In this tutorial we will discuss why some websites come up higher than others in the search engines.

Search Engines

Search engines like Google and Bing are the table of contents of the internet, helping you to find the content that is most relevant to the terms, called keywords, you enter into them.

When a user does a search, they will see a list of pages relating to the keywords they have entered. For any given topic, there are likely many matches. Most people only look at the first one or two pages of results, so it’s important that you rank well for the terms you are targeting.

Setting Up Your Website

Keyword Research

As a marketer, it is important to consider what terms potential visitors may search for and incorporate those keywords throughout your copy. When doing so, it is often better to avoid generic terms. For example, a specific term like “wood floor installation” will likely have less competition then a generic term like “flooring.”

You can use Google’s keyword tool to help with keyword selection.

Meta Information

The search engines are smart and will look at the content of your site, but sometimes we want to emphasis what our pages are about. We can do this by using META information. This information is contained in the header section of a page.

The title tag is what the search engines will display as the link to your website. It is always a good idea to load this with two or three of your most relevant keywords from the page. This will help entice searchers to click on your link.

<title>Nautic Studios | Web Design | Web Marketing | Satellite Beach, Florida</title>

The description that appears below the link comes from the description tag.

<meta name="Description" content="Nautic Studios is a web design company. We build dynamic websites that generate excitement and prompt action.">

Note the title and description in our Google listing:

Each page on your site should have a title tag and a description tag. The title for each page should be different, containing keywords relevant to that page.

Images

Search engines only understand text.  They don’t understand what your pictures are about, unless you tell them.  When writing the code for your website, you can add the alternate text attribute to the img tag. This will let the search engines know what your image is about.

<img src="get-in-touch.jpg" alt="Get in touch" />

Information Drives Traffic

The search engines don’t want to waste your time by showing you content that is irrelevant. They need a way to determine which pages, related to a topic, are the most popular. They do this by looking at how many other websites around the internet are linking to it. If a lot of people are linking to it, it must be of value. So, every time someone shares your link with their friends on Facebook, Tweets it on twitter, posts it in a forum, it helps your website.

Search engines also consider how popular the site linking to your website is. This affects how much weight the inbound link from that site is given when determining your site’s rank. It would be far more valuable for CNN to link to your website then it would be for your local newspaper, because CNN is a far bigger operation with many articles others have linked to and interacted with.

Websites get found, not because they have pretty graphics or clean code, but instead, because they have great content that is worth finding. Often, we focus so much on promoting ourselves that we forget what visitors really want. They want to learn how to solve a problem, increase their knowledge in an area, or be entertained.

The search engines understand what visitors want and they look for signs of quality content. They often do this by looking at how many people share your content, by looking for links from other websites. However, they don’t stop there. In many cases, they will look at the importance of those websites that are referring traffic to you. For example, if CNN links to a page it must be far more important than if I link to it in this blog. Search engines, like Google, know that CNN has a huge collection of great content and that many people visit it on a regular basis.

The search engines, like people, also want to see that your content is fresh. That article you wrote two years ago many longer be relevant. And, even if it is, your visitors won’t return unless they expect new content to explore.  So, you need to post new content regularly.

Even better, everything you post is more content that can be indexed by the search engines and which your visitors can link to and share. For this reason, a blog is often a great way to increase the exposure of your site. In fact, according to a recent study by HubSpot, websites with a blog get on average 55% more visitors.

And, if your content is good, there is also a better chance that your visitors will share it with their friends on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and bookmark it on social sharing sites like StumbleUpon and Delicious.

While it is import to add new content to your site regularly, it must be fresh. Simply copying content from other sites won’t impress the search engines. They know what’s out there. They want to see that you are adding something new to the conversation. That is why I discourage clients from buying pre-written articles from companies that sell the same content to multiple people.

Bottom line, most modern search engines understand what visitors want and try to show them only the most relevant pages. For your site to gain momentum, it needs great content, posted regularly, that will be of interest to someone other than you. How does your site measure up?