15922227 SEO A Guide to Top Google Rankings

(1)

A Guide to Top Google Rankings

www.writum.com

ABSTRACT

(2)

L

ET

’

S

TART

F

ROM THE

B

EGINNING

What is Google?

I’m sure you have heard the word ‘Google’ already and you may be using it to find information from the Internet. Google is the best search engine on the Internet, which continuously enhances the quality of services they provide.

If you perform a simple search for a keyword or a phrase, Google will give you thousands to millions of results based on how many web articles, websites and other resources are available related to the word or the phrase that you looked for.

Everyday, there are millions of people looking for information in Google. If you want your business or company to be found by millions of people for potential business opportunities, Google is the best tool to go with.

Why is it important to be on the first page?

Imagine the following scenario;

You simply want to find the best, but free e-card website available on the Internet. You will simply go to Google and type the phrase ‘best free e-cards’ and press enter. Google will give you about 92,000,000 results (as of the time this article is written) ordered by the relevance. The first page usually contains about 10 results that are considered the most relevant to the phrase searched for.

What will you do now? Will you be starting from somewhere in the middle of the results or will you click on the first result given on the first page? Obviously, it will be the first or the second result in the first page.

This is how a normal user behaves. If he/she searches for something in Google, he/she will be most likely to settle with information available on the first page.

Have you ever heard of ‘heat maps’? Heat maps are generated to identify the areas of a web page that users mostly look at. Sophisticated cameras are used in order to generate this map, to track the eye movement of users. Following is a heat map generated for a Google search result page.

(4)

The red area indicates what

2. Only about 60% of the users have looked at the third and forth results.

3. Users rarely navigate to the lower part of the results page located below the page fold.

If you want to make your business visible to millions of Internet users everyday, then your website should be listed within the first five results of the Google search page! Period.

W

HY

I

S

G

OOGLE THE BEST

S

EARCH

E

NGINE OF

C

HOICE

?

(5)

First of all, the results given by Google are the most accurate. Just as an experiment, you can simply run a search in Google and any other search engine of your choice. Simply compare the results and you will be amazed. Google always gives you the most relevant results for your keyword or key phrase.

How does Google give results so accurately? The well known secret is Google’s search engine algorithm. It is the most sophisticated algorithm used in sorting and ranking search results. I will not attempt to explain what the Google algorithm is because it is a domain of its own.

Next, it is hard to fool and trick Google into ranking you. This simply means that you cannot easily be ranked at the top by spending money. Since Google does not compromised the search results for financial gains, users are always given the best results determined by rankings, alone.

W

HAT

’

S IN

I

T FOR

G

OOGLE

?

Have you ever wondered what’s in it for Google while they give their search service for free? I’m sure no one will run a business for charity purpose.

Google runs many initiatives that they have launched to run behind the curtains of the search engine. The main revenue generation is done by millions of search engine users who visit the search engine everyday. Google has initiatives such as Adwords and Pay-per-click for business advertising. I’m sure you have noted Google ads in the results pages and in many websites.

H

OW

I

T

U

SED

T

O

W

ORK

Since Google ranking is one of the major factors that attract potential customers to businesses, various businesses and individuals tried to trick the Google ranking algorithm using many techniques.

Hiding keywords and Meta tags was one of the famous methods used by these parties to obtain higher rankings. Keywords and Meta tags are two main parameters used in the Google algorithm when generating the page rank. The more relevant keywords and Meta tags you have in your web page, the more likely you are to get higher rankings. Using this scenario, some people tried to stuff web pages with keywords and Meta tags.

(6)

Since this looks unnatural to users, the keywords and Meta tags were hidden making it

You have seen many SEO companies guaranteeing number one ranking for your business. In search engine rankings, you cannot guarantee to become number one. If someone makes such claims, then watch out for possible rip-off.

Search engines do change their algorithm and parameters time-to-time. You can optimise your website for the algorithm and parameters that is valid for today. But what will happen tomorrow when the search engine changes its parameter priority or the algorithm? You will have to start all over again!

People who guarantee to take you to the number one position do not own the search engine. Therefore, you cannot trust those words at any cost. So what you should do is, without trying to tweak your website everyday to match search engine requirements, try to optimise your website to add value to visitors. That is what is counted by the search engine algorithm.

2. Once you are at the top, you can be there permanently

As I have already mentioned, search engines may change the way they rank web sites from time-to-time. Although you are at the top at one point, you will suddenly loose your position after some change.

In addition to that, there are other competitors who compete for the same position where you are right now. If they constantly add value to their website, they may get a higher rank, pulling you down in the ranking list.

Therefore, you cannot secure a permanent position in search engine results. To be at the top, you will have to constantly improve and monitor your website.

(7)

A ranking is given to your website. So, it is your website that needs to go through changes to achieve higher rankings in Google. Some SEO companies incorrectly confirm that you can get to a higher ranking by link-building and through other external activities (off-page optimisations).

If you want to achieve a good rank in Google, your website will have to be changed and optimised!

4. SEO leads are not quality as traditional leads

There is no quality difference in the leads you get from SEO and from the traditional way. Both types of leads (or visitors) to your website look at the same content; Therefore, there is no difference felt by these leads (or visitors) at the end of the day. The reality is that SEO leads are among the most effective leads that can be gained by a company.

If you try to trick the search engine, but does not actually offer quality services, as per your website optimisation, you will end up gaining leads but your leads will not become your customers when they find that you don’t offer what you appear to offer. Therefore, you should enhance your services while investing on SEO.

5. Sub domains can boost your rankings

Of course sub domains can help to increase your ranking, but it cannot automatically boost your ranking. You will have to constantly monitor and optimise your primary domain as it contains almost all your important content.

K

EYWORD

R

ESEARCH

In the month of August 2008, there have been 11.7 billion searches performed online. For sure, 11.7 billion keywords have been used to retrieve information from the Internet for that month. At present, the Internet population should have grown more than that.

The right keywords are the magnets for your website to attract correct type of potential customers. If you have the right keywords in your website, people who are looking for the same keywords will easily find you.

If you are looking for the right keywords, there are many ways to get them. First of all, you can come up with keywords that you think are the best. Although you think they are the best, the reality may be far different. In order to find real keywords, you will have to use live data that illustrate the real user behaviours.

(8)

There are many websites include Google’s own keyword research tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) that can help you to find proper keywords. These tools contain live data and advanced algorithms to predict the correct keywords. You can either enter a description of your business or the URL of your website to get the tool to easily predict the appropriate keywords.

Simply, Google for the keyword ‘keyword research’ and you will find plenty of tools. Isn’t it ironic?

T

HE

D

IFFERENCE BETWEEN

P

AY

P

ER

C

LICK AND

SEO

You may have noticed that there are three sections in a Google search results page as indicated below.

The sections highlighted in orange colour are the pay-per-click advertisements and the section highlighted in blue is the normal search results (organic results).

(9)

H

OW

M

ANY

F

ACTORS DOES

G

OOGLE

R

ANK

U

PON

?

There are many factors that are accounted for when Google’s algorithm decides your website’s ranking. Here is a list of some of the most important factors;

• Keyword usage in header, body, and other places of the web page • Quality and consistency of navigation links (internal and outgoing) • Top level domain name extension, hyphens in the URL, and URL length • Web page file size

• Freshness of the pages and frequency of content update • The size of the website (number of pages)

• Website age

• Age of website Vs age of the files and content • The quality and quantity of incoming (inbound) links

• The number and the quality of the directories where the website is listed • The site map

• Page traffic

• Bookmarks by users and frequency in which they are added and removed • Domain registration time (calculated using domain expiration date)

• Server location

(10)

T

HE

M

OST

I

MPORTANT

F

ACTORS FOR

R

ANKING

Out of all the factors that affect your website ranking, there are a couple of factors that really matter.

When it comes to on-page optimisations (optimisations done in your website), the keywords play the key role. As we have already discussed, if you can employ the right keywords for your business, you can get a top rank in Google results.

When it comes to off-page optimisations (optimisations that take place outside of your website), link-building plays a major role.

Link-building is the process of creating incoming links to one’s own website. These links can come to your website from blogs, article directories, website directories, newsletters, etc. When you have more links and when they come from sources with good Google ranks, you automatically get a higher rank for your website.

L

OCAL

B

USINESS

R

ESULTS

Have you ever noted that sometimes when you search Google, you are given results with a map? If you click the pins of the map, you will be taken to a bigger Google map where it lists the local businesses related to your search keyword. In addition to that, you will get a list of business names, website URL, and their contact numbers in the Google search result page.

(11)

If you want to have your business correctly listed in Local Business Results, check to see if the pin points at your correct address. If not, simply find the relevant pin in Google maps and move it to the correct location. In addition to that, you can include your logo and other relevant details. Once you are done, Google will validate your claim to ensure that you are the rightful owner of the business.

T

HE

B

EST

A

PPROACH TO

T

OP

R

ANKINGS

If you are keen in getting top rankings to your website, you will have to follow a structured and a methodological approach. Trying to do everything suggested in Internet forums or claimed by SEO companies will be a waste of money and time.

There are four elements in the process of approaching the best Google rankings.

Good Website Optimisation

As we have already discussed, good website optimisation is the place to start. This process will make the website search engine friendly while adding a lot of value to website visitors.

Good Inbound Links

Link-building is what gives quality incoming links to your website. This directly increases your search engine rank. Apart from that, more web pages will have reference to your website, generating more Internet traffic.

After performing the above three steps, it is then time to monitor the search engine page rank constantly. It takes some time for the website to go up in rankings. Watch out for the competitors and how their ranks change overtime. If you feel like you are not catching up as fast as you anticipated, then go through the same cycle of optimisations again to fine tune your end.

(12)

H

OW

L

ONG

D

OES

I

T

AKE

T

O

R

ANK

This is one of the most popular questions asked by website and business owners who are yet to go through SEO.

If the search results are uncompetitive, then you will be able to get a top rank within even a month’s time. But if it is otherwise, then it will take longer than that, based on many other factors.

If your website is brand new, then you have a disadvantage over the older competitors. If the competitors are older than you in numbers of years, then it will take at least one year for you to get on top rankings unless competitors are bad in marketing and link-building.

If you find the best keywords at once, then the time it takes for you to reach the top will be less. Trying with multiple keywords and finding the best keywords a little later down the journey will only delay your progress. But in most of cases, the latter scenario has been the incorrect, but the commonly used approach.

If you have started link-building with an older website, then you can aggressively build inbound links without getting penalised by Google. This will rapidly boost your Google rank as well. If the site is relatively new, then your link-building exercise should be methodological and consistent. In the latter case, the website owner will have to wait more time than the former case to get to the top.

15922227 SEO A Guide to Top Google Rankings

A Guide to Top Google Rankings

www.writum.com

ABSTRACT

Table of Contents

L

’

S

F

B

W

I

G

S

E

C

?

W

’

I

G

?

H

I

U

T

W

K

R

T

D

P

P

C

SEO

H

M

F

G

R

U

?

T

M

I

F

R

L

B

R

T

B

A

T

R

H

L

D

I

T

T

R