How to Improve a Website's Ranking in Google
Search Engine Optimisation Tips for Better Web Page Results
Oct 29, 2009
Most people who have a website would like it to be search engine-friendly, and rank highly in Google for relevant search terms. Search engines consider external factors when ranking websites, such as incoming links from other websites, but they also take into account certain elements of web page design. Here are some ‘on-page’ search engine optimisation techniques to achieve better search engine results.
Make Websites Accessible to Search Engine Spiders
Web pages should be as accessible to search engine spiders (also known as bots) as possible; this helps them to find the entire website’s content. Ways to do this include:
- Including carefully targeted keyword phrases which reflect the website’s content. This targets search engine spiders as well as potential, relevant website visitors. Tools such as Google’s Adwords keyword research tool can help to identify appropriate keywords.
- Not creating important website content solely in Flash, video or image format, as search engine spiders cannot read them. Ensure key information is displayed in text form for spider readability.
- Grouping similar web pages into separate sub-directories (or folders), and making sure the main website navigation reflects this structure. This makes it easier for Google to navigate website content.
- Ensuring the robots.txt file (the file that gives instructions to web bots) does not block search engine spiders from crawling website content.
Optimise Website Content for Search Engines
There are certain places on a web page where search engine spiders pay particular attention to keyword phrases. These include:
- URLs - the domain name, file names, and sub-directories.
- Page Title - this should reflect specifically what the web page is about.
- META Description - this META tag should contain a short, concise description of the web page.
- Links - linked text in the main navigation, breadcrumb trail, and within paragraphs of text.
- Heading Tags - H1 is the most important heading tag and should be similar to the page title. Other less important heading tags include H2-H6.
- Images - ALT tags which describe what an image is about, as well as filenames, for example, mute-swan.jpg.
- Page content - keywords should be sprinkled naturally throughout the text, especially in the first 100 words, which search engines deem to be most important.
What Not to do to Rank Well in Google
There have been cases of people employing underhand tactics to improve website rankings in Google (Black Hat optimisation techniques), which have resulted in them being banned from search engine listings altogether. Google has wised up to techniques such as:
- Stuffing pages with keywords to make websites seem more relevant to search engines than they actually are.
- Hiding text off screen or by writing text in the same colour as the background colour of the page.
- Using keyword-optimised gateway pages to redirect site visitors to other web pages.
- Duplicating content to increase coverage in search engine listings. Search engines have been known to penalise and even blacklist non-original content.
To have a hope of ranking well and avoid being penalised, it is better to stay on the right side of Google’s terms and conditions and employ White Hat on-page search optimisation methods. It is equally important to remember that while web pages must be optimised for search engines, they are also seen by real people looking for useful, readable information.
Resources:
- Manning, M. Boost Your Google Rank Today! .net. 195: 36-41, 2009
- Viney, D. Get to the Top on Google: Search Engine Optimization and Website Promotion Techniques to Get Your Site to the Top of the Search Engine Rankings - and STAY THERE. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2008.
- SiteProNews. “How to Optimize for Google.” (Accessed 29th October 2009)
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