3 Ways to Get Found on Google
Debbie Lucas 
Optimising your website to be found on Google means that your business will be found by the very people looking for a solution that you provide!
How to get found on Google is one of the most important questions for small businesses
Having a pretty website is one thing, but if the only traffic you get is from people you send there yourself, you’ll become exhausted with it. Optimising your website to be found on Google means that your business will be found by the very people looking for a solution to their problem that you provide! I’ll give you an overview of three of the best ways to get found on Google and it’s all to do with search engine optimisation or SEO.
What is SEO and how can it help you to get found on Google??
According to Search Engine Land, search engine optimisation is “the process of improving your site to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business…”. This is done through a number of different ways. And at this point, I’d like to point out that SEO is most definitely more of an art than a science. It can take anything between six to 12 months before you start seeing results, so please be patient and don’t lose faith.
Just like with social media platforms, search engines are regularly reviewing and changing their algorithms, so just when you think you’ve cracked it, they change something that may affect your search rankings. And this is why it’s important to do regular SEO maintenance and follow these three ways to improve and maintain your web pages.
Optimising your web pages is the best way to help you to get found on Google
A well optimised web page is the starting point to helping you to get found on Google. This means having a clean design with relevant text and images. It also means making sure that your site loads quickly and is mobile friendly.
Let’s take each of these in turn.
A clean design with relevant text means that you are using your key word or phrase in a natural but consistent way in your web page copy. When someone searches for something, the ‘bots’ will scour the internet and look for websites that answer their question and this is one factor that it uses to determine whether your website is relevant to the person searching.
Relevant images are not just there to help your website look pretty. They should be relevant to the content of your page, but also optimised for search engines. For example the file name should describe what the image is and you should also enter the alt tag when uploading the image. So, rather than saving it as ‘DSC_0048’ it should be ‘woman in front of laptop’ for example. The key here is to also use your key word or phrase in the file name and alt tag, but only if it’s natural.
Ensuring your website loads quickly is crucial, because search engines like Google, will take this into account. One of the best ways to optimise your page load speed is to reduce the size of your images. Websites like TinyPNG are great for compressing images without affecting the resolution too much. The same goes for videos on your website and Tinywow can help to compress smaller/shorter videos.
If you want to check your website load speed, check out SiteChecker where you’ll get a 7 day free trial. This will be more than enough to get the information you need and check the impact of any changes you made.
I have a fantastic FREE guide for you to follow which will allow you to optimise your web pages: How to Get Found on Google.
Create great and fresh content regularly to help you get found on Google
One of the easiest ways to get found on Google and other search engines is by creating great and fresh content. Now you can’t constantly be changing and updating your web page copy because that wouldn’t give you the consistency you need to build that know, like and trust factor through your website.
A really great way to keep content on your website fresh is a blog. Now, I know that this can feel like a bit of a chore, but hear me out. Blogs are not only great for SEO purposes, but they can also:
Provide value to your audience
Showcase your knowledge, skills and expertise
Allow for further search engine optimisation by answering specific search phrases related to your niche
Offer the opportunity for guest blogging and backlink building (see below) if done on a reciprocal basis.
In terms of search engine optimisation for blogs, you need to ensure that you are not copying parts of your own website or blogs, or that of others. This will be a definite strike against you, not only in terms of plagiarism (if copying from other websites or blogs), but also in terms of the search engine algorithm. So, always ensure that your content is unique and fresh, not copied.
Now blog writing is a whole other topic, so I’ll not get into the full details, here, but you can follow the same principles in my FREE How to Get Found on Google guide for your blogs.
Building links from authoritative sites is another great way to help you get found on Google
Backlinks are when you have other websites linking back to your website. But not all backlinks are created equal. Just like any association in business, you want to ensure that the websites who are linking back to your website are trustworthy, authoritative and in a similar niche or field as you.
There are many ways you can create backlinks and here are my top three ways to do this:
Guest blogging is a great way to get a link back to your website with the added bonus of getting yourself as an expert out there in front of others’ audiences. As I mentioned above though, be sure to provide unique uncopied material in your blog.
Sharing your website link through social media is another great way to get links back to your website, so share away where you can and is appropriate (in other words, don’t be spammy). Make sure you have the link to your website in your social media profile bios at the very least.
You can also register with business directories and most allow you to have a basic profile for free. Be sure to optimise your profile with all the relevant detail as this may be another way that someone can find out about you and your business!
How I can help you to get found on Google
As I said, search engine optimisation is a long game and definitely more of an art than a science. And staying on top of maintenance can feel like an additional chore when you’re trying to do everything else in your business.
If you want to learn even more you can check out my masterclass ‘How to Get Found on Google’ where I go into this all in more detail, plus many other trade secrets that I used to get my client to the number 1 spot in search rankings for her niche!
If you’re looking for a bespoke SEO strategy or ongoing support with your SEO, let’s have a no obligation Strategy Call with you to discuss your needs and how I can support you.
Debbie
The Branding and Website Strategist for female entrepreneurs who are ready to take their brand and online presence to the next level