How do you trick Google into ranking you higher? The simple answer is, you don’t.
I’m sorry my friend, there is no backdoor trick but keep reading and you’ll discover how to build a winning SEO strategy and it’s not as complicated as you think.
The SEO magic question everyone is asking: how do I rank higher in Google? The answer is simple. Become the absolute best resource for your customers, and it starts with good web design. We can prove it.
Become the absolute best resource for your customers, and it starts with good web design
Is the website quality and trustworthy?
Have you heard of Google’s software release called “Panda”? It was so major a while back that they named it and publicly announced it. So what was the big news?
Google’s “Panda” uses more than just keywords to rank websites, they also eliminate pages from search results that Google determined were not trustworthy or quality sites.
How do they know this? People. Yes, they asked lots and lots of people honest questions about the way a website looked and how it made them feel.
Using this feedback, Google engineers matched an algorithm that is so smart it determines if the page is quality through keywords AND if it is quality based on its aesthetics, design, and setup.
Does the website follow user experience best practices?
Google has never revealed how this algorithm functions specifically, but it is commonly understood that the algorithm is based on user experience (also known as UX).
In simple terms, User Experience is how the person feels toward a product, system or service.
Common user experience questions for web design include the following:
- Would you be comfortable giving this site your personal information?
- Does this site have excessive ads?
- Do you like the content on the page?
- Is the design professional?
- Can you easily find the information you want and need?
- Is the site helpful and trustworthy?
- Do you consider the site to be authoritative and safe?
- Are links difficult to click or find?
Why it matters to you, the small business owner
The “Panda” update is wonderful news to all web-users. For the first time, a search engine is helping weed out spammy websites.
Hooray, less spam and more awesome! However, there are some implications to you and your own business.
The main implication here is that your website design is now directly affecting your SEO search results.
Business owners beware, ask yourself if your own website is up to par with your customers’ standards. The following are common signs of bad user experience:
- Confused or cluttered page layout
- Slow or unoptimized web pages
- No mobile friendly options
- Difficult or missing navigation
- Ugly color choices
- Hard to read text/background colors
- Amateurish design
- Too many advertisements
- Content duplication
Your next step: ask some quality questions
If you are concerned about the design of your own website, a good place to start is surveying your current customers and website visitors.
Ask them questions about the quality, design, and layout of your own website. With their feedback, you will understand exactly how to improve your website and user experience.
The SEO strategy to achieve high search results is simple: give people the information they want, in the way they want it, when they want it.
Give people the information they want in the way they want it, when they want it
Summing it all up
The focus here is on site quality, not site keyword results. Step inside the minds of your customers and become the best resources to them.
There are plenty of short-term strategies out there to jumpstart your SEO search results. The only problem is that those strategies are not long-term solutions.
Eventually, Google catches up with these “strategies” and can even penalize those trying to trick the system.
The only sure way to rank higher in search results is to follow the recommend best practices and focus on giving web users the best online experience possible.
