At Webics, one of our primary services for our clients is Search Engine Optimisation, better known as SEO. At its heart, SEO strategy increases traffic to your website which yields more customers and more sales. But how exactly does this process work? Our Webics team is often asked how good SEO practices are able to achieve an enhanced online presence for your organisation’s website. The answer lies in taking a closer look at how Google (the king of search engines) ranks pages around the web.
What are rankings?
Your rank on Google is determined by hundreds of factors involving complex algorithms known only to Google. While SEO and Internet marketing experts have done an excellent job guessing at these algorithms, the exact ways in which Google ranks are not fully understood.
What we do know is what DOES work.
What goes into boosting your ranking on Google’s search engine?
Use of Relevant Keywords
It’s important to remember that Google ranks individual pages, not websites. So one vital method of boosting those page ranks is to include relevant keywords within the content of each page. A web marketing company like Webics can assist you with keyword research and selecting the best keyword phrases for which to try and rank. These will be seamlessly and appropriately included in your web pages, with the goal of pointing users to the relevant information they are seeking. The general idea is to use terms that potential customers in your area will be using when looking for the types of products or services you provide. As an example, Webics utilises the keyword “Nowra web design” to help Shoalhaven residents locate local web design services via our website.
Quality Content
Once you’ve learned about keywords, it may seem that you could simply fill a page with a search term over and over to build your ranking. However, this is not the case. Google is too smart for this, and this is a highly frowned upon practice known as “keyword stuffing.” Google’s spiders regularly crawl the web as part of their advanced ranking algorithms. These spiders not only recognise relevant keywords, but they also take note of content which is poorly written or designed to try and “trick” them with keyword stuffing or other unsavoury approaches. In fact, Google penalises for low quality content, which means filling your site with meaningless text will not help you, it will hurt you. Lowering your ranking is not your goal, so you should focus on creating the highest quality content for your web pages. And of course, quality content is not only better for your ranking, it is more helpful to your customers and will help your web presence grow in other ways.
Backlinks
Another of the major elements that goes into your Google rank is the number (and credibility) of backlinks, or links on other sites which lead to yours. If you have heaps of links from other websites, this could be helpful to you (although it is no substitute for poor content or lack of SEO keywords), but it may not necessarily boost your ranking. Websites are ranked by credibility, which grows as one website links to another. Sites increase their credibility as other credible websites link to them. This is called page authority. Links from sources such as higher education institutions, government pages, and major businesses have greater credibility. A link from these to your business website is worth a great deal.
The Bad News
Feeling ready to improve your Google ranking? Get in line. Unfortunately, these strategies are not secrets, and businesses just like yours are putting them in practice. Doing all the right things also does not guarantee overnight success or a first page ranking. With effort, patience, and the continued application of SEO expertise, however these methods are proven to work. It simply takes time.
But it also helps to work with a qualified, experienced web marketing company and SEO specialist. Webics has extensive knowledge in these fields. Not only that, but we’re also an official Google Partner, providing us with valuable insights. We’d love to get you started on the process to better Google rankings and increase business success. Get in touch today.
