Having a good relationship with Google can sometimes make or break a website. If you're looking for more online leads, need a boost to your ecommerce sales or just want to increase your site's traffic, these tips for improving your Google ranking can help.
Three-fourths of the population use Google as their go-to search engine, meaning that over a billion people are hopping on to quickly answer their questions, find local recommendations or research topics. Because of this, it’s a good idea to keep a healthy relationship with Google. Having your site high in search engine results can do wonders for your business, but being penalized from them entirely can be a major blow to traffic. Read below to see the six things Infomedia recommends as best practices for pleasing Google.
Don’t Be Tricky
Google is smart enough to know most of the tricks commonly used to dupe it. And even if you find one that Google hasn’t caught onto yet, it’s almost guaranteed that it will find out eventually and penalize your website for it. Here are some practices to avoid:
- Keyword stuffing is when a large amount of your site’s copy is keywords. Google’s algorithm often reads this as spam, so a best practice is to keep your keyword density at one or two percent. That means for a 300-word blog post, you’d spread three keywords throughout the text.
- Hiding white text on white backgrounds might seem clever, but Google is already in-the-know with this move. Implementing this will get you penalized, negatively impact your search ranking.
- Having links to your content from other websites or blogs can help your Google ranking, but paying for or trading links is frowned upon. Instead, focus on creating quality content that people will want to link to.
Think about the User
Create your website with human users in mind, not search engines. If a visitor arrives on your site and finds it hard to navigate, lacking in helpful information or just plain boring, they’ll immediately leave. This increases your “bounce rate” which Google interprets into their rankings. Making a site that keeps users engaged and on-site, instead of writing solely for an algorithm, will do wonders for traffic.
Optimize, Optimize, Optimize
Optimizing your website using search engine optimization (SEO) best practices will help Google “read” it better, and is likely to help with traffic and your search engine ranking. Find out what Infomedia recommends by reading up on it more in our guide to making your site SEO-friendly.
Make It Accessible
Website accessibility refers to the practice of removing obstacles on websites that might exclude people with disabilities. Making your website accessible includes designing it to work with screen readers for those with visual impairment, adding subtitles for individuals with hearing impairment and more.
Delete Duplicates
Having multiple pages on the same subject will only confuse Google. If you have several landing pages or even blog posts with nearly identical content, that can be seen as an attempt at tricking the search engine. If you’re worried your website might have a few duplicate pages floating around, that can easily be found out by installing the Duplicate Page plugin.
Keep Things Fresh
Consistently adding new content to your website lets Google know you’re active online and that your business is still around. These changes can include publishing blog posts, updating calendar pages, adding to event pages and more. The key to this is keeping things consistent. Don’t not post for six months, then suddenly publish three blogs in a single week. Pacing yourself will give Google consistent updates, along with helping you manage your website easier.
If you need more help getting your website Google ready, reach out to the Infomedia team. We’re happy to do a free website audit for your business and get you on the right track.
