optimimising for google
The one search engine that you need better results for is Google.
Google outranks the other major search engines (Yahoo and MSN) by a factor of 6 or 7 when it comes to the amount of visitors it gets. But, it is now extremely difficult to get your site to the top 5 - but below are some tips to help you along the way.
Coding for Google
On page SEO (ie: what goes onto the pages of your website) is still important but plays a lesser role. But you still need to get these right.
The title tag is the one item Google pays a lot of attention to. Ensure your title tag AND your first heading are the same. (In a way this is obvious - the title of your page should be the same as the heading the user sees).
Ensure your titles are different for every web page on your site. If every title is the same (eg: your company name) then you will get no where. The title should describe what is on that page.
Next, simply sprinkle those keywords around the page in question. It’s best to write the page not thinking of SEO at all. Then go back and have a look to see what you have written.
That’s really it for Google on page. Good titles that are the same as the page heading.
Google and Links
In 2004 you could simply get thousands of links to your site with your keywords in the link from other sites to yours and you would get an instant #1 position.
Now of course Google has seen this and makes it harder. No one really knows what has changed, but here are some tips to keep on the right track.
- Build links slowly - don’t get 6,000 links to your site at once.
- Get links to pages other than your home page
- Get links from related websites
- Get links from government and educational sites (.gov, .edu)
- Mix the text in the link into your site up. Having all links with the same text will raise a red flag
- Don’t buy “sitewide” links
Patience is key with SEO. Why would a new site bump an existing “authority” site. You may need to wait one year before anything happens in Google - but the rewards are massive.
