What does it take to get to number one in Google? – its easy!- copy a unique string of words on your site that nobody else has on theirs…paste it in a search… and you’ll probably be top or thereabouts
Thats the end of my post- job done.
If it were only that simple! But thats what most people want after all - to be No1 in Google . . I’m stating the obvious but actually by going through the above simple exercise highlights a few important questions before we even start:
- Is that phrase ever going to be type into a search engine ever again?
- does it describe accurately what we are promoting?
- when users find us what do we want them to do next ?
I’m assuming the answer to the last question is not ‘leave as soon as possible’ although you may be surprised how many do if you look at your home page stats.
You may have a site that is primarily for generating advertising revenue and so you will want to generate maximum through traffic, where ‘success’ will be exiting your site via a ‘revenue juicy’ click through ad.
However if you have an ecommerce site you will want to channel attention to the right pages rather than allow them to leave straight away. People in browsing mode have the attention span akin to a goldfish swimming in Jack Daniels, so plan how you can grab their attention pretty quickly before they exit without getting beyond your home page.
Either way the same formula applies: more traffic=more revenue. So the same general strategy to get them there in the first place should be the same, i.e. choosing that all important search phrase for your pages.
Choosing the most effective search words
Wo we need to construct a search phrase that is not too long and obscure (i.e., its never likely to be typed in a search) and not too short, otherwise the competition will leave you languishing in 10,000th position.
Ideally choose 2 or 3 words particularly relevant to the page’s content on your website. Also if the website address, page name (my-key-phrase.htm), page title and page content all have ‘related’ keywords then bingo! – although its more than likely the web address will not be part of the key phrase.
Note of caution here – Google’s algorithmic nose can sniff out anything contrived, so always be cautious about overloading the page with the key phrase words etc. and start off your optimising by reading your page content first. Check to make sure the content is relevant, focused and high quality.
You can then start to tell the world about it by making it more search engine ’friendly’ by providing the contextual cues (appropriate page title headings, subheadings, image names). I always recommend viewing your page in a text based browser as this is how search engines index pages. ( Lynx is a traditional text based browser although www.textise.net allows you to do the same thing much more quickly)
External links
Google ranks the importance of your site not just by its content but also by the links to it from other sites on the Internet. The more reputable these other sites are the more ‘cred’ they add to your site in Google’s eyes, particularly if they have the key phrase words in the link itself, (e.g. ‘my unique search phrase‘ rather than click here)
Job done? not quite – I’ve saved the best till last.
Do Your Homework
Just before you go key search phrase crazy, you have to bear in mind one minor inconvenience – your supremely crafted key search terms may never be entered in a search – double doh!! And the only way to find this out is to do a quick check to see how often its typed in.
Lots of tools out there to help with this, but Google’s keyword tool is the quickest and easiest. If you’re not sure what is the best phrase try Google’s suggestion tool. The difference between the two is subtle but important- the latter helps you come up with a phrase better matched to your page content. (i.e you may think you have found a great winning phrase that matches your page content perfectly but Google may not agree so best to get it from the horse’s mouth)
That’s certainly enough to get started, but to summarize just a couple of closing thoughts
Your site will get found if:
- the content is worth looking for
- it has a definite market niche
- there is a market for it in the first place!
