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 and Google Places- 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.