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Your Website and Google – Four Practices to Improve Your Site’s Ranking

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In the never-ending battle for Internet supremacy, there are several tactics at your disposal for boosting your website’s performance in the Google search rankings. While Google offers no guarantees, these techniques can help your site ascend in the rankings, potentially climbing all the way to the top. Four of the top methods include:

1. Using keyword-rich content.

Keywords and keyword phrases indicate to Google what your site is all about. Strategically placing them throughout your content will make it more likely that your site will rank higher in the Google search results when users search using those keywords or phrases. However, be certain to use them organically. If you overdo it and stuff keywords into the content where they do not naturally fit, it may ultimately lead to your site being penalized (or even banned) by Google.

2. Updating your site regularly with new content.

Google tends to reward sites that are active rather than stale. The longer your website goes between updates, the more likely it is that it will sink in the rankings. Furthermore, when you do update your site, make sure you are using fresh, original content. Duplicate, near-duplicate, or spun content from elsewhere on the web will not perform as well as you would hope. It could, in fact, work against you.

You have options when it comes to acquiring original content. First, you could create it yourself. If you are skilled at writing high quality, error-free content, this may be the way to go. However, if you have neither the ability nor the time to do it yourself, consider hiring a freelance writer to prepare unique content for you. Perhaps you can find a writer on your own or hire one through an online community of freelance writers.

3. Improving the structure of your website.

Your site’s structure includes several important facets. The design of each page should be consistent, attractive, and easy to peruse, the primary content should be easy to find by your visitors, and the content should be readable rather than lost in an array of fonts, graphics, and stylistic elements.

Additionally, your users should find it easy to navigate throughout your website. Make your links readily available to visitors and Googlebots alike, use real and relevant words in your page titles (rather than numbers or randomly generated codes), and—if your site is extensive—consider using breadcrumb lists.

4. Adding an XML Sitemap.

An XML Sitemap helps Googlebots (as well as the robots from other search engines) locate the various pages on your website. Google provides access to a Sitemap Generator Script to help you create your Sitemap, which you can then submit to Google through Google’s Webmaster Tools.

An XML Sitemap (meant for robots) differs from an HTML-based site map, which is intended to help visitors navigate your site. As an HTML site map can also add value to your site, you might consider adding both to your site.

The world of search engine optimization (SEO) is continually evolving, so to achieve your maximum potential you ought to stay current on the most current practices. These four techniques, though, have consistently proven to be important factors in every update of Google’s search engine algorithm. Adhering to them can lay the groundwork for the success of your website.

 

Qualities of a Well Designed Website

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In order for a website to have a significant value, it has to have a few things. The website’s overall value will be determined  by what is on it. However, there is one thing that must be figured out before you even begin creating the website, and that is its purpose.

A Thought out Purpose

The purpose of a website will vary greatly based upon what you want out of it and what it is for. A good way to find out some basics about this is just by asking yourself who or what this website is for. Is the website for a business? Is it for a library? Is it an entertainment website? You have to shape the website accordingly based on who or what it is for. Sticking with an above example, if the website is for a business, it would be a good idea to have contact information and hours of operation on there as well as what the business actually does. Thinking of the website’s purpose is the foundation for its success.

What Kind of Information Does It Have?

The actual information on the website is the second most important part of a website’s value. The information should always be up to date and complete. You want to make sure that it is either sourced or at the very least verifiable.

An Intelligent Design

A website’s design is important because it is in actuality the website.  The design means that it’s what the user sees on their screen. The design is how they navigate the website. They will search for a piece of information on the website through the design. Every physical interaction that user has with the website will occur via the website’s design. You want a design that isn’t difficult to understand and is easy to manage. Make your design suitable for the purpose of your website. A website for a business wouldn’t have the same design as a website made for entertainment. The best design for a website is very situational. However, a simple design is often a great choice.

Full Potential

If you truly want your website to have a significant value, you’re going to want to make sure that it is doing everything that it is capable of. The easiest way to evaluate this is by asking questions about your website. Think about what users will be coming to your website for. How can you improve their experience when they’re using your website?

Knowing the Limitations

At the same time, websites can sometimes fall victim to trying to do too many things without enough resources behind it. For example, you wouldn’t want to turn a simple informative website on one topic into an encyclopedia.

The underlying theme here is that you want to make sure that you know what you want out of your website. The best way to maximize what is talked about here is by going back through your website on your own after its creation and testing it.

How to Optimize Your WordPress Blog for Google

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Keeping a WordPress blog has become a major hobby for some, but for others, it is also a way to make an extra stream of income. Although only a very small percentage of these people make anything near a full-time income from blogging alone, there are ways in which you can gradually build up your revenue from pay-per-click advertising and affiliate programs placed on your blog.

It is all about traffic. More visitors generally means more money and a blog which receives tens of thousands of visits per day has the potential to make a few thousand dollars per month. Before you can hope to succeed though, you should start optimizing your blog for Google, since this is where most people start when they arrive at your site for the first time.

Make Your Content SEO-Friendly

SEO, or search engine optimization can be difficult, particularly because it is a constantly changing area. A few years ago, Internet marketers talked on and on about things like keyword density, article marketing and completely artificial forms of link building.

Today, with Google’s improved algorithm changes, the lower-quality websites which place a higher emphasis on SEO than quality content have disappeared towards the end of the search results. On the other hand, higher-quality sites have moved towards the front page. Google constantly strives to deliver better quality content in its results and this is exactly why most of the content mills, producing thousands upon thousands of low-quality articles, have simply disappeared in recent years.

In spite of all this, SEO is still important and, done correctly, it can greatly help your site. The first step is to choose the right key phrases. These should be phrases which do not have a lot of competition, yet still receive a decent number of searches per month. You can start by using the free Google AdWords Keyword Tool for your research. Do not rely on it entirely, however. It is also important to actually search for your preferred key phrases on Google Search to see what you’re really up against regarding competition.

Your chosen key phrases should be subtly included in the content on your website. Your site should have some primary key phrases and one or two separate ones for each blog post where appropriate.

 Use SEO Plug-ins and Suitable Themes

WordPress is a highly versatile blogging platform and this is what makes it by far the most popular one out there. You can greatly extend the functionality of your blog through the use of some of the many hundreds of plug-ins available for it. Of these plug-ins, there are a great many which help you to make your blog SEO-friendly. Among the most popular is the All-in-One SEO Pack. This plug-in takes care of a lot of the SEO work for you and allows you to add a Meta title and description and your keywords. Another highly popular SEO plugin is WordPress SEO by Yoast.

As any WordPress blog owner knows, there are literally hundreds of themes available for the platform. Often customizable, these themes allow you to give your website a unique and personalized touch. However, many of them are not very SEO-friendly and will give the search engine crawlers quite a hard time when it comes to analysing and cataloguing your site. Simpler themes tend to be more SEO-friendly, but there are many great SEO-friendly themes out there to choose from. Some of the best, however, can cost a modest fee.

Share Your Content

Another major factor in what makes Google decide which sites to display on the first pages of the search results is social networking. If others enjoy a page on your blog and share it with their friends, then you get a plus point as far as Google is concerned. Whereas in the earlier days of Internet marketing, it was all about link building by placing links to your site on low quality websites, it is now about real people enjoying your content and telling their friends about it.

The first step is to make your content sharable. There are many plug-ins for WordPress which allow you to easily add social networking buttons automatically to every post on your blog. This allows your viewers to share content they like on their favourite social networking site with just one click. It is thanks to this highly effective form of Internet marketing that great content goes viral, receiving countless hits per day.

It is also a good idea to have accounts on major social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook where you can post new updates and links to new articles. This also provides you with a platform where you can interact with your visitors and find out more about them and what they like about your blog. It all counts as valuable market research and towards getting your site better recognized by Google.

Do You Make These Ten Website Mistakes?

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You’ve created a website that reflects your product, your service, or your personality. You’ve handpicked the colors, the design, and the content. It’s perfect for you, and you are proud of it. So, why does it lag behind the competition?

There are many mistakes that can cost you both traffic and search engine ranking. Check these ten common faux pas to determine whether your website needs a makeover:

Number One: Your Website is too Slow: The more Flash applications, videos, and high-resolution images you use, the longer your pages will take to load. While your regular visitors might be willing to wait around for a while, most first-timers will run off to a faster-loading website. A sizable number of visitors access the Internet from a slow connection, so you’re automatically preventing them from viewing your pages. Use speed-sucking elements sparingly so that you don’t compromise your website’s accessibility

Number Two: No mobile version: A huge pool of traffic comes from people who are on the go, connecting to the Internet through their smartphones. To them, your regular website looks like a bulky, hard-to-navigate page that takes ages to load. Make their life easier –and your website better– by creating a mobile version

Number Three: Awkward Color Combinations: When it comes to web design, some colors just don’t match. It’s not because they don’t look good together; it’s just that they make your content practically illegible. For example, red and black may look great on a piece of clothing, but trying to read a red typeface against a black background is a completely different story.

Number Four Over-optimization: If you’ve done everything you can to please search engines but totally forgot about your readers, you’ve got the wrong mindset. Your visitors don’t care for huge chunks of white-on-white text, or sentences that look like endless strings of keywords. They just want to find the information they’re looking for. Use SEO wisely

Number Five Low-Quality Content: There is no bigger asset for a website than original, useful, and engaging content. You’ve heard it a million times before, so you’d better believe it. Low-quality content can not only ruin your search engine rankings, but also drive your readers away for good. Create content that your visitors will love to read –and share.

Number Six Too Cluttered: If it takes your visitors more than a few seconds to find what they’re looking for, your website is probably on the wrong track. Search bars, drop-down menus and other organizational tools can be extremely useful, but you really need to get rid of the junk first. A site that consists of heaps and heaps of unnecessary information, ads, links, and other irrelevant content can be a huge turn-off for your visitors. Keep it neat and user-friendly.

Number Seven Too Much Marketing Hype: Refrain from making unrealistic claims on your site, and avoid using hype words like “unique”, “awesome”, or “the best”. Unless you have tangible proof that your product or service actually is the best on the market, don’t toot your own horn. Instead, let the customers be your judge.

Number Eight Too much advertising: There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make some money out of your website. However, flooding your website with pop-ups, pop-unders, in-text links, banners, apps, and all kinds of advertising material can be seizure-inducing to your visitors. Don’t get greedy; keep the amount of ads you display per page reasonable, and make sure they don’t interfere with your content.

Number Nine: No clear call to action: If you want your readers to sign up for your newsletter, make a donation, or buy your products, you’ll have to be clear about it. Don’t expect them to guess, or figure things out on their own. Your call to action is the direction you give to your visitors as to what they should do next –and it works like a charm!

Number Ten: Mandatory Registration: Few things are more annoying in the online world than a website that asks you to give up your personal information before you can even take a peek at its content. The moment you ask a visitor to enter his email address, he knows that he will be bombarded with promotional material. Instead, let him see what your site is about, and kindly invite him to sign up

If you find that your website suffers from more than a couple of these mistakes, you’re probably in dire need of a revamp. Make your site as functional and user-friendly as possible, and the traffic will follow.