Google is the most widely used search engine and consequently has an incredibly sophisticated algorithm. If you want your website to appear first when people search for keywords (and you should), then you need to know the basics of how the algorithm works in order to maximize your website’s exposure. Here are four tips for maximizing Google SEO:
- Keep Content Fresh.
Google places websites with newer content higher on the search result docket. Make sure to constantly update your pages’ content so your website will be deemed more relevant. The more fresh content you have and the more often you update it, the higher your ranking will be. If possible, update your page daily.
- Use Schema.org Markup.
Google, along with several other major search engines, created Schema.org in a joint effort to create structured data that produces better search results. Use the markup on Schema.org to conform to the way Google searches for results.
- Have a Quality Reputation.
Google ranks pages by their quality—how many links they have to their page. It penalizes pages that intentionally try to manipulate SEO or buy links to their pages. Cheating Google will not work; success must come organically.
- Provide Quality User Experience
Google has honed its searching abilities so that it finds things that its users want to see—well designed websites, or websites like the ones they already visit. This is a classic Catch 22 that you must master: people will not start coming to your website unless they are already coming to your website. Hence, you must invest in making your website unique, accessible, as well as easy to read and navigate. In other words, invest in quality website design so that they won’t be able to resist coming back to your site.
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