How can that be you ask? When you put up your free website you labored over its design and tweaked the content until it was just right. It’s a beautiful site to behold and you are rightfully proud of your design accomplishment. But unfortunately, your greatest potential source of visitors will come from the search engines and those traffic generators do not come equipped with a couple of human eyeballs.
What they do come equipped with are robots and spiders that are looking for specific indicators as to what your site is about, and what value it offers users who may benefit from it coming up in a search. Helping those spiders easily identify your content is critical when building your website but that’s only half the problem. In addition to proving you have relevant content, you also have to develop a plan to show those search engines that your website offers value to others.
The Golden Rule of Search Engine Optimization
You may have seen articles or offers from SEO gurus who claim to have cracked the Google code and know exactly how Google decides who is going to be returned on the first page. When you see those articles, place a firm grip on your wallet and do not give in to the temptation of “insane traffic” claims. The fact is Google is constantly evolving and if there are more than 3 Google employees who fully understand the entire search methodology it would be pretty surprising if some random crack-pot on the web holds this heavily guarded secret.
So if you don’t know what Google is looking for, how can you optimize your site to give it what it wants?
The answer is pretty simple. Make Google look good and Google will reward you with traffic.
What this means is you have to focus on providing a site that has actual value, not some cut and paste job stuffed with spun content or spam articles. It has to deliver content that will engage visitors and keep them on the page. Think about the sites you have bookmarked and think about why you bookmarked them. Odds are, those sites had specific information that you found important as a visitor. That’s the kind of information or content you want to provide to your audience.
On Page Optimization
Content is King but there are a few things that can help grabbing Google’s eye and get it to take a look at you.
Optimizing for a keyword phrase is generally a good idea. That means that your domain name, page title and meta-description, as well as content, should have that keyword phrase or a “theme” phrase included.
Let’s say you decided to make a website to promote your dog-walking service “Wendy’s Paw Walkers” and you’re looking for more customers in your hometown of Long Beach, CA. The natural inclination would be to get the domain name WendysPawWalkers.com but in fact that may cut your chances of getting search traffic for the search phrase “dog walker”.
Google, in its search for relevant content will more favorably treat a domain name like DogWalkerLongBeach.com because it will more accurately reflect the search query. If you weren’t aware before learn now: nearly 80% of searches are “local” and Google is jumping on that band-wagon big time.
The next area you want to include the phrase “dog walker” is in your meta-description. If you notice in a Google search there is a brief explanation of each site returned. Originally this was taken from the page itself but now it is more common to come from the meta-description, so it’s important to make this section Google friendly but also compelling for the visitor. This is the tease that leads to a click on your link.
The title of the page obviously should include the phrase and the phrase should be used in the content where it fits naturally. Don’t try to “stuff” the content just to get Google’s attention.
Off Page Optimization
Getting to your site in the first place often relies on Google being sent through links on other sites that point at you. These “backlinks” links are considered “votes” and the more you have, the more Google guesses that your site has value. That said, the quality of the links is important. If the links you receive are from 10 popular sites they are worth a thousand links from low quality sites or link farms.
There are a number of ways to get backlinks but it can be a repetitive and time consuming task. Social network sites, forums, article marketing, blog posts and press releases all play a part in getting your page linked by others.
This combination of solid content, on page optimization and link building will put you in a position to rank well in the search engines. If you wind up on the first page, and particularly above the fold, Google will swamp you with targeted relevant traffic.
Patience is a Virtue
This does not happen overnight and if you use a method that does make it happen quickly then beware of the Google smack down. Google likes natural progressions in content and linking. If your system appears to be “forced” they will see it as an attempt to manipulate them and could possibly de-index your website. Good luck!
