Every website owner dreams about finding their website on the first page of Google search results. Unfortunately, no one can guarantee that your web page will be at the top of Google’s organic search results (no even Google).
The Google crawler (be sure to check out the SEO for Growth SEO glossary of terms by the way) is really intelligent, but it can’t outsmart SEO geeks. The good news is that there are certain techniques and methods you can use to consistently please Googlebot – and significantly improve your search engine visibility.
All is fair in love and war, or so the saying goes. So are you ready to win over a search engine bot? Read on and learn how to do it like the pros!
Your site appearance (and layout) matters. It’s better work from a custom website or a top-notch, search engine friendly website from a well known theme provider like TemplateMonster.com. Having a theme or custom design that is professional, mobile friendly and built for conversions is critical. The above mentioned company has 26,000 of templates developed for different CMS platforms and for various business niches from business templates to personal page templates.
How to optimize for Googlebot:
Assuming you have already addressed your website’s content strategy and front end design, it’s time to optimize for Googlebot:
- Your web page will gain rank if more quality, relevant links point to your website. There are many ways to acquire backlinks that are helpful for SEO, such as from major directories, selective guest blog posting, getting booked as a guest on podcast shows, creating and distribution infographics, broken backlink building, and many more. Googlebot loves to crawl links, it’s what it was made for.
- Register your website on Google Webmasters and use Google’s webmaster tool. It allows you track your site’s search performance with Google Search Console, submit SEO data from your website directly to Google, fix SEO issues on your site, and more.
- Do you use social media marketing to the fullest? Do you have active accounts on all popular social networks? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.? You must be active on all social media that suit your business niche better. The point is that very often social networking results come first in Google, even before the official website. And don’t forget to integrate social sharing buttons. Social channels play vital role in leading your webpage content go viral, which can attract more users to your website.
- Create a channel on YouTube with the same corporate details (name/title/slogans). Put some introductory videos there. It won’t take you long, 30 minutes on average. The videos should contain your company description. The logic behind these actions is simple. If Google’s crawler sees that you meet all the above items of this list, that means your site contains some truly valuable information and your page will get boost.
- Well, it’s time to talk about keywords (you knew this was going to be on the list!). You must understand what keywords are required and relevant for your website and use them strategically. You can get keywords ideas from Google AdWords of via other third party services. Be sure to check out volume and competition levels to gain insight on your most valuable keywords. Use Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool to plan your Search Network campaigns, get performance insights, and see keyword ideas.
- Do you have a geographical address listed on your website? You must be sure to register your physical location on Google My Business. This will help your site’s rankings and rating visibility, especially for local SEO. You can check out how this works easily. Just type some famous hotel names on Google for an example. What do you see? You can see its rating and all at the right hand. It’s not complex, just register your physical address on Google.
- Setup Google Analytics and monitor your webpage performance for Page Views, Time Spent, Bounce Rate, etc. Optimize your webpage based on the data provided by Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Test for Page Speed & make sure it loads as fast as you can make it.
- Clients reviews are crucial! You must address bad reviews from dissatisfied customers. There are many services for Reputation Management for managing reviews. In terms of bad reviews, you can you contact those posters (if they are your clients) to address their issues, and you may have a change to turn a bad review in to a good one. Always check out reviews about your company or services by visiting reviews platform like Tripadvisor, Trivago etc. There are also many great ways how to get more Google reviews, which may be the most important online reviews of all.
- Update your website and keep updating it. Don’t just build a website and let it die on the vine. Google crawls for new content constantly and indexes it. Google loves dynamic sites instead of static sites, especially those that keep adding fresh, relevant high quality content.
How to slay Googlebot like an SEO Ninja
- Google likes clean code. You can validate your website’s code through HTML and CSS validator.
- Google likes high quality, well written content. So, proofread all your content before posting it. Grammar mistakes can demote ranking potential.
- Google likes web pages that load fast. So, consider compressing your images and make sure that they don’t slow down your website.
- If you are using jQuery then use CDN version. Why should you use Google’s CDN for jQuery? The answer is obvious – it loads faster this way.
- Never ever leave your page titles blank. It a web page’s front door for the Googlebot crawler will observe.
- Don’t try to cheat and use any duplicate or copyrighted content. You will get caught, it’s a matter of when not if.
- Review your website content thoroughly – and often. It should include some truly informative and user information for user’s, this is Google’s golden rule.
- Do not write long paragraphs. 2 to 4 lines are enough for a per pargraph
- Sentences should not exceed 20 words. Shorter sentences & paragraphs are easier to read. Use Bold, Italic, Bullet Points, Internal Links, Images wherever applicable.
Conclusion
Of course this list is not complete and could go on and on. But you can’t wait that long, can you? You want to get results right now. By following all the above tips, your chances to get on the first Google page should vastly improve. Your website may appear one of the first in search results not immediately but it may take a couple of days for that.
Do you have any comments to this article? Maybe you are ready to share your secret Googlebot & SEO hacks how to improve a website’s Google rankings? Any additional tips are welcome in the comments section.
Source: SEO For Growth