Everyone’s Question: How Can I Rank on Google?

The Topic of Search Engine Optimization (or SEO)

Okay, so once you have your website designed and developed by Web Design Just For You, most of you ask, how can I get high search rankings on Google?

We offer SEO services (beyond the basic web design SEO elements) on a per month fee basis as most SEO companies do, but for those who do not want to or cannot afford to pay the fees, and have the time to do it themselves, we are providing the following information.

Some web design and SEO companies do not like to reveal their “trade secrets,” but we feel that the more our clients know about it, and if they want to spend their time doing it, the better it is for us.  We always want all our clients to succeed as a business, first and foremost.

Search algorithms are kept secret, so the following is based on industry standards and accepted beliefs.  At Web Design Just For You, we read constantly in an attempt to keep up on the ever changing information regarding SEO.

SEO Elements for a Website

Information exchange is the most important factor and purpose of the internet.  That’s why search engine robots reward good content.

1.       CONTENT IS KING!  Write informative content.

2.      Keywords in Your Domain Name.

Using keywords in your domain is not necessary, but it certainly helps.  Search engines differentiate the words in your domain name and treat those words as keywords.  Hyphens are treated as if they were spaces.

3.       Keywords in the html code of your website.

Title tags, meta tags, header tags, and descriptions should contain keywords.  Your web designer should know where to put your keywords so that search engines will find them.

4.      Website Organization and Navigation.

Search engines need to know how to find all the pages in your website, otherwise, they will not be indexed.  There are several ways to provide your website pages to a search engine.  If you use plain text links to all your pages, the search engines will easily find your pages, although text links are not as “fancy”, do not allow drop down menu items, and are not as visually pleasing as javascript menus.  If you use javascript menus, search engine cannot read them, so you must provide a different way for them to see where the rest of your pages are.  A sitemap, placed in the root directory, or a table of contents will do the trick.

5.      Google, Bing (Yahoo), and online directories.

Free or paid for submissions to online directories will create what the industry calls a “backlink.”  Not all directories will accept your submission, and might even require that a human person reviews your information before linking to you.  The theory is that the more backlinks you have, the better your rankings will be.  More backlinks imply that your content is being shared because it is of interest to the public, although the page rank of the website linking to your website plays a significant part to the value of your backlink.

6.      Google Places and Yellow Pages.

Google Places and the Yellow Pages Free Directory have high page ranks, and the websites that are on their directories benefit from this.  Even if your website is not ranking on the first page, sometimes, Google Places and the Yellow Pages will put a link to your website from the first page of the search results.

7.      Press Release and Online Articles

When a press release or article is published online, credit is given to you and a link is placed on the article.  This is also a backlink and will help your search ranking.  Other types of backlinks can come from you blogging and form commenting on other websites.  Putting a video on youtube.com which links to your site is another good way of getting a good backlink.  Premium links come from websites that rank very well themselves.

8.       SEO software tools.

SEO software is available for purchase to identify your competition, what SEO backlinks they have, how they rank for certain keywords, and to track your own rankings.  This information can help you improve your own SEO.

9.       Give it time.

Due to the enormous number of websites, it will take time to see results.  A brand new website might take months before it even begins to show up in Google’s top 100.  However, patience and persistence does pay off.  Keep at it and your website page rank will climb!

Web Design Just For You offers SEO because many clients are already busy building their business and have no time to focus on SEO.  Call to discuss your particular business situation and get a quote, (209) 622-0654.

Web Design Just For You serving nationwide cities with offices in Pleasanton and Modesto, CA.