Many of our clients share with us that they want to get their website on page one of Google, but they need help. Google page rank is not a super easy question to answer. That is where my team comes in. We are here to assist your small business in setting up your website correctly with meta tags, site maps, and images that boost your site.

How do the Internet and Search Engines Work?

1. Let’s start with what is the internet? As Google and the internet are not the same.

According to Britannica online the “Internet, a system architecture that has revolutionized communications and methods of commerce by allowing various computer networks around the world to interconnect. Sometimes referred to as a “network of networks,” the Internet emerged in the United States in the 1970s but did not become visible to the general public until the early 1990s. By 2020, approximately 4.5 billion people, or more than half of the world’s population, were estimated to have access to the Internet.” For more information on the internet click here.

2. What is a search engine.

According to Wikipedia: “A search engine is a software system that is designed to carry out web searches (Internet searches), which means to search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a line of results, often referred to as search engine results pages (SERPs) The information may be a mix of links to web pages, images, videos, infographics, articles, research papers, and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in databases or open directories. Unlike web directories, which are maintained only by human editors, search engines also maintain real-time information by running an algorithm on a web crawler. Internet content that is not capable of being searched by a web search engine is generally described as the deep web.” Read more here.

3. How are the internet and search engines linked?

One important distinction must be made. search engines are  NOT the Internet. It is possible for your website to live on the internet and not be seen by Google or other Search Engines. These search engines are constantly looking at your website and looking for keyword matches for what people are searching for. Essentially, the way search engines like Google display websites is this: Google has automated computer systems searching the web 24/7 that randomly visit websites all over the Internet, they then take snapshots of each page, and index them away in a massive database. As part of taking a snapshot of each web page, these systems read every word and other content on a web page (like photos, videos, audio files, etc) in order to determine the specific subject of the page. Search engines like Google use this bank of collected data to determine which web pages to show, and in what order, for a particular keyword search. In other words, Google’s computer algorithms dynamically determine which web page on the Internet is the most relevant for a specific keyword or key phrase and displays it first. It then displays the second most relevant page, and so on. The resulting list of web pages is known as a Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Google search works in essentially three stages:

• Crawling: Google searches the web with automated programs called crawlers, looking for pages that are new or updated. Google stores those page addresses (or page URLs) in a big list to look at later. We find pages by many different methods, but the main method is following links from pages that we already know about.
• Indexing: Google visits the pages that it has learned about by crawling, and tries to analyze what each page is about. Google analyzes the content, images, and video files on the page, trying to understand what the page is about. This information is stored in the Google index, a huge database that is stored on many computers.
• Serving search results: When a user performs a Google search, Google tries to determine the highest quality results. The “best” results have many factors, including things such as the user’s location, language, device (desktop or phone), and previous queries. For example, searching for “bicycle repair shops” would show different answers to a user in Paris than it would to a user in Hong Kong. Google doesn’t accept payment to rank pages higher, and ranking is done algorithmically. Read more from about Google here.

Learn How Google’s Search Engine Works

I am a visual learner so this video from the developers at Google was super helpful for me.

What is a Search Engine Results Page?

A SERP can be made up of several sections:

• The top section may consist of paid text ads that relate to the keyword used to conduct the search
• If Google thinks the user is looking for a local business nearby, it will add a section below the paid ads called the Local Map Pack
• The main section in the middle consists of an organic (non-paid) listing of web pages that Google found that are relevant to the keyword or keyphrase used to conduct the search

Example Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

 

How Do I Get My Site On Google?

1. You will need to make sure your website has been indexed by Google. To find out if it is, type site:yourdomain.com into the Google search box, replacing yourdomain.com with your actual domain name. If you see a listing of your website’s pages, then Google has already indexed your site and will continue to visit it occasionally to check for updates. If your website is not listed, submit it here: http://www.google.com/addurl. It may take 1 or 2 weeks for Google to visit and fully index your website.
2. Google will only display web pages that are relevant to the keyword or keyphrase being searched. The first step is to make sure your web page’s text is related to the keyword in question. If it’s not, chances are Google won’t show it.
3. Just because your website does not show up on the first page, doesn’t mean it is not showing up at all. Go to the bottom of the results page and click “Next” for page 2 and so on. Your website may be on page tw0, page 100, or somewhere in between.

How Do I Get My Website To Show On First Page Of Google Search Results?

Ah! You’ve asked the million-dollar question. An entire industry has been built to answer this question and millions of dollars are spent each year to accomplish this! My first question for you is, “How much money do you have?” Just kidding, but seriously, the good news is there are two main ways to get your website to show up on the first page of Google:

1. You can pay to be on the first page of Google and it doesn’t have to be a lot of money. This is called Google Ads.
2. You can get your website to rank “organically” without having to pay for ads.

Google Ads

The quickest and easiest way to get on page 1 of Google for a particular keyword is to pay for an advertisement. You sign up with Google, choose the keywords you would like to target, then “bid” (yes, like an auction) on how much you would like to pay every time your ad is clicked on. This is called “pay-per-click”. The higher you bid per click, the higher your ad will appear at the top of the page, all other things being equal.

You can also set a daily budget so that when your budget is met, Google will not show your ad any more that day so it won’t be clicked on and you won’t be charged. For most industries, this is a cheap and easy way to show up on Google’s first page.

For other industries (like lawyers, for example), it can be very expensive. Some keywords cost up to $100 per click or more!

Consider Hiring a Google Ads Pro

Be careful with Google Ads. They make it very easy to sign up and start showing ads on their platform (Bing has a very similar platform). But if you don’t know what you are doing, you can waste a lot of money with Google Ads. Considering the fact that I happen to be a professional who is certified by Google in AdWords campaign creation, management, and optimization, I suggest you leave it up to a pro to create and manage your Google Ads campaigns.

If the professional or agency you hire knows what they are doing, they will more than pay for themselves when it comes to return on investment. For example, if your pro or agency charges you a fee of $1,500/mo to manage and optimize your AdWords campaigns, and they are doing things right, you should get much more than a $1,500/mo benefit from having hired them.

There are literally hundreds of different settings and features you can add or tweak for anyone’s Google Ads campaign. If you don’t get them all correct, you could waste or lose out on a lot of money each month. Hire a pro with proven results if you have the budget. If you don’t have the budget to hire a pro to manage your Google Ads campaigns, I recommend staying away from paid search advertising.

Organic Google SEO

The other way to get on the first page of Google and other search engines is the organic, or natural, method. These are the main results that show up below the ads or local map section on search engine results pages (see graphic above).

These results cannot be achieved by paying money to Google – they are achieved with careful and long-term optimization of many factors that Google uses when ranking relevancy. The practice of optimizing your web presence so that it shows up organically on Google is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

What is Search Engine Optimization?

According to Wikipedia, “Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic (known as “natural” or “organic” results) rather than direct traffic or paid traffic. Unpaid traffic may originate from different kinds of searches, including image search, video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, the computer-programmed algorithms that dictate search engine behavior, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines, and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. SEO is performed because a website will receive more visitors from a search engine when websites rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP). These visitors can then potentially be converted into customers.” Read more here. 

What Influences Google’s Page Rank?

• Quality and Length of Your Page Content: Your website’s pages should be full of unique and useful information that will benefit your ideal customer or client. The longer the better, as long as it is high quality. Strive to help your target audience by creating quality content that they will want to consume (like this blog!).
• Quality and Number of Inbound Links: If other sites are linking to yours, especially big important sites that have content relating to yours, then Google will rank your site higher. Third-party links to your website provide a “thumbs up” or vote of confidence that signals to Google that your content might be worth pushing higher up the SERP. What vendors, organizations, charities, and partners do you work with that you can create content for?
• Mobile-Friendly Website: The majority of people are now using mobile phones to search for information on the web. Are your website pages mobile-friendly? Your site should be optimized for mobile devices and easy to navigate so users on any device can find what they need quickly and easily.
• Page Speed: Your web pages should load fast on all devices. Slow-loading web pages could negatively affect your ranking on Google. Nobody likes to wait several seconds for any website to load.
• Keywords in Page Content: Obviously, if the keywords you are targeting actually appear on your site in the text and titles of the pages, you will rank better for those keywords. Don’t “keyword stuff”. That practice is outdated and will only hurt you now. Write your content for humans, but do keep Google in mind. Don’t use too many keywords. When in doubt, keep it natural sounding.
• Authority of Domain Name: The longer you’ve owned the domain, the better. The more pages of quality content you have on your domain name, the better. Also, include keywords in your domain name if you can (although Google says this does not directly impact your rankings, it could help influence a user to click on your website vs a competitor’s).
• Secure Pages: Your web pages should load via HTTPS so they are secure. Google, and regular humans, like to see secure pages, even if you’re not processing credit cards or obtaining personal information. In their Chrome browser, Google is now labeling all pages that load with an SSL as Not Secure. Don’t be one of these naughty sites…get an SSL installed by your web hosting company so that all your pages load securely.
• URL Structure: Pretty URLs are better. If your page URLs are human-readable, that’s a very good thing.

Easy Ways To Improve Your Google Ranking

• Google My Business: Claim and optimize your Google My Business listing, especially if you are a business that serves only your local community (like a bakery or plumber). Then, get as many positive reviews as you can. This will greatly increase your chances of showing up in the Local Map section above the first organic listing. This can be huge if you do it correctly!
• Start a Blog: One of the single best things you can do to rank highly on Google is to start a blog and post articles regularly. If you’re not sure what to write about, think about the top 5 questions your customers ask you. Then write a thorough answer to each question – one blog post per question. Notice the title of this blog post?
• Get a Few Quality Links: Partner with a non-profit in your local community and do a contest or giveaway. Maybe the local paper will pick up on it and give you some free PR (and a link to your website). Join your local Chamber of Commerce or BNI and get a listing on their website. Offer to write a guest article for the local paper or neighborhood magazine. They will often include a link to your website in your bio at the end of the article.
• Create Citations: What is a citation you ask? A citation is a listing of your business on a local directory site. Go to sites like Yelp, Foursquare, YP.com, Angie’s List, etc, and make sure your business listing shows up there and that the information is accurate. This helps create a robust link profile for your domain name and will send signals to Google that the information they find on your site can be trusted because it is found on other sites around the web.

Your Website Is Never Done

Additionally, just because you rank well for one keyword or key phrase, does not mean you will rank well for a similar keyword and keyphrase. And remember that Google is constantly updating their ranking algorithms so today’s rankings may not equal tomorrow’s rankings. Expect to see your site move up and down in the rankings on a daily or weekly basis – it may even drop from the rankings altogether. This is why SEO should always be ongoing. Remember, your competitors are likely following the same protocols you are. They are likely optimizing their web presence using the same methods you are using. Keep blogging and getting links. Improve the content you already have on your website. A lot of diligence and patience will prove to be worth it when you get that coveted spot at the top of Google’s first page. Depending on your business, it could literally be worth millions of dollars in revenue. Something that has value will never come easy.

Additional Resources to Aid Your Marketing Journey

• The Ultimate Guide to Building a Strong Service-Based Brand
• The Power of Storytelling in Marketing Your Service-Based Business
• SEO Best Practices for Service-Based Businesses: Improve Search Rankings and Increase Organic Traffic
• Top 10 Common Digital Marketing Mistakes Service-Based Businesses Make and How to Avoid Them
• How to Measure and Analyze Your Digital Marketing Performance
• The A-Z Guide to Branding and Digital Marketing for Service-Based Businesses