HOW GOOGLE RANKS SEARCHESAND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SUCCEED ONLINE

A Guide to the Basics of Search Engine OptimizationCreated by Carolyn Capern (@Dvrbkwrm, August 2014)

Search Engine Optimization(SEO, for short) often feels

confusing to business owners and marketing managers.

IS THIS YOU?

That’s because SEO is kind of like going on a (really) long fishing trip.

You’re going to toss a whole lot of lines in the water before you see what really makes the fish bite.

The trophy fish that everyone is after is a first-page ranking for

your most valuable search terms.

Needless to say, there’s lots of competition. And what’s more, Google only discloses some of the 200+ factors that go into your website’s ranking. Yay!

There are certain things that Google wants every good website to do.

That’s why it is so important to understand the best practices of SEO.

So what exactly is SEO?Here’s what Google says:

Of course, that definition doesn’t talk about how you get to the top of the Google search results. In practice, it involves spending a lot of time on things like:

Quality content Easy navigation structure Fast loading speeds Unique page titles and meta

descriptions Optimized images Effective use of quality links Mobile-friendly site version Relevant off-site promotion

No, really. What is SEO?

Search engine optimization does NOT mean that your website will be more likely to make sales.

It just means that (if you do it right) over time, people will be more likely to find your site in the first place.

Let’s go back to the basics of SEO.

How will your customers find you?

Has Google found your site?

As the most popular index of Internet content, Google sends its ‘spiders’ out to crawl sites and create a “web” of information.

The more often your site is crawled, the quicker your site’s new content will be displayed in search.

Making sure you have an accurate robots.txt file can help there.

Unless your site has crawl errors,Google has probably found it.

Getting Google to find your site isn’t usually the biggest challenge in SEO.

Usually the challenge is getting Google to find your site for the right thing and identify it as valuable for the right reasons.

That’s where the search engine optimization work begins.

Every ranking factor you improve on your site is another hook for Google to bite.

No single factor is enough to improve a site’s rankings on its own.

However, by addressing all of them, it is possible to see improvements in your keyword rankings and ultimately your website traffic.

Let’s look now at some of the key factors that go into your SEO.

Quality Content

Does your website content sound like this? SEO techniques used to have a lot to do with something called keyword density.

Essentially, if you used the right keyword (or combination of words) the right number of times on your site, you could expect to rank well in Google.

It didn’t matter whether the sentences made sense or not. The terms just had to be there.

Quality Content

That strategy, also known as keyword stuffing, no longer works in your favor for SEO.

Keyword strategy remains important, but now how you use keywords is as important as which ones you target.

Instead, the best idea is to create content that is useful for your audience. The more informative and valuable your written content, the more you will naturally use key terms that actually matter for your business.

Quality Content

Here are some ‘best practices’ for content creation that you should keep in mind.

Focus on your customers. What do they want to know, and what words would they use to ask a question about it?

Don’t duplicate your content, on or off your site. Google sees this as spam.

Mix different types of content. Users love short articles, photos, and video. Google values long-form, in-depth articles. All of them can help you if they are well thought out and used appropriately.

Keep it readable using frequent line breaks, different headings, and text formatting like boldand italicized words.

Easy Navigation Structure

Your website visitors need a clear sense of direction on your site.

If they don’t have a clear way to explore more pages and easily get where they need to be, they won’t stick around.

Make sure your site is well organized, and that all key pages are accurately displayed in a navigation menu.

Include breadcrumbs and other on-site links (where relevant) to make it even easier to get around.

Easy Navigation Structure

We’ve all seen URLs filled with unintelligible strings of letters and numbers.

They’re hard to share and impossible to remember. And Google doesn’t like them any more than you do.

If you take the time to create descriptive names for the folders and pages on your website, incorporating relevant terms from your website, you can create more shareable URLs and make your website more search-friendly.

Link structure counts too!

Fast Loading Speeds

People will visit a Web site less often if it is slower than a close competitor by more than 250 milliseconds.

Four out of five online users will click away if a video stalls while loading.

Source: New York Times

Our attention span is more limited than ever. In 2010, Google made Page Speed a ranking factor for SEO. Two years later, in 2012, they told us two signs showing how important it really is.

Fast Loading Speeds

Hosting matters. The type and configuration of your server both affect your site speed.

Are your web files compressed? Gzip compression methods reduce the download file size on your website by up to 90%, improving page load times. Ask your hosting company if it has been enabled.

Losslessly optimize your JPEGs and PNGs. Reduces the file size of photos without compromising quality.

Minify your code. If possible, minify all Javascript, JQuery, and HTML on the site.

Leverage browser caching. This instructs the browser regarding how often to crawl each page. Since some pages (like your blog) need to be updated more often than others, browser caching can improve speeds by saving previous data when relevant.

What can I do to improve my site load speeds?We asked CT Social marketing technologist Greg Trujillo. Here were his top tips:

Page Titles & Meta DescriptionsTell Google and other search engines what your page is really about.

Be Unique

Be Brief

Be Accurate

PAGE TITLESWhat is the topic of your page?

META DESCRIPTIONSGives a brief summary (sentence or two) of what a page is about, using relevant key terms. Google may choose to use your meta descriptions as snippets for your pages in search, especially if they cannot find a good selection of text from the page.

WHERE DO I WRITE A META DESCRIPTION?If you use Wordpress, the Yoast SEO plugin makes it really easy. In standard HTML, the meta description goes within the <head> tag.

Optimized ImagesYour images may be your best friends for getting your site to rank better in search.

When you upload an image called image1.jpg, you aren’t doing your SEO any favors.

Image filenames and alt text* present a great opportunity for you to tell Google what that image (and, by extension, what the content of your site) is about.

Best Practice:Be sure to choose key terms for the images and alt tags that are both descriptive and not excessively long or spammy.

*alternative text that appears if the image cannot display

Heading TagsWhat matters most on your site?

Your readers want need you to tell them. They are looking for answers, and they don’t have a lot of time to find it.

Headings (<h1> <h2> etc.) help to organize the page for readability.

Google likes it, because they can use it to identify the most important concepts and terms on your site.

And your readers like it, because they can use it to skim through the page faster.

Screenshot Credit: ontracktips.com / Jason T. Wiser

Mobile-Friendly VersionThe world has gone mobile, and so has Google. Is your website ready?

Your website visitors are as likely to be searching from their smartphone in a parking lot as they are from a laptop in a home or office.

Fortunately, there are several options to make your website mobile-friendly.

Best Practices:1) Make it responsive. You’ll keep the same URL for both mobile and desktop sites– the design adjusts based on screen size.

2) Make it mobile. A mobile URL can also be a good option, especially if you plan to have more unique mobile content. If you go this route, don’t forget to create a mobile site map so Google can find it!

Quality Backlinks

Backlinks signal that another site respects yours enough to link to it.

Google used to place a big emphasis on getting lots of backlinks to improve your SEO.

As you might expect, this lead to an entire industry of sites being set up to serve as backlink sources for other sites– for a price.

Since Google doesn’t want people buying credibility like that, they changed the algorithm’s emphasis on backlinks, and started to encourage website owners to look for quality links over a quantity of links.

That way, Google can be more confident that the website delivers real value to its users.

Relevant Off-Site PromotionIf you want your website to grow, you have to put some effort into promoting it.

Because it is no longer acceptable to buy backlinks from directories, that effort must come from building relationships with other website owners, and creating content that gains recognition.

We’re talking about:• Making announcements via blog posts• Sending out an email newsletter• Using social media (especially ones that are good

for SEO, like Google+ and Pinterest)• Doing offline promotions like handing out business

cards or putting up posters to let clients know about your website

• Getting reviews on Google Local• …and more!

Want to Hire an SEO Company?Unfortunately, good SEO always takes time and effort. It’s not something that can improve overnight or with little active involvement.

Of course, it may seem daunting to do it yourself. And there are still many SEO companies that you can hire to help you build your traffic and improve your search rankings.

Interview the company carefully if you go this route, because you want to make sure they are going to take a modern, ‘white-hat’ approach that Google approves of.

(By comparison, ‘black-hat’ SEO uses techniques like keyword stuffing and buying backlinks, and can get your website penalized by Google.)

With most SEO companies, you can expect to start with a full website analysis, and tackle a list of changes from there.

The ultimate purpose of SEOis to help search engines find your website.

The ultimate purpose of your websiteis to help your customers understand what you do.

If your website does its job,by helping your clients, you will help your search rankings too.

Add real value.

Remember…

HOW GOOGLE RANKS SEARCHESAND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SUCCEED ONLINE

Questions?

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