Traffic Educator

How Google Ranks your Website

Chris — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:28:16 +0000

So just how does Google decide the order of search results? I’ll let you in on a little secret:

No one but the programmers at Google really knows.

That’s right, no one knows for sure! What we do know is that there are certain things that effect the rank, and that when we adjust those things, the rank of a website will go up or down. Every website is assigned a score by Google, called PageRank, that Google then uses to list sites. No one is sure what goes into PageRank 100%, but the following information appears to help them decide.

All of the following criteria can be summed up in one word: relevance. The key to getting high rankings in Google is relevance. To rank well in Google, you need to be as relevant to what a searcher is looking for as possible.

So let’s look at 3 things that make up a good chunk of relevance:

1. Content, content, content
The textual content on your website is the number one way Google (and other search engines) know what your site is about. The more on topic content you have the more the search engines have to work with. If, for example, you have a florist website, the more content about flowers you have, the more apparent that you are an authority in flowers. Make sure that you have enough content to really draw people in and understand what you are about.

Another consideration is the freshness of your content. Is it always the same? When was the last time you put up new content? Consider adding new stuff as often as possible. Any industry news you could share? Any tips or tricks you could talk about? The more quality content you can come up with, the more important you will become on the web.

2. Here’s linking to you, kid
Links to your website determine your popularity. Just like high school, the more people you know that talk about you and link to your website, the more popular you appear. The more popular you are, the higher sites like Google will list you. Now think about this, if those people that link to you are popular, then you get an even bigger boost! And if those sites are on the same topic as your site? That’s right! Again, an even bigger boost!

This is why it is important to get people talking. Talk to bloggers, contribute to forums or do some good for the community. The more you get your name out there, the more people will link to you. The more the link love, the higher your rank will become.

3. The older, the wiser
Just open your site yesterday? Chances are it’s going to take a while for your site to become popular enough, or look relevant enough to rank very high. Be patient! Often times people will buy a new domain name and through all kinds of crazy stuff out there. By taking some time, the search engines will be able to better know your site and make sure it ranks in the right place.

Here’s a neat trick though, if you haven’t bought your domain name yet, consider buying one at an auction that’s been around a little longer. These sites may already be getting traffic and might be ranking already. If you already have a domain, don’t worry about it; just be patient!

There are some things you should probably try to avoid, as they may make you look less relevant, and more annoying, and could get you ranked lower, or even thrown out of the search engine playground. Here are three pretty big ones:

1. Leaving your own links where they don’t belong
If you remember the first half of this article, you will remember that links are important; however, random, spammy links are NOT helpful! Don’t go and post things like “Hey Awesome Site! Visit Mine!” on a technology site if your website is for flowers. You need to be a part of the community, you don’t need to offend the community. Before you write your link anywhere, take a step back and ask yourself, “If I was just a visitor here, would I find this link helpful? Or would this link seem out of place?” If it would be out of place, don’t do it!

2. Bogus content
Nothing is more irritating than clicking on a link that looks like it is for something you are looking for and then ending up at a website that only has one page with a little article about it. Let me give you an example:

Let’s say I am looking for information on the timing belt for my car and I search for timing belts on Google. I see a link that says “Everything you have ever wanted to know about timing belts!” so I, of course, click on it. When I get to the site, there is only one paragraph that describes what a timing belt is, and the rest of the site is a flower shop. I’ve been tricked! And my time has been wasted.

Well, the search engines are onto that type of thing, and if you get caught, you could get in trouble (unlisted or ranked poorly).

3. Hiding text
So if Google looks at the text on your website to see what it’s about, but that text needs to be readable for people visiting your site, why not put all kinds of related keywords and phrases on your site in the same color as the background! That way the search engines will be able to see it, but your visitors will not! Brilliant!

No, sorry, it isn’t. This trick will get you in trouble too…the search engines know what color your background is and what color text you are writing in, and if it looks like you are hiding stuff, then you could be in trouble.

So there you have it, 3 things that contribute to your good reputation and 3 things that can tarnish it. Knowing what is in Google’s secret sauce will help you better position your site for higher rankings!

5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Position Today

Chris — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:08:18 +0000

I thought it would be good to get everyone started with 5 easy tasks you can do to start getting yourself noticed. While doing these tasks alone cannot guarantee that you will rank number 1 today, they will set the ground work for larger projects you can work on in the future. Remember, this is just to get your feet wet, so don’t worry too much about being perfect. We will work on perfect later.

1. Check your spelling
One important thing to remember about the search engines is that they go through your site and see what’s there. If you have words spelled wrong, then the search engine is not going to know what it is your site is talking about. Some people may argue that the search engines are smart enough to do some basic spell checking when they are going through your site, but think about it this: if you can’t get the spelling right on your site, do you really look more important than a site that can spell everything correctly?

An easy way to do this is to copy all of the text on a single page of your website and paste it into Microsoft Word or Google Docs or some other word processing application and use the spell checker built into these applications. Then make the changes to the text on your website that you need to make sure the spelling is correct.

Remember, people searching for your site will be typing words into a search box to find your site. If you haven’t spelled those words correctly on your site, then they will not find a match there.

2. Start a blog
A blog is technically a web log, but you might as well think of it as an online journal. This site, for example, is a blog. If your company does not have a blog, then you are missing out. Blogs give you a chance to provide valuable information to your potential customers and visitors. The more information you can provide, the more valuable resource you become. The more valuable you are perceived, the higher you potentially could rank on the web.

To get started without having to install any software on your own, check out one of these two, free, blogging sites:

www.blogger.com
www.wordpress.com

When you are writing articles, make them relevant to the content on your website. If you are selling flowers, talk about caring for roses, how to get that florist smell at home, what flowers are good for what occasion, etc. This is also a great place for you to discuss sales and features of your website.

Make sure that every article you write has some sort of link back to your main website. The idea is to provide information so valuable that the people reading your blog will follow the links to your site.

3. Pick your keywords
This part can be tricky (and will soon be a part of several more posts), but it is important to start right away. Pull out something easy to take notes on (paper, word document, spreadsheet, doesn’t matter) and start writing down every word or phrase that you think it important about your site. Think about what you would use to search in Google to find your site. Using the flower shop site, here are some examples:

online florist
roses
valentine’s gifts
fresh flowers
flower delivery

At this point, it doesn’t matter how vague or generic your list is (we will work on putting together a more comprehensive, targeted list together later); what matters now is that you come up with as many words and phrases as possible that go along with the theme of your website. Spend some time on this, it’s important.

Finished? How many do you have? The goal for this round is 20; if you don’t have 20, go back to brainstorming and come up with some more (check out reference.com if you need some help). Have more than 20? Then pick your 20 most compatible keywords.

Now go through your site and see how many times you can see these keywords show up. Lots of times? Sometimes? Never? If they aren’t in your content, consider adding them. These are the first pass at the words you think are important about your site, if they don’t show up, how will anyone find them?

Tuck these words away for later. They are what you need to focus on from now on, what you will be evaluating yourself against, and what you need to make sure your site content focuses on.

4. Re-write your content
So what happens if your keywords are on your site? Or what happens if you look at your site and see that there are lots of pictures, but not much text? Let’s say you own the online flower shop, do you describe your product “Roses” as just “Roses” or maybe even “Red Roses?” Search engines are looking at the text on your website and eating it all up. If there is nothing there, they have very little to compare user searches against.

Go through the text on your website and make sure the text fits both of the following criteria:

The text is descriptive, contains lots of adjectives, fully describes what you want it to describe
Reads naturally, as if you were reading a book

It’s easy to stuff descriptions full of descriptive words, but make sure it isn’t distracting. You want to please your readers as well as the search engines!

5. Make some friends
This might seem strange, but the web has made it important to make friends in order for people to find you. Start collecting a list of other websites that write about whatever it is that your website is about. For example, Mr. Flower Shop Owner, look for websites dedicated to gardeners, blogs by people who love flowers, romance websites, or anything else that might have an interest in your site. Be careful not to include in this list anyone who might compete with you (but write them down somewhere else, competitors will give us good information in another article).

Once you have this list, reach out and talk to the people who are running these sites. Introduce yourself to the owners and tell them what your site is about. Join any online discussion groups and contribute to the community. Respond to blogs where people have questions or comments about something you know a lot about.

The point of this exercise is to start making a name for yourself; you want to be seen as someone with lots of experience in your field, someone who can be trusted. Once you reach that point, people will start to follow you to your site, will start to write about you, and your popularity in the search engines will rise.

That’s it for today’s list. Try it out and start getting things rolling. If you have any questions about the 5 easy steps, feel free to post them here or use the Contact link above to get in touch with us. And keep checking back for more information on getting your website lots of good, high quality traffic!

Why Traffic Educator

Chris — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:37:34 +0000

So you want your website to rank higher in the search engines. You want more traffic (visitors) to your site. You want to make more money. You want to spend less money.

You take to the web, search google, find blogs and articles, discussion groups and ebooks, all claiming they can help you get there.

The problem is, it’s like they are speaking a foreign language. Your time is valuable, and you don’t have enough of it to try and figure out what all these people are talking about.

If that describes you, then Traffic Educator is the place for you. Here we will look at the tips, tricks and techniques that can help get you seen without bombarding you with terms, phrases and concepts that you may not understand.

We will work to define everything that may be confusing and make it simple enough that anyone can make up a plan to get out there and get noticed.

Now bookmark this page, read through the articles, and get ready to learn!