How to be First on Google (Part 1)

What do you use to search the Internet? Chances are you use Google – just like your potential customers. So, if your business is invisible on Google when people search for the product or service you sell, you’re invisible on the Internet.

If you’re not currently ranking highly there are two main elements involved to fix the problem.

1 – What To Do on Your Website

Content:

Google tells us to “create a useful information-rich website”. For most websites, we recommend not less than 50 A4 pages of text on your site.

What could a small printer in Clonakilty possibly write 50 A4 pages of text about? How about a small Yoga centre in the Burren? If you look at BurrenYoga.com, they’ve managed to create over 990 pages of text on their website so it is possible. (And they’re 1st on Google for the phrase “Yoga Burren”)

What could you write about? What are the top 20 questions that your customers ask you? Write them down and then write a page for each answer. Once done, just repeat the process again and again. This is stuff you instinctively know. You just need to write it down. If you hate writing, hire a student with good English (but they’ll need to know your business well)

KeyWords:
A keyword is a 2, 3 or 4 word phrase that someone searches for on Google in order to find what they want. If for example, you sell hand-made crafts, being 1st on Google for “arts and crafts” won’t generate lots of business. What would work is a targeted keyword like “unique Irish gifts”. This is more specific, easier to rank for and consequently, more likely to convert into a sale or enquiry.

Titles:
The single most important you can change on your site to affect your rankings, most business owners have never noticed the “titles” of their webpages. To see your current “titles”, look above the “File, Edit, View” options in Internet Explorer. The text at the very top of the screen is your “title”. The Title for each page should be different, contain 10-12 words and typically be in the format of “Company Name – KeyWord 1, KeyWord 2, KeyWord 3”.

Headings:
Open up today’s Irish Times and what do you see first? A headline, underneath which is typically a smaller headline and then the story. Use the same principles on your website for better rankings.

Every page should have a short heading describing the pages’ content which includes at least one target keyword relevant to the content that someone might feasibly search for. The first webpage heading should be placed in a <H1> html tag. <H2> will then describe the sub-heading.

Site Map:
If you have more than 20-30 webpages, use a sitemap. This is simply one webpage with links to all the other pages on your site. A sitemap is normally linked to from the bottom of very page. It’s just a simple way of telling Google where all your pages are.

Ecommerce / Database / Content Managed Sites:
These types of websites often have the problem of containing a “?” in the webpages’ address. This often causes serious issues for Google so get your developer to remove it.

Continue Reading: How to be First on Google (Part 2)

About The Author
John Ring is the Managing Director of Internet Marketing agency RingJohn.com. The company specialises in helping clients increase sales and leads through their websites.