A lot of people have asked on Nairaland lately about changes in Google and how they can get their websites more visibility, so I decided to throw together a quick little guide to get everyone started.

Ranking well on the search engines ultimately comes down to three things-

1) Your site's structure. Don't skim over the details, tell me EXACTLY what your domain is all about and go into VAST detail. Give the "cliffnotes version" on the main pages and then give internal links for others to find in-depth information that only an expert would have. That's why I tell all of my clients that their website should be 30 core pages minimum...the more you have, the easier it is to rank.

Then talk about all that stuff all over again in weekly blog posts. Just remember, QUALITY is essential, so do not take shortcuts building out your core content...hire a professional writer. People here ask all the time what "quality content" really means, but there's not a secret here...either your page copy is great or it isn't. Just look at your time on site metric- if it's under two minutes, then your content is not where it needs to be and Google is likely penalizing you for it.

2) Build out your social signals both on social and directory sites. Google wants to see you listed in hundreds of places and that information should point straight back to your homepage (not a sales pages). Most of these places will not be counted as backlinks, but it shows that you're serious about doing business and willing to put the time in to build a brand. Once you do steps 1 and 2, then you can get a few solid backlinks within your genre.

Why? Think about it for a moment. Obviously an authority site is not going to point to a squeeze page or a 3-5 page site just one week after it's built, and the search engines will ignore these types of links if they feel unnatural. So establish yourself first and then focus on quality backlinks. Just 5-10 solid links from major players in your industry are more valuable than 10,000 links from random, low-ranking sites...so forget about that old-school, black hat tactic of spamming half of cyberspace. It hurts more than it helps.

3) You must have traffic visiting your site, clicking on multiple pages and interacting with your site's elements. It doesn't have to be massive traffic, mind you, but a good site will be getting visitors from social sites and directories, forums like this one, the search engines and direct visits. This is what's considered natural traffic and it gets all of your pages indexed quickly.

And how do you get that traffic when you're first starting out? This goes back to step one- you have to have content that's worth reading in the first place. If you're only focus is posting solo ads to drive traffic back to you, then you're telling Google that the sale matters more than the person and there's no reason for you to ever rank. Once that's out of the way, then you start sharing blogs on social media, start conversations on industry forums, email potential customers directly and network like mad (in cyberspace and in the real world).

Here's a bonus tip- every time you post something new on your website, go check your ranking at Alexa. Why? Because Google pings Alexa, Twitter and similar sites almost every minute of the day since it makes their job of finding new content easier. So just ping your site through Alexa after each change and Google is able to index your site almost instantly. Of course, sitemaps help as well, so get them installed on day one.

More on our Signature

tutusaint:
A lot of people have asked on Nairaland lately about changes in Google and how they can get their websites more visibility, so I decided to throw together a quick little guide to get everyone started.

Ranking well on the search engines ultimately comes down to three things-

1) Your site's structure. Don't skim over the details, tell me EXACTLY what your domain is all about and go into VAST detail. Give the "cliffnotes version" on the main pages and then give internal links for others to find in-depth information that only an expert would have. That's why I tell all of my clients that their website should be 30 core pages minimum...the more you have, the easier it is to rank.

Then talk about all that stuff all over again in weekly blog posts. Just remember, QUALITY is essential, so do not take shortcuts building out your core content...hire a professional writer. People here ask all the time what "quality content" really means, but there's not a secret here...either your page copy is great or it isn't. Just look at your time on site metric- if it's under two minutes, then your content is not where it needs to be and Google is likely penalizing you for it.

2) Build out your social signals both on social and directory sites. Google wants to see you listed in hundreds of places and that information should point straight back to your homepage (not a sales pages). Most of these places will not be counted as backlinks, but it shows that you're serious about doing business and willing to put the time in to build a brand. Once you do steps 1 and 2, then you can get a few solid backlinks within your genre.

Why? Think about it for a moment. Obviously an authority site is not going to point to a squeeze page or a 3-5 page site just one week after it's built, and the search engines will ignore these types of links if they feel unnatural. So establish yourself first and then focus on quality backlinks. Just 5-10 solid links from major players in your industry are more valuable than 10,000 links from random, low-ranking sites...so forget about that old-school, black hat tactic of spamming half of cyberspace. It hurts more than it helps.

3) You must have traffic visiting your site, clicking on multiple pages and interacting with your site's elements. It doesn't have to be massive traffic, mind you, but a good site will be getting visitors from social sites and directories, forums like this one, the search engines and direct visits. This is what's considered natural traffic and it gets all of your pages indexed quickly.

And how do you get that traffic when you're first starting out? This goes back to step one- you have to have content that's worth reading in the first place. If you're only focus is posting solo ads to drive traffic back to you, then you're telling Google that the sale matters more than the person and there's no reason for you to ever rank. Once that's out of the way, then you start sharing blogs on social media, start conversations on industry forums, email potential customers directly and network like mad (in cyberspace and in the real world).

Here's a bonus tip- every time you post something new on your website, go check your ranking at Alexa. Why? Because Google pings Alexa, Twitter and similar sites almost every minute of the day since it makes their job of finding new content easier. So just ping your site through Alexa after each change and Google is able to index your site almost instantly. Of course, sitemaps help as well, so get them installed on day one.

More on our Signature

How do I ping www.guru9ja.com through Alexa