by bidding for and buying keywords using a cost-per-click measure. By buying targeted keywords you can get your website ranked highly in the paid search listings. This can be a quicker way to gaining high search rankings and getting your website found on Google. Know that it will cost money and you will need to actively manage that process and refine your advertising message and keyword over time to ensure a good return on your investment.
How to Get Your Website Found on Google
If you build it, they will come. Not necessarily. Especially in the vast and competitive world of the internet. To get your website found on Google you must pay particular attention to on-page efforts and off-page efforts. Some important on-page tactics include keyword-rich content and a properly coded website. Important off-page considerations to get your website found include investing in Ad Words to advertise your website on search result pages and gaining appropriate links to your existing content.
I hope you learned some valuable information about how to get your website found on Google. For even more information on which of Google’s critical factors matter most in website rankings, click here for a free report.