When you type a request into your search engine, you will usually see a long list of relevant, and sometimes not so relevant, results. Suppose there are a variety of relevant results that match your request, have you ever thought about how your search engine decides who shows up first? When you first send a request, Google uses its fully automated systems to scan the web for relevant results based on how helpful it thinks that content will be as well as the nature of the request, and the user’s settings and location. All you have to do is build a great website!
You’re probably wondering if there might be a way to push your website closer to the front of the line and closer to your potential customers. Worry not, search engine optimization is a strategy website developers use to help a website rank as high as possible on the search results page.
The first step in optimizing your website to make sure it shows on the search results page is to follow Google’s search essentials guideline. If you need more help with SEO and don’t know where to start, Virid offers eCommerce consulting services and ongoing support paired with an award winning eCommerce platform to meet all of your needs increase eCommerce sales in the process.
Technical Requirements
There are only a few technical things you need to do to make sure your site will show on a Google search results page. Most sites pass the technical requirements without even realizing it.
Google has an index of active pages that it pulls from to provide search results and it can only add pages that are publicly accessible. “Googlebot” is the name of the algorithm they use to sweep the internet for websites to add to the index and it can’t add a website that has it blocked. Googlebot also won’t add a website that is password protected. Google will also only add pages to their index that work properly and serve an HTTP 200 (success) status code. You can use Google’s URL inspection tool to check the status code for your site.
Lastly, your site simply has to contain content that can be indexed by Googlebot. The text on your page has to be a file type supported by Google, which is most common file types, and the content shouldn’t violate any of Google’s spam policies.
Spam Policies
Your site will do well if you follow Google’s spam policies, otherwise it may be omitted from search results all together. Here is a list of behaviors to avoid if you want to rank higher in Google’s search results:
Cloaking, Doorway Abuse, Expired Domain Abuse, Hacked Content, Hidden Content, Keyword Stuffing, Link Spam, Automated Traffic, Malware, Misleading Functionality, Scaled Content Abuse, Scraping, Site Reputation Abuse, Redirects, Thin Affiliation, User-Generated Spam, among others. More information is available on Google’s search central website.
Basic Best Practices
These are a few core practices straight from the Google Search Central website to help you make sure your website is discoverable on the search results page.
- Create helpful, reliable, people-first content.
- Use words that people would use to look for your content, and place those words in prominent locations on the page, such as the title and main heading of a page, and other descriptive locations such as alt text and link text.
- Make your links crawlable so that Google can find other pages on your site via the links on your page.
- Tell people about your site. Be active in communities where you can tell like-minded people about your services and products that you mention on your site.
- If you have other content, such as images, videos, structured data, and JavaScript, make sure you’re following those specific best practices so that we can understand those parts of your page too.
- Enhance how your site appears on Google Search by enabling features that make sense for your site.
- If you have content that shouldn’t be found in search results or you want to opt out entirely, use the appropriate method for controlling how your content appears in Google Search.
To find out more about how to improve your ranking on the search results page based on the type of content on your website, the Google Search Central website has everything you need to know about Google search engine optimization and can help you to better understand how your site will appear.
Now that we’ve learned more about the basics of SEO, let’s get into some of the more advanced strategies developers will use to manipulate how their website will rank.
Mobile Optimization
Googlebot prioritizes mobile websites over desktop when adding to their index. This has become more so as people tend to do most of their browsing on mobile devices. When designing your website, make sure it is as mobile-friendly as possible as Google will likely be indexing your mobile site rather than the full version.
Loading Speed
Especially since your site may be indexed from the mobile version, it is important to make sure your site responds as fast as possible. The target response time is under 3 seconds. Google has tools to test your site’s response time, if your site is running too slow, there are a variety of factors that could be impacting speed such as poorly written code or visual content that is too large.
Keywords
As mentioned before, it violates Google’s policies to stuff too many keywords into your site just for the sake of manipulating your site’s appearance on search results pages. However, it is imperative that you include content in your website that is specific and descriptive based on what you imagine someone may type into a search engine to find your site. This will result in higher conversions as you are more likely to be connected with users that find your website useful.
Keep it Simple
It’s important to keep your website clean, organized, and easy to use. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s not just for the experience of your users, it’s also to make it easier for search engines to index your website so it can appear in search results.
Substantial Content
All of your content should add value to the user’s journey on your site. Google ranks websites higher that have substantial, high-value content that answers a question or provides detail about what products or services you offer. It’s important to keep it simple, yet relevant and descriptive to your users.
Title Tags
Title tags refer to headlines that appear on search results pages. They should be descriptive enough that they provide all of the information a potential user will need to know what you offer. Title tags will appear on web browser tabs and social media when content is shared. Consider how the title tag will complement the meta description that goes into more detail below the headline as well.
Alt Tags
Alt tags serve to identify what an image is for screen readers and search engines as they aren’t capable of deciphering images. Make alt tags as specific as possible to provide context to search engines and make your website more accessible.
If you’re still wondering how to make your website as noticeable as it can be, there are many different tools that can help. Google offers a multitude of tools to understand SEO and as the majority of internet traffic comes from Google, this may be your best option. Their analytics platform can help you understand your users’ activity and how to improve your appearance on Google’s search results page. There are many other tools out there to help you understand SEO and how it can help your business.
If you’re looking for inspiration, feeling overwhelmed, or wondering what’s next for the future of your website, Virid can help. Our team of eCommerce experts offer eCommerce consulting services and ongoing maintenance and support to make sure your website is optimized to increase eCommerce sales. Schedule a consultation today to learn about our award winning eCommerce platform and discover your website’s true potential.
