Helping you to show up in Google, Bing and Yahoo Search Better!

Last month we went over part 1 of 2 of How to Show up in Google Search. We want others to have the same success we have gained and we are sharing some important techniques we have learned from other leaders in the web industry. All of our techniques or ideas described in this article are best practices. When it comes to On-Page SEO such as this, the overall idea is to make your website content as easy as possible to read for search engines and as accurate of an information source as you can. The easier to read and more accurate you can make your site for the major search engines, the better your website will rank in search.

The idea for this article came from some SEO consulting we were hired to do for a website in Silicon Valley. The site was built by a professional advertising agency, one we do work for from time to time. They brought us in to consult because the site they built for their client was performing poorly in search. We went in and added Google Analytics to see what the base line was and looked at their code. What we found is even though the site looked good in comparison to its local competition and the add agency built what the client asked for, there was no forethought put into the initial website build to help it show up in search. This is a common occurrence for us. We see that business owners ask a website design firm to build a site that looks good, but do not ask for it to show up well in search until much later. What should be built, more often than not, is a site that looks good and shows up in search from the beginning. These are goals we strive for in every website we build.

Steps 7 through 12 – How to Show up in Google Search

The following steps are the last 6 steps that we find are some of most important steps to showing up in search. We want to stress that following these steps will not guarantee you to show up immediately or be number one in Google search, but we feel that these steps, along with the first 6, are the most effective steps that should be done to help you show up better it search.

7. Renaming Images

Renaming images to be more descriptive of what the image is portraying and why it is a part of the site. Doing this allows search engines to identify the image on the website and gives a better description of what it is. For example the images on your homepage should not be named as: image_home_page.jpg A name that would help SEO and also help to describe the image is: Companyservices_CompanyName_CompanyLocation.jpg (ex: LawnMowingServices_JohnsonLawnCare_MinneapolisMN.jpg) In addition to this, implementing the “alt” tags when coding the images into the website can help search engines read what the image is and why it is important to your site. While search engines cannot see the actual image being displayed, they can read the alt description, helping with search placement. An example of this is:

<img src="/images/ LawnMowingServices_JohnsonLawnCare_MinneapolisMN.jpg " alt="Lawn Mowing Services – Johnson Lawn Care – Minneapolis, MN" />

8. Internal and External links

Linking within the website and also externally. Linking externally allows you to become more established as a website. Not only do you become an expert on what your website is about but other sources push traffic to your site, which shows Google and other search engines you are the leader in that subject, helping you to show up in search better. Along with this, linking internally to pages, such as when you explain your services on the home page, or tell the user to take a look at your special offers on the About us page, can help those navigating and helps to prioritize those words. Adding “title” tags to these links can also increase SEO as this helps the search engine understand what that link is about. For example:

<a title="Johnson Lawn Care Services" href="/services.html/">Our Services</a>

9. Meta Descriptions

Along with adding a meta title to each page, each page should also have its own meta description Adding specific descriptions on each page will tell both your users and the search engines what that specific page is about.

10. Google Plus

Along with adding Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools to your websites, creating a Google Plus page will help you show up in specific rankings for your area. This helps Google identify where you are and when someone searches for your services in your area, Google is able to match their search terms with your location based on your Google Plus listing, giving you ranking over those that are not in the immediate area.

11. 404 and Redirects

This step will need to be implemented after you have successfully created a Google Webmaster tools page and let the statistics run for approximately 1 month. This tool can help you identify any pages that your users, or search engines, are finding a 404 Error. This error often indicates that you had a page at that specific address, for instance: /index.html, but it has now moved to another location, for instance: /index2.html, but there was not a redirect set up to automatically send viewers to the new address. Taking care of these 404 errors with some simple redirects can help search engines understand where they are being sent when they are following the structure of your website.

12. Ask the Professionals

If you do not know what the above steps mean, hire the professionals. BNG Design is here to explain these steps and more to you. We will execute these steps on your site so you will show up in search and to help your business grow. At the end of the day, we have the same goals and motivations you do. We want your website to benefit your business just as much as you do. Our livelihood depends upon it and so does yours.

Are you looking for your business to show up in Google search better? Want to update and redesign your website? Contact BNG Design today!

Written By: Ryan Theis & Kimberly Pigeon