How to Get Your Website to Appear on Google: 6 Easy Tips

If you’re running a website, chances are you want it to make it as visible on search engines as possible. For this reason, it’s important to know the ins and outs of SEO. SEO functions to show search engines, and in turn people, that your website is a relevant and authoritative source of information about a subject or industry. Luckily, the best practices for SEO have remained consistent over the years, and if you’re looking to make your website more visible, improving SEO is key!

Here are our tips and tricks to getting your website to appear on Google!

Write for an audience

Although your website will be sourced by way of Google, it is still important to write for a target audience. The Hummingbird update in Google’s backend was created to assist in Google having a better understanding of the intent of content people are searching.

As a result, SEO was impacted as search engines began to cater towards answering specific questions in semantic terms rather than just focusing on keywords. If you think about it, when you’re googling something, you are generally asking a question, right? 

Now consider that when applied to a blog search, your content should be written to field specific questions, rather than a place to simply have a specific keyword ranked. Shifting focus towards content that is used to solve the problems, and providing a solution for your audience, works much more effectively than focusing on keywords.

Paid internet advertising: Google Ads (Google Adwords)

Have you noticed that the links you see below the search bar when you send your request are presented differently than others? That's because these sites pay to appear in this coveted spot. 

The program to do so is called Google Ads (Adwords) and it allows to be one step ahead, provided that you are ready to spend money. To learn more about this subject, check out our article What is paid referencing?

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Link building

It is continuously argued that one of the most effective ways of ranking on Google or other search engines is to get other websites to link your content. Link building is as straightforward as it sounds, and this includes building relationships with sites that people trust. 

Obviously, the sites you want to link to will directly depend on your industry, but consider the influencers and authorities among them. Following this, you’ll have to find a reason for them to consider you valuable.

Try a few different tactics! Do a roundup post on your blog or website that features some of the people you want to connect with or try reaching out on social media! Once you’ve formed a relationship they’ll be much more likely to link your content to their own site.  

After that point, consider reaching out for a collaboration, placing you in front of a wider audience who could potentially share your content. If just one influential person influences your content, your social shares could climb exponentially

Understand Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools are like your best friend, offering helping hands and providing a heads up if anything strange is going on with your website. These tools provide diagnostics, as well as keeping your site in top form. They can also detect if your website has been hacked as well as letting you know how your website shows up on Google bots.

Not only does Webmaster tools tell you what’s wrong with your site, but it also explains how to fix the issue! If you’re already familiar with how Google Analytics works, then Google Webmasters is easily accessible.  Check these on a regular basis to keep track of how things are running.

On-page Search Engine Optimization

On-page SEO offers you more control then off-page factors like backlinks. Although a lot goes into the details of what happens on-page, starting with the basics is more than enough! First, consider your site’s URL; this should clearly state what information the reader is going to learn or take away. Put the article keywords into the URL, and keep it limited to roughly 2 to 5 words.

Next, your meta title, as this title plays a vital role in helping search engines determine the main topic of your page as it shows up in both search results and at the top of your browser. Try including your keyword in your meta title, but make sure it doesn’t seem out of place.

Now, on to the h1 tag. Every single page on your site should include an h1 tag, alongside subheading tags like h2 and h3. All H titles allow for search engines to easily navigate your content, and aids in a user-friendly experience. 

Images are another feature that helps to make visiting your site pleasurable, as it makes for a visually-appealing encounter. However, search-engine bots cannot see your images, as they only recognize text, and therefore it is important to set an alt tag.

Alt tags allow for bots to know the content contained in an image, and so these tags should simply describe what is visible. Outbound links and internal links are two other key factors in having your website be made visible. It is important to add links to relevant content within posts, helping search engines to better understand your website or post topic.

Where outbound links are about building relationships with other sites, internal links help to keep people on your site longer. Lastly, the usability of your website is one of the most overlooked aspects of the experience. Do all images work? Does your content load quickly? These factors are important for your page’s SEO!

Understand the humans behind Google

Although algorithms are a huge part of how and where websites rank in search results, there are still human beings working around the clock to manually to review the quality of websites. Google has a Search Quality Evaluators Guide which directs the manual viewer's judgment of a site, whether the feedback is good or bad.

Therefore, it is important for your site to be credible, offering a level of expertise on your topic. The better your content, the more likely you are to be mentioned around the web, making your content appear authoritative. 

These are the places to start if you're interested in getting your website noticed, there is always more to learn and room to grow when working in the wide world of the internet, so play around and go for it!

Curious to learn more about how search engines provide results? Check out "How Search Engines Work".