Getting A Good Google Listing

Achieving a good Google listing requires knowledge, patience, persistence, authority, and sometimes a little bit of luck. Let me explain...

Users seek out Google because of search relevance. Google attempts to maintain unbiased and relevant search results by constantly updating their search algorithms. Search engine optimizers study the results to gain knowledge of how Google is currently ranking sites.

What does it take to get and maintain a good Google listing?

  • Design a site with relevant content. You may wonder, how does a search engine like Google know if your content is relevant? Well, if users go to your site from google.com and then bounce right back to google.com, that information is known by Google.
  • Optimize the title, description, keywords, and text. If you are not familiar with title tags and meta tags, you need to hire some help or do some research. Note that the search engines do not value the keyword meta tag because in the early days, it was used so much for hidden keywords. However keyword phrases are still important as part of the text, title and header tags.
  • Be sure that the site is designed for easy navigation, not only by users, but also by Google's spider.
  • Obtain incoming links from related websites. The sites should be authoritative and ideally, related to your site's theme. In the early days of Google, link popularity (incoming links) were a major part of the algorithm.  They still are a factor but of less importance today. You may want to consider obtaining listings in The Open Directory and the Yahoo Directory.
  • Establish social signals. In other words, participate appropriately in social media websites such as facebook, twitter, youtube and other similar sites. If your company and website are popular with users, the search engines will pick up this information.
  • If you have a local business, make sure you show up in Google Places and monitor your reviews in sites such as Yelp.
  • Consider adwords when you cannot rank on keywords because of competition. The paid approach may be the only way to get to the top of the page.

What are some of the recent changes to Google's search results?

  • Brand name is increasingly important. If you are a reseller of a product or an affiliate, chances are good that the original manufacturer will maintain the higher search engine rankings. If you are the manufacturer, you have a good chance of keeping top rankings.
  • Social signals are being monitored and will increasingly be part of Google's algorithms.
  • Because companies can now have more than two listings per company in the free results, the adwords options may be the only way to get above the fold in the search results.

Now that we have said what to do, here are some cautions:

  • Don not try to manipulate the search engine results with multiple sites with similar content, they may all be marked as spam.
  • Be careful trying to manipulate incoming links.  Google trys to weed out paid links and de-value them.
  • Avoid hidden text, doorways, re-directs, and cloaking.  All of these techniques are considered inappropriate and might get your site penalized by the search engines.
  • Don't cover your site with advertisements. If you use contextual advertising such as adsense, do not try to trick your users into clicking on ads. Do not try to make money on arbitrage. Google can and does ban sites that exist simply for buying and selling clicks.
  • Remember that content must be unique, relevant and useful. Do not try to spin content from other sites and be cautious with article marketing (content farms).

CM constantly monitors the Google ranking requirements, keeping on top of current SEO techniques. If you need detailed help with your Google listings and visibility, contact CM SEO for a quick evaluation of your site.

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Google Listing Help

It may sound easy but doing all the recommended tasks to improve Google rankings can be a lot of work. If you would rather focus on your own business and hire a professional to improve search engine rankings, then give us a call. We would love to help! 310-465-1716