How To Get Found on Google in 20 Easy Steps

Search engine optimization (SEO), includes tactics and strategies used to improve your website and increase its visibility on search engines. No matter which search engine someone uses, the top search results will always be websites with excellent SEO.

Google is the top search engine in the world, as it captures around 92 percent of the total search market. That’s why you need to optimize for Google’s algorithm.

Google’s search algorithm is complex, but the basics are straightforward. Google crawls pages to see what content exists on the web. Then, it indexes pages, which means they will be added to the database of pages that can be pulled up as results in a Google Search.

Finally, Google serves indexed pages to users when they search for content on the internet. The results are ranked based on a number of different SEO ranking factors and Google’s decision on which pages are most likely to be useful or relevant to the user.

Getting your site in the top search results can be tricky, but with the following steps, you can get your site indexed and prep it with the best SEO to boost your ranking.

How To Index Your Website To Get Found on Google

Getting indexed is the first step in getting your website served to your target audience. Here are a few steps to follow:

Submit Your Site to Google

Start by submitting your site to Google so it knows you need to have your website crawled. Once your site is ready, you’ll submit it to Google Search Console.

Prioritize Proactive Indexing

The next step is to be sure your content is getting seen when it should be…by both search engines and users. To do that, you’ll want to upload an updated robots.txt sitemap. Exclude non-relevant pages, category pages, or temporary landing pages, as well as duplicate pages and those with non-relevant tags. Essentially, remove anything that is of low or no value to users, as you want the search engines to index only the best content.

Choose the Perfect Keywords

Keywords help you get your content in front of the right people. Using keywords helps Google categorize your content and pull it up when someone enters a search. For example, you might choose a long-tail keyword such as “Texas flower shop.” When someone searches “Texas flower shop,” your website will be more likely to appear in the search results as you have used the same keyword.

Manage Your Meta Tags

To help your site show up well in search results, you need to add a title tag and meta description. Within your title tag and meta description, add top target keywords to help your pages rank.

Optimize for Mobile

It is frustrating to go onto a website and realize you can’t use it from your mobile device. Maybe it has pop-ups that you can’t close or the text runs off the page. Whatever the issue is, that’s something you can prevent if you use a responsive website design for your own website. Remember, Google’s crawler prioritizes indexing mobile versions of your content, as it is a mobile-first indexing tool.

Prove That You’re a Local

If a local user types in “solar roofing near me,” you’ll want your business to come up. The same is true if you’re a fitness center or auto repair shop. Proving you’re local is how you can do that.

Set up a Google Business Profile account to ensure your business is found within Google’s local listings. Then, when users search for a keyword on your site and “near me,” you’ll be that much more likely to come up in the search results.

Lay an External Link Trail

There’s more than one way to bring traffic to your website, whether you’re a rental business, flower shop, auto dealership, or roofing business.

Having backlinks is a great option if third-party websites will add backlinks to your authoritative content.

You can also take steps to plant your own links and watch your viewership grow. Try options such as writing content for other publications within a niche or using your URL in social media posts, profiles, and online directories.

Perfect Your Internal Linking

The time people spend searching and reading through your website can help your Google rankings, too. Internal linking helps by ushering users to other parts of your website once they’re done with the content at which they’re looking. For example, you may have a list of related articles at the bottom of a post.

There is a secondary reason to add internal links, though. When you point to a page multiple times, Google will realize that the page is important to index. That internal trail is helpful for Google, and you want to do everything possible to ensure Google has exactly what it needs to rank you highly.

12 Additional Tips to Get Discovered On Google

If you create a website and go through all the above steps, your website should be primed and ready to land in users’ search results. However, SEO is complex, and it’s always changing. Being aware of some additional steps you can take to rank well can boost the likelihood of positive results.

It’s time to get found on Google. Here are several additional tips that can help you make that happen.

Human Content Is Preferred to Heavy AI-Produced Content

Google hasn’t outright said it would demonetize or delist AI content, but the reality is that most AI content can’t hold a candle to human-written content. Establishing yourself as an industry leader with thought leadership articles is one option you have; just ensure you’re hiring human writers.

Target Relevant, Long-Tail Keywords

Using long-tail keywords relevant to your business will put you in a better position to rank higher on Google. Choose keywords that take into consideration user search intent.

Write Informative and Compelling Content

Your content needs to not only be informative, but also compelling. Remember, your audience doesn’t need to find the same content over and over again. Determine what you can provide to them that’s of a higher value than other websites, and make it obvious to users who visit yours.

Write High-Quality Content

Writing high-quality content means it’s easy to read, valuable to the reader, and doesn’t have a lot of mistakes. High-quality content answers questions readers might have and gives them actionable insight into how to take their next steps.

Avoid Relying on 100% AI Content; Make Sure It Has Heavy Human Editing

Avoid using 100% AI content. There are a few reasons for not using AI content, not the least of which is the risk of plagiarism. If you do use AI content, ensure you hire a human editor to check all links and be sure to fact-check the content.

Craft Engaging Titles

Your content should be informative and useful, but you’ll also want to have a title that captures attention. Titles with numbers are particularly popular because they capture attention quickly, as do emotional titles that use adjectives to engage the audience.

Become More Authoritative By Earning Backlinks

Building brand authority is helpful for your reputation. One way to do this is through earning backlinks. Backlinks are links back to your website from other third-party sites and can help you build traffic and social proof.

Set Up Google Business Profile To Appear in Local Search Results

Capture local attention with a Google Business Profile for local searches. When someone searches for a keyword + “near me,” your site is more likely to come up in search results.

Optimize Images for Google Search

Optimizing images can help you improve your rankings. Add alt tags to describe them, and Google can then use that tag to rank the image content.

Increase Your Page Load Speed

No one wants to wait for a page to load. Increase your page speed by limiting page directs and compressing image files. You can also cache web pages to boost load time.

Implement Responsive Design

No matter what device a person uses, they should be able to easily use your website. Choose a responsive design that works on desktops, laptops, mobile devices, and tablets.

Launch a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) AD Campaign

Your PPC ad campaign can make a difference if you’re not seeing the Google traffic you want. Pay-per-click advertising only costs you money when someone clicks on your ad, which can be a winning scenario for your business.

Technical SEO Essentials To Get Found On Google

Technical SEO is also an important part of your SEO strategy. Before you submit your website to Google and try to rank, remember to consider these factors.

Website structure and navigation

Website structure and navigation matters for SEO—it refers to your website’s information architecture (IA) and how the page elements (and pages themselves) are laid out. Your website should have a hierarchical arrangement, and that arrangement should be designed to be easily crawled and browsed by Google and other search engines.

HTTPS and security considerations

If you choose to use HTTPS, it will protect communications between your website and the user’s web browser. This kind of encryption and authentication verifies your website and lets visitors know your site is secure, as well. Google heavily favors sites that use HTTPS, making it an essential part of good SEO.

XML sitemap and robots.txt

Google is a smart search engine—and it will listen to your commands if you use them correctly. For example, Google will crawl new websites and look at internal and external links. When it finds something new, it indexes it appropriately.

But, not all pages are easy to find. For instance, if you have a page that has no inbound link from another page, Google’s crawler may not be able to find it. A sitemap can help.

Sitemaps tell Google and other search engines how to find your website. When you create a sitemap, you need to instruct Google to look at the pages you want to have indexed but push it back from those you don’t.

Robots.txt gives directives for how to find your sitemap, making everyone’s job a little easier.

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