Getting the search engine giant to show you some attention can improve your site's success.
It’s Valentine’s Day and love is in the air! But if you’re looking to have a highly trafficked website, then the main love you need to be seeking is from Google. By far the most popular search engine, Google favoring your site in search rankings can bring in more potential customers or leads to your business. From stepping up your SEO game to making your site more accessibility-friendly, here are the five ways to get Google to love your website:
Stay Honest
Google has caught on to practically every trick in the book. Even if you’re implementing a tactic that the search engine hasn’t noticed yet, it’s highly likely that it will eventually find out. If Google discovers that you’ve been using shady practices to gain traffic, your site will be penalized from search results. These are the tactics we recommend avoiding:
- Keyword stuffing by making a large amount of your site’s content simply keywords. If Google catches this on your site, it will likely be marked as spam. The best practice is to keep keywords at one or two percent per page or blog post.
- One of the first popular ways to trick Google was hiding white text on white backgrounds. But Google’s algorithm is privy to this strategy, which will result in your site being flagged and lowered in search rankings.
- Links from your content to other websites or blogs, and vice versa, can help boost traffic. But the tactic of paying for or trading links isn’t allowed. The best practice here would be instead to focus on creating high-quality content that people will naturally want to link to.
Remember Accessibility
Making your website accessible is sometimes an afterthought, though it shouldn’t be. A large amount of online users need accessible websites, plus making your site more accessible can improve your search results on Google. Some strategies to implement include adding alt text to photographs, featuring a “Skip Menu” button for screen readers and placing subtitles on videos.
Optimize Content
There are a few ways to optimize your website for SEO. First of all, you can hire an SEO professional or take the DIY route. If you’re looking to do it yourself, we recommend researching and inserting keywords into your content, making pages or blog posts the ideal length (around 500 words) and linking to other places within your website. These are just the basics of SEO, so for a more in-depth look visit the SEO section of our Training Center.
Keep Things Up-To-Date
Updating your website semi-regularly will let Google know that you’re still active online. This doesn’t mean redo your entire site every few months, but instead make small changes seasonally for the best benefit. This can include blogging regularly, keeping your events calendar up-to-date and changing out slider photos on your homepage.
Be Aware of Bounce Rate
While search engines get talked about a lot in the web community, at the end of the day you’re still making your website for people. If you jump through hoops to please Google at the expense of making your site user-friendly, then you’ve really missed the whole point. Make your site easy to navigate, create content that’s worth reading and set up calls to action for visitors. The more users who visit your site, then immediately leave when they can’t find what they want, will increase your bounce rate. The higher your bounce rate is, the lower you’ll be on Google search results.
If you’re looking to gain more insight into Google, reach out to our team at Infomedia. We’ll set you up with a free, no-fuss consultation. We can discuss your site’s current SEO strategy, see what your analytics look like and decide what your best strategies are moving forward.
