Google is one of the most popular Web search engines at this time. But getting your site indexed is just one step to getting promot...
Google is one of the most popular Web search engines at
this time. But getting your site indexed is just one step to getting promoted
by Google. You need to improve your ranking in order to show up higher in the
Google search results so that people actually find your site.
While there are no "magic bullets" to improving your Google rankings, there are ways to help make sure that your site looks okay to the Googlebot. Combine this with some luck and some cross linking and you'll get higher ranking in Google.
While there are no "magic bullets" to improving your Google rankings, there are ways to help make sure that your site looks okay to the Googlebot. Combine this with some luck and some cross linking and you'll get higher ranking in Google.
Tips to Higher Rank
- Your site should have a clear hierarchy. This means that headings should follow in order from h1 to h2 and so on.
- Have a strong introductory paragraph on your site. This should not only explain what your site is about to new readers but also contain the keywords that you want to focus on.
- All pages on your site should have text links to them, not just graphics. And it helps if those text links say something other than "click here".
- Offer your readers a site map of your site. But make sure that it has less than 100 links per page.
- Make sure your page has a descriptive title tag. I did a search for "Untitled" on Google and came up with more than 11 million hits. Remember that it is possible to show only titles in Google search results, and 11 million is a hard number to rank high among.
- For important content, use text, not images. The Googlebot can't read images.
- Validate your HTML and keep your links current.
- Always write your pages for your readers, not for Google.
- Request reciprocal links from other Web page writers.
The key to getting high ranking in Google is to get lots of people to link to you. The more people who link to you and the more "important" they are in the Googlebot world, the higher you will rank for keywords. There are some things you should never do, as Google might ban your domain completely from their records.
The Don'ts
- Don't try to hide text or links, such as by writing text the same color as the background color or within comment tags. Text needs to be visible to your readers for the Googlebot to consider it.
- Don't cloak your site. This is a technique where devious people send Google and other search engine bots to a different page than their typical readers go to.
- Don't fill your pages with irrelevant words. Having words multiple times on a page won't improve your ranking, and if they don't make sense in the context of the page, you'll annoy your readers as well as hurt your ranking.
- Don't use automated programs to query Google. This impacts their bandwidth with no improvement of service to their users. It's also against their terms and conditions.
- Don't be deliberately misleading or deceptive. From the Google site: "Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed..." If you think you've found a loophole in Google, it's a bad idea to use it.
