Google is the world’s most popular search engine. Shortly after its creation, Google’s popularity skyrocketed and it soon became
the dominant search engine for finding information on the internet. This
is why, if you own a website, you want it to be high in the Google
ratings.
Google is constantly changing and evolving so you need to keep up
with the changes. Their recent changes, called the Panda Update, caused
many sites’ rankings to drop significantly. Google’s mission is to
provide the highest quality information for each search done and in
doing this, many sites get lost in the endless pages of search results.
To get your website increased ranking there are many things you can
do and many things you should not do. I have tried to list some of the
more effective things you should do and a couple things you should not
do for better placement in Google.
1. Limit Your Advertising – If you have a hodgepodge
or cluttering of advertising on your site, this can decrease your
ranking. Google considers excess advertising to be a sign of a
low-quality spam site. And remember, Google’s goal is to provide the
highest quality sites at the top of the search results.
2. Google Toolbar – The Google Toolbar is an
important tool to have because of all the features that will help you
improve your ranking. The Google toolbar can help you monitor your page
rank, help you find sites to link to and help you find which sites are
linked to you. You can also keep tabs on how your site is doing with
targeted keywords. Get it for free at Google.com.
3. Relevant and Quality Content – One of the most
important things to do for better SEO is to provide quality content with
relevant keywords. Quality is always more effective than quantity so
don’t plaster a ton of low-quality articles on your site just to have
content. Make sure the articles you choose are relevant to your site and
provide helpful information. If you have some of the same articles as
another site, the most relevant quality site will be higher in the
rankings so the duplicate content itself, will not lower your rankings.
Also, be sure to add fresh new content on a regular basis.
4. Google+1 Button – By joining Google Plus and
adding a Google+1 button to your site, you can help lift your site’s
rankings. One of the things Google looks at the most is your site’s
level of importance and relevancy. The more plus ones you can get, the
more importance it will give your site, thus causing Google to increase
your ranking in the search results pages. This will also get your site
more exposure resulting in more visits as well.
5. Become a Blogger – If you haven’t already done
so, you need to add a blog to your business website. Blogging is a
highly efficient way to raise your ranking in Google because a blog does
two things. First, it can add many pages of keyword-rich, relevant,
quality content to your site which will be noticed by Google. The more
quality pages indexed, the more chances you have to be on page one. And
secondly, a blog can increase the amount of quality inbound links to
your site.
6. Relevant Inbound Links – Quality inbound links
are a great way to add relevance and importance to your site. Guest
posting on high quality blogs is one of the best ways to accomplish this
task. Commenting on existing blog comments works well also. Always use
keyword rich posts with appropriate sites and use relevant keywords for
your links. Google does not value links from article banks as much as
they used to so choosing a few quality blogs is better than submitting
to countless article sites.
7. Social Media – As with many facets of internet
marketing, social media plays a big part in SEO. Be active on your
social sites. Do not let them go stale. Engage in conversations, post
new info regularly and involve your visitors.
8. Keyword Research – Keywords play an important
part in SEO, but using the wrong keywords can do more harm than good. Be
sure to research keywords to find what search phrases people are using
to find your site’s info. Google offers a keyword tool called Google
Keyword Tool. This free tool will give you a list of keywords and tell
you how often they are used and their competition.
9. Hidden Text – Hidden text is text displayed on
your site but invisible to your visitors. A common way of doing this is
to set the font color the same as the background color. The reason for
doing this is to add a large number of keywords for the search engines
but not make your content seem redundant to your visitors. Do not do
this. Google considers this manipulation and it could get your site
penalized.
10. Bad Linking – Reciprocal linking, inbound links,
and outgoing links can all be good if you follow the proper procedure.
Do not link with any and all sites. Be very selective and only link with
sites that are relevant to your site and contain quality content. Stay
away from FFA (Free For All) or link farm sites. Check your links
regularly to make sure they are not broken. Broken links will catch the
attention of Google and other search engines. Linking to poor quality
sites or spam sites is also something you do not want to do. Years ago
quantity might have gotten you a boost but now it is all about quality
links to relevant sites, NOT quantity.
Obtaining a high Google ranking is the goal of every webmaster. It
can be done, but you need to be consistent, persistent and keep abreast
of Google’s ever evolving search methods.
Source: SPN
