Make Your Website Show On Google

• “I have a website. But when I search for it in Google or Yahoo it never shows up.”
• “I have submitted many time to Google and Yahoo, but it still does not appear in any of them.”

Does that sound familiar to you?

While getting a website is easy, making it appear in the search engines has become a pretty complex job. The good news are that you can make your website rank high in the top search results when you know how to ‘Search Engine Optimize’ it.

Search Engine Optimization of a website consists of two important factors:

1. On-Site optimization
2. Off-Site optimization

In this article we will show you how you can optimize your website yourself by doing ‘On-Site’ optimization.

(Make sure to also read our article about Off-Site optimization as both aspects are vital if you want to rank high in the search engines!)

On-Site Search Engine Optimization

On-Site means everything you can do to the content and HTML code of your website. Here is what you should do:

1. Search for the keywords you want to be found for when someone searches in Google for your products or services
   Find out what do your potential visitors type in the search box in Google to find your products or services. Ideally, select keywords with a high search volume and little competition. To find out how many searches there are every month for a keyword you are trying to target, use the free Google Keyword Tool.
2. If you find that your keyword has to much competition of ‘big players’ which invest thousands of dollars per month in marketing and search engine optimization, try to rather combine a couple of ‘niche keywords’ instead (e.g. target ‘San Diego bathroom remodeling’ and ‘kitchen remodeling San Diego’, instead of ‘San Diego Contractor’). By going after niche keywords keep in mind to select keywords which still have a decent search volume. Combine a couple niche keywords with over 100 searches per month group them in groups of one to three related keywords.
3. Rewrite your website’s content by using the keywords or key phrases you selected. Target about 1 – 3 keywords per page (e.g. have one page about bathroom remodeling and another one about kitchen remodeling). Don’t overdo it! Per 100 words you should not have more than 3 keywords (keyword density). You will get penalized by the search engines for ‘stuffing’ your website with to many keywords! Write your copy for the human who will read your website rather than for the search engine robot.
4. Emphasize the keywords in your copy. Start every page with a headline in < h1 > or < h2 > tags that contain your keyword and use bold and italics to highlight your keywords in your content.
5. Link between your pages, so all of your important content pages can be reached by a link from at least one other page. When the search engines start to crawl your website from the home page, they will so be able to find all your relevant pages and index your whole website. Use keywords as ‘anchor text’ for your link.
   E.g.: … we can help you with <a href=”http://www.mywebsite.com/bathroomremodeling”>bathroom remodeling</a> and <a href=”http://www.mywebsite.com/roomadditions”>room additions</a>.
6. Name your images. Keep in mind that the search engine robots can only read text. They don’t understand your photos and Flash graphics unless you label them. So describe all of your pictures with ‘ALT’ tags using your keywords where appropriate.
7. Make sure that you have the following META tags in the < HEAD > of your HTML code:
   < TITLE >Your Descriptive Website Title Goes Here
   This is what the search engines will show as heading for your website in their search results, so use your keywords wisely! Again: keyword stuffing will hurt your site! You have up to 70 letters including spaces. Don’t say ‘Welcome to ABC Company’, but e.g. rather ‘Kitchen and Bathroom Remodeling in San Diego’.
   
   META NAME=”Description” CONTENT=”Your website’s description goes here in a sentence or two.”>
   This description will be shown in the search engine’s result under the heading for your website. So repeat your most important keyword, but write a helpful sentence which will persuade a searcher to visit your website in order to solve his problem.
   
   <META NAME=”KEYWORDS” CONTENT=”your keywords, go here, separated by a comma” >
   This tag used to be very useful in the beginning of the internet, but as the search engines algorithms are getting more and more sophisticated, it’s of little use these days. You should still have a list of up to 20 keywords or key phrases as it helps the engines understand what your website is about.

Tip: If you are unsure about the correct HTML syntax, you can ‘spy’ on other websites by right-clicking on a it and selecting ‘View Source’ in Internet Explorer. Don’t select too ‘complex’ websites with flashy graphics when you do this or you will be overwhelmed by the coding.

Related posts:

• Make Your Website Show On Google (Off-Site Search Engine Optimization)
• Will My Website Show Up On Google, Yahoo And Bing?
• Freelancer or Web Designer?