Every time we receive an email or a phone call from a potential client we record the questions asked. From reviewing our records over the last 12 months, the number one question we received was:
“How can we make our site more Google friendly”
Any seasoned SEO campaigner will tell you that there are many variables involved and the key elements can change over time. I have put together 7 quick tips to make your site more friendly for the Google web crawlers.
Number One
Don’t use flash to develop your entire site, you may as well ask Google to ban your site, some people will argue that Google can crawl flash but why take the risk? Sure your site might have some cool flash feature but its not cool if your site cannot be found!
Number Two
Avoid code clutter. If you do not need a line of code then get rid of it. If you have large JavaScript funtionality in your code then put it in an external .js file and link out to it. Don’t overcrowd the header area of your site with excess Meta details. Use external style sheets and avoid table based layouts. Keep your code simple. This will also allow your pages to load quickly. This also helps usability and PPC quality scores. Try and construct the code so that the content is as close to the starting tag as possible.
Number Three
Google loves content. If you want to make your website Google friendly then place plenty of content into each web page of your site. Aim for at least 100+ words on each page. Try to avoid websites that are predominantly image based. The content tells Google what your site is all about. Place your keywords into the content and you Google will rank you highly in its search results.
Number Four
Choose a domain name that is relevant to your business, for example if you are selling apples a good domain name might be deliciousapples.com or applesforsale.com. Having your primary keyword in your URL can really help your listing. Also, place keywords into your page names and folder names. Try and have simple URLs where possible. URLs with loads of parameters are not loved by Google and should be avoided. They are also an eye sore for users and are harder to remember.
Number Five
Get a professional to write the code for your site, everyone knows someone who can build websites, but if you do invest in code that is well created and W3C compliant then Google and search engines might have problems crawling your site. If they can’t crawl your site then they cannot find the content that they are looking for.
Number Six
When you get your site developed ensure that your developer generates a sitemap, this helps Google and other search engines to find and index your site. You can generate a HTML sitemap that will be placed on your website. You can also create an XML sitemap and submit this directly to the search engine. You submit to Google via Google Webmaster Tools.
Number Seven
Interlink your pages to other important pages in your site, this will help Google find other pages in your site. When Google arrives at your site it crawls through your code. It travels from page to page via links. If you do not have links to a page then Google will not find it. If Google does not find your page you will not rank for the keywords that page targets.
Contact
So there is a short list of tips, I hope you find them useful. If you would like to learn more, contact me at 087 6006529 anytime. If you need an SEO quote then send me your details and I will send you a competitive quote.
