Three Things You Must Know so you don’t get killed by Google

A lot of website owners I know are very frustrated by their Google page ranking. Are you looking for organic (free) traffic to your site or are you happy to pay for traffic to find you. If you are looking for free traffic then you really need to be on the first or second page of Google for your keywords or key phrases. So, how do you get there?

The first step in getting to the top in Google is to know your keywords or key phrases that people search for that are relevant to your business. There are some very good tools like Wordtracker or Google’s External Keyword Tool. Plug in some keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business. Once you find some great words and phrases you then need to have a look and see how many other sites are competing for the same words and phrases.  Ideally you want words and phrases that are highly relevant to your business that have less competition. This makes it easier to get to the top in Google.

Another frustrating thing about Google (or any other search engine for that matter) is that it will seemingly take forever to get referenced by their robots. Yes, I know you are horrified by the prospect but Google have little robots out there patrolling the web referencing and indexing new sites and old sites. These robots have to find your site before the search engines even know you exist. One of the fastest ways I know to let them know you exist is to create a blog on your site, and then each time you make a post to your blog you ‘ping’ a number of sites alerting them to the fact that you have new content on your site. Google and the other search engines love new content, so this is a great way to get indexed fast. Just do not overdo it because you will get blacklisted as being a nuisance. I like to do two or three posts to start with to my blog and then a new one every few days.

Be relevant!! Google rewards you for being relevant to Google users. Have text on your site and make sure it is relevant to your business. I know we all love pictures, graphics, and cool Flash animations. The unfortunate thing with these is that the Google robots are blind to them. Robots only read text. Pure Flash sites can be very difficult to improve their page rank in Google because there is nothing for the robots to see. (There are ways around this of course). Using external CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is also a great way to improve your page ranking. Having more content and less design elements in your pages makes them more friendly to Google. This does not mean that you just create boring web pages with no design elements. Using an external CSS file to contain your design elements lets you have great looking pages, while remaining Google friendly.

So, if you want a great Google ranking there are a number of things you must do. Three of the most important things are choosing relevant keywords with reduced competition, using a blog to get referenced quickly by the search engines, and having text on your site that is relevant to your business. External CSS files are fantastic for creating great looking websites and maximising the relevant content on your sites. So, there is no need to languish on Page 50 of Google wondering when you are going to get some traffic to your site. Be relevant, be active, and be efficient and go to the top of Google. Or you can just pay!!

 

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