Search Engine Rankings 101

August 15th, 2011 → 11:31 pm @ // No Comments

One of the most asked questions I receive is: “How can I get my website to rank high on Google?”

This is obviously a very important question, so I’ll cover a couple basics:

Tip #1NEVER believe someone that can GUARANTEE a high page rank. While it’s possible, it’s impossible to guarantee. Google’s search algorithm is a secret, but they do give us some basic tips and hints on how the equation works.

Tip #2 – Focus on 5-7 of your best “search phrases” meaning what would your ideal target (the person you want to come to your web site) type into Google to find your site.

Tip #3Content is KING. Use the “search phrases” you’ve defined in Tip #2 as many times as possible when writing your website copy. Do NOTĀ just dump them into your website, use them in sentence and paragraph form. Google can actually detect this and actually penalize you!

Tip #4 – Ditch the “Image Text“. I still see several websites that use graphics to display actual copy. I find people that want to do this when they can’t get the page to format correctly, or want to use a special font that isn’t supported on all computers. Google and other search enginesĀ CAN’T read the text in an image.

Tip #5 – Add a Sitemap and Robots file. If you don’t have them, you need them. These both instruct the search engines what to do with the pages of your website. Here is a link to a FREE Sitemap Generator.

There are other tips that I will cover in future blog posts. A good web strategy should define these search phrases and implement them successfully into your website.

If you have questions or need help with your search engine strategy, give me a shout!

–Iowa Web Guy


Tags: , , , , , ,

Leave a Reply