There are literally thousands of factors that determine how Google ranks websites. However there are some pretty standard ones that are heavily weighted. So I’m providing a few tips that leverage these factors here.
1. Title Tag
This is part of the html of every website page and is fundamental. It is the blue link to a website in a list of search results.
Look at the example above. The keyword phrase “search results” brings up Wikipedia. Notice that the title tag uses the words “search” and “results”. If you want a particular page of your website to rank for a keyword phrase, the keyword must be a part of the title tag as shown above.
2. Domain Name
This is only somewhat important. Having a domain name that contains keywords you want to rank for helps achieve first page results quickly. However the same results can be achieved with a few months of SEO work. One such example is a website I worked with called Design Quotes. Searching for the phrase “web design quotes” and “graphic design quotes” result in www.designquotes.com.au because the domain name contains two of the three words in the keyword phrase.
3. Content
In terms of onsite factors, this is the most important. Having fresh, regular niche content is a massive boost. This is why blogs are so beneficial for achieving high ranks on Google. Content needs to contain keywords you want, it needs to be updated at least once per week and it needs to be restricted to a niche topic. Publishing articles about lawn mowers when your business is in IT is not a good idea. Google won’t like it and neither will your visitors. In addition to getting a boost from Google, if your content is genuine useful, people will link to it.
4. Links
This is the number one offsite factor. A link is like a vote. Every time a website links to your website, it is telling Google that it is a good site. So the more links you have higher you will rank. However there are a few caveats. Links should only come from related websites. If you are selling pet food, you don’t want links from a website about running shoes. Google won’t favour these types of links. It is also really important that the links to your website use keywords in the “anchor text”. The anchor text is the words used in the link. So if you want to rank for pet food the link should look like this: pet food.
5. Sitemap
A sitemap is a basic page that links to every page on your website. This helps Google understand how your website is structured and when tells Google when new pages are added. Add a sitemap and more of your website will be visible to Google and more pages will show up in search results.
I hope you find these tips useful. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any questions. You can contact me directly or leave a comment below.
