How to Improve Your Google Ranking

written by David on August 10th, 2011 and filed in Business Ideas, Latest News

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How to Improve Your Google Ranking

Now this is a 64 million dollar question as an improved Google ranking will certainly increase the exposure of your business and providing your web site is fit for purpose then your commissions should increase as well. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as this is known as, is an ever changing area and relies on understanding how search engines such as Google rank your site.

So how do you start and what in all the possible things you do can really make a difference without having to take up too much of your time. There are lots of things that you can do to increase the visibility of your site to Google and also to ensure that it is likely to be found by those you want to see it. Some of these are more important than others and as you will have limited time it is important that you concentrate on the techniques that will have the most effect.

In this 7 part series David Finch of Purple Frog will be considering how current changes made by Google as well as best practice can not only help you succeed in bringing more visitors to your site, but also bring visitors who are interested in your products and services and are therefore likely to spend money on your photography.

Part 1 – Web Site Content

Web site content is now vitally important. Google reads web sites in the way a user does and it uses the content on a web site to understand what a site is about. Google will rank a site on how relevant the content is based on the searches users make on Google.

You need to understand the keywords your potential customers are using and then build these into your content. You can do this for free using Googles Keyword Tool. If you undertake different types of photography such as events, sports and weddings then you should have a separate page for each with sufficient words on the covering the subject with keywords and key phrases being at least 15% of the content – remember Google cannot understand pictures so words are hugely important. You can name & tag pictures that you use and these should be with words relevant to the page the pictures are on. Do not just use generic file names or number sequences, these are meaningless.

All content must be grammatically correct as well, so it is no good just listing words you do need to write them into sentences and ensure they make sense.

One trick is to write each sentence in isolation so that you then repeat words which you would otherwise omit or refer to with no specific words such as we, I or you. The two paragraphs below show you the difference that can be achieved with careful thought and a review of the copy you have written.

“Barry is a freelance photographer based in Chorley, Lancashire and has 25 years experience. He has worked on many weddings and will be able to make yours a memorable day. Barry appreciates that no two weddings are the same. His service is friendly, professional and designed in a way that lets you choose when you would like him to be around and how and what you would like photographed. If you decide against the bridal preparation you do not have to have this as part of the day and similarly if there is something extra that you would like then he will be able to do this for you.”

Based on Barry being a wedding photographer and him wishing for brides looking for wedding photographers or photography to find him, the content should use these words far more frequently than it does at present. A simple change as below would help Google understand the offer more and also focus on location and relevance.

“Barry Dixon is a freelance wedding photographer based in Chorley, Lancashire and has 25 years experience. He has worked on many weddings in Lancashire and his photography will help make your wedding a memorable day. Barry appreciates that no two weddings are the same and that you want your wedding photography to enhance your wedding and reflect the wedding day. Barry Dixon provides a wedding photography service that is friendly, professional and designed in a way that lets you choose when you would like photographs to be taken and how and what you would like photographed. If you decide you do not want the bridal preparation photographed you do not have to have this as part of the day. Similarly if there is something else that is special to you about your wedding, that you would like photographed then he will be able to do this for you. So if you are getting married in Lancashire and particularly in the The Ribble Valley then Barry Dixon Wedding Photographer will make your wedding day a day to remember”

There are no real hard and fast rules other than to ensure you have a reasonable amount of your key words within the copy and that it still reads correctly. If you are supplying a geographically based service then get this in the copy early and always try to mention it again towards the end using terms that may not always be heavily searched such as Ribble Valley but help reinforce you geographic position to Google.

Meta Title and Descriptions

Meta titles and descriptions are an important part of a pages content as these are the visible elements of a page when it shows in a search engine result. Imagine if you were searching for your services what would you be looking for on a search engine listing. Below is an example for our fictional photographer Barry that

shows how the title which should be a maximum of 70 characters and the description which should be a maximum of 152 characters will look. These both reflect the copy on the page and this will score your page higher up in Google than if they used totally different words.

It is also important that you put a separate title and description on each page because:

Google will rank and list all your pages so you need each to be relevant to the content of the individual pages.
All pages of your site can be entry pages so ensure all are optimised for content not just your home page.
Google will downgrade your site if each page has the same meta title and meta description.
Internet users are actually more likely to click on a description that matches their search.

In Summary

Make your content relevant, use keywords throughout it, and ensure the page description and meta data for the page use the same words to maintain relevance at all content levels. Finally tag and name your images on the page with relevant keywords and phrases.

Future blogs will cover the following topics so check back on a regular basis to see what is new:

Part 2 – Web Site Hierarchy & Links

Part 3 – Using Back Links to Drive Traffic

Part 4 – Google Places a powerful SEO tool for photographers

Part 5 – Using Directories to Improve SEO

Part 6 – Using Social Media in SEO

Part 7 – Thinking Beyond The Home Page

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