making your site google friendly
It's essential to make sure your site is designed with search
engines in mind. And, with the high percentage of searches being
undertaken through Google, it's important to look at what you
need to do to help your site rank well on Google.
Nielson's latest stats show there were over 10 billion searches
done world wide in the month of August 2009, with just under 7
billion of these through Google. About 90% of searches in New
Zealand use Google and over 75% of your customers search on line
for new product and services.
As you can see, it's really key that your website is designed
with that, as well as customers, in mind.
Here are our top ten tips for making your website Google friendly:
• keep your content fresh - the more fresh content, including
blogs, articles,
newsletters and
informative content, that you have on your site, the more often
Google will index your site and maybe increase it's ranking. Content
should be rich in keywords.
• internal linking - this is about placing lots of internal
relevant links between pages and make the links keyword focused
rather than 'click here' only. This makes it easy for Google to
get around your site.
• quality links
to your site. This includes directories and other topic similar
sites, but they must be quality
links.
• a site map - this is a map of your site with links to
the pages throughout your site. It shows the structure of your
site - all pages - and links to them so it's easy for a search
engine to follow the site.
• Google maps - Google does not make a charge for this service
and it can help get your site right to the top of the listings
for your particular industry or field. If your site is new, it
will help Google index, or list, it sooner.
• on
line directories - your website should be included in as many
free directories as you can find to help Google find your site.
Start with the general ones like NZ Search, for example, then
work out to industry and location specific ones. This is often
done as part of an seo
programme.
• meta or page titles - this is the title
which shows in the top bar of your browser and is critical. It
is a prime place for relevant keywords and phrases and is used
all the time by Google. This should have been done as part of
any seo programme
you've been involved in.
• image alts - these are text alternatives for images. Keywords
and phrases can be added into the text description for each
image which helps show Google and all search engines what the
page is about.
• meta description
- this is also very important to Google. It appears in the code
of your website and helps Google and other websites identify what
your page and overall site is about. It is also shown in the search
results.
• domain
names and page names - choose these carefully as it is an
important area for keywords. This applies to menu items as well.
Implementing the above strategies could potentially help your
site appear higher in the listings, so it's worth taking the time
to apply these if they haven't already been.
If you'd like help with this and getting a plan of action together,
please contact us. If
you'd rather send us an email for more information you could complete
our enquiry form and
we'll contact you.
