Can Google Find Your Website?

Your website can be the epitome of design success. It can be beautifully crafted, design-oriented, and easy to navigate. While all these things are great to make a successful website that people will look at, it doesn’t matter much if no one can find you. Even with good visual appeal, if Google can’t “find you,” then your prospective clients won’t be able to either. You’ve spent a lot of time building your business and website, so gaining relevant website traffic is crucial to having that work pay off. Here’s how you can get your website higher up in Google using SEO to your advantage. 

Register Your Website With Google

Don’t worry, this process isn’t as painful as registering your car with the DMV. You’ll register your website through Google’s Search Console tool. This tool is completely free and grouped with other tools to help businesses improve their websites and get noticed by Google. Through this tool, you can find out what Google knows about your site and then improve your website’s performance results. (Because who doesn’t want to be on the first page?) 

Getting Started

The first step is simple, create a Google Search Console account. The beauty of Google is that all of its tools are connected. This means if you already have a Google account, you simply need to press “start now” on the Google Search Console page to begin the process. If you don’t have a Google account yet, this process will set you up with your own account for use even outside of the Google Search Console tool.

Next, add your website to the Google Search Console tool. On the left-hand side of the page, you’ll find a “search property” feature, click “add property” at the bottom on this list. Here, add the URL from your website. Super easy, right?

Then, you’ll need to verify that you own your website. There are many ways to do this, however, the easiest is to verify through your Google Analytics account. If you don’t have this already, get on it! This will help you track your progress and fluctuation of views for your website.

Lastly, repeat the process over again to add on all the variations of your website. You can do this by adding a .XML Sitemap to the “root” directory. This will allow Google to see all variations of your website in an easy process for you. Google Search Console is a super easy method that allows your website to be verified by Google. 

Usage

Having this tool allows you to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site to have it better align with Google’s search results. While Google Analytics focuses specifically on how your viewership and numbers are increasing or decreasing on your site, Google Search Console helps with overall Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and optimizing your site to be placed accordingly in Google. Remember, having a big presence through Google means more people will click on your site, resulting in your numbers on Google Analytics going up. 

SEO Optimized Backlinks

What are Backlinks?

Backlinks are a key element in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and are created when a site adds a link to your website on their blog, page, Facebook, and Twitter, etc.  This can push you up in Google and get more recognition for your website. This is because it’s being talked about. When looking at Google, think of the first page like the “cool kids’ table” at school. Everyone wants to sit there, but it can only hold so many people in so many seats. To move up in ranking, you have to be known and talked about. 

Generating Backlinks

Social Media Profiles

Backlinks tell Google that other people know about your website and are talking about it. Backlinks can be created in various ways. One of the easiest is including a link to your website through your social media profiles. Market your brand wherever you can, even on your personal profiles. 

Guest Writing

Also, get your website’s link on other articles. Offer to write a guest post for a blog or website that’s within your niche. Don’t worry about if this opportunity is paid or not, the work you do now will pay off in the long-run. In these guest posts, you can hyperlink to your website to add credibility to your name. This will lead more people to click on your link and see you, thus having Google recognize your site as well. 

Blogging

You can create your own blog outside of your website, even if you’re not a writer. This allows you to have a ton of backlinks to your website and maybe keep your customers more up to date on progress your company is making. Backlinks are an excellent way to improve your visibility and reach a greater audience through Google. 

Pay Attention to Keywords

SEO Keyword Importance

If you know anything about SEO, you’ve probably heard the term “keywords.” Without prior knowledge of how keywords can help your business in moving up in the Google rankings, the term can sound frivolous and like overused jargon. However, knowing how to use keywords can actually greatly increase your reach on the internet, and most importantly on the Google search page.

According to a study by Chitika, 95% of people only look at the first page of Google search results. That means that if you don’t have the proper keywords and use other techniques to help get your page to the top, you could miss out on a ton of organic traffic. 

What are Keywords?

Keywords describe what your website is about. They’re the repeated words that Google notices and latches onto during a search. Google will optimize your page in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) according to the terms, or keywords, you use. Much of technology is abstract in nature, but picture Google like an ant colony. The worker ants scan the internet finding keywords. They then place those websites on the first page, second page, etc. according to various factors like popularity and the category of your keyword. 

This means you want to be somewhere in the middle in terms of popularity. If you’re the only person with the topic and keywords you choose, there’s a reason for that. It’s because ultimately, there’s not an audience for it or those keywords may be part of a niche you discovered with low or no competition! Alternatively, you don’t want to pick too basic of keywords that are already saturated online. Back to our ant metaphor, you don’t want to be shoved into a category with a million other searches. No one will be able to find you in the mix!

Keyword Tips for Search Engine Optimization

We could go on for days about what keywords to use. For now, here are a few tips to find the right low competition keywords for your site.

1. Be descriptive. 

The more you describe your product or service in detail, the more it will stand out from the crowd. For instance, say you’re selling water bottles. Describe your water bottle in 3-4 words. Such as “reusable colorful water bottles” this will bring you up in the search results in comparison to if you just said “water bottle”.

2. Use a keyword generator.

To see how competitive your keywords are with the rest of the internet’s searches, use a keyword generator. This will give you a good idea of what keywords will give you the most traffic and best competitive edge.

3. Look at related keywords. 

Type in your keywords into Google, then scroll down to the bottom and see what other searches are similar to yours. Ultimately, use your online resources and try to have fun with this process.

Don’t Ignore your Meta Tags 

Meta Tag Importance

Meta tags are descriptions of your website that can’t be seen by viewers on your website, but can be seen in the coding of your website. Why is this important? Because it decides if your website is moved up or down in Google’s search pages. Foundational to your site's SEO, meta tag usage can make-or-break your website. 

Must Have Meta Tags

If you can’t do coding yourself, hire a web designer for this part and follow up to make sure they’re properly doing the meta tags justice. Here are a few meta tags to make sure to use:

1. Title meta tag 

This should differ across the various pages of your website. Keeping each title for each page of your website is important to keeping the site unique and explanatory for each page. This encompasses what every page is about.

2. Meta descriptions 

This doesn’t actually affect your ranking in Google, but instead is the short description viewers will read before clicking on your website. Keep it interesting and accurate to what your site is about. Also, keep it under 160 characters. 

3. Viewport meta tag 

This tag is specifically important for your mobile devices. We’ll talk more about why optimizing your website for mobile use is important later in this book.

4. If your website is using WordPress: 

Get the Yoast SEO Plugin, there is a free version that will allow you to optimize your site incredibly well! 

5. Alt tags for images 

Add “Alt Tags” on your images, basically these tags allow blind people to “see” the image and if the website visitor has a “reader” then they will be able to “hover” over the image and the “Alt Tag” will be read out loud to them. And, the main point of optimizing these tags is that Google will give your website higher rankings. 

Pay-Per-Click

What is PPC?

Pay-per-click is a tricky subject when it comes to making your site rank your website on the top of Google. Pay-per-click is where you pay a fee each time your ad is clicked from the SERP page. This is the opposite of the organic SEO optimized search results we’ve been aiming for with the previous tips. Because this varies from the organic traffic, it can cause your site to lose traction quicker. 

PPC Risks

PPC (pay-per-click) may give your site top listing results in a quick manner, but they may not work for long and could be very expensive. People can be drawn in by your ads, but not stick around for your content. We don’t want this to happen, so use PPC wisely.