That’s great for consumers, but how does a business stand out amongst all the noise?
Firstly, we need to have a look at how Google ranks their pages. It’s … complicated. Google determines which pages are the most relevant to a search through an algorithm that takes into account keywords, number of inbound and outbound links, and site structure. We’re going to be focusing on keywords in this article.
If you’re feeling a little nervous about this algorithm stuff, don’t worry. We get it. It’s pretty daunting that a faceless algorithm determines your website’s relevance. If your page doesn’t satisfy this mysterious and all-knowing master, then your customers will have a hard time finding you. Google won’t rate your website as relevant, and you’re essentially doomed to languish down the bottom of the search results, or even off the first page. But never fear! Bumping up your exposure on Google is not that difficult. You just need to give the algorithm what it wants. And one of the best ways to do that is with keywords.
That probably seems obvious. If you’re a Thai restaurant in Darlinghurst in Sydney, then you’re obviously going to have the words “restaurant”, “Thai” and “Darlinghurst”. But just featuring those keywords isn’t enough. Why, you ask? Let me explain.
On the services page of your Thai restaurant, you might provide a small blurb for the following: Dinner, Lunch, Function centre, Catering. While that does provide your customers with information about what you do, it doesn’t give Google’s algorithm a lot to work with when determining the relevance of your page. Because the information on that services page is not specific enough in content and the keywords are diluted, the page is will not tickle Google’s keyword ranking. The topics are too broad, and your webpage is dragged down the list of search results. So how do you get around this keyword dilution problem? It’s simple. You create custom pages that are more specific to relevant keywords.
So what do we mean by custom pages? Let’s go back to your services page. You’ve got a small blurb about dinner, your catering service, etc. If you were to create another page specific to “function centre” and link it to the broader services page, that page would have a greater concentration of the keywords “function centre”. It wouldn’t be diluted down by other keywords like “catering” or “lunch”. And that would make your page would be seen as more relevant to the algorithm. Therefore, your page is boosted up higher in the list of search results.
So you’re not only providing your customers with more information about what you do, but you’re also providing Google with exactly what it needs to boost your exposure. In short, the more complete and thorough you are in providing information on your website, the better the outcome will be for you.
And of course, with greater web traffic comes greater revenue. And who doesn’t like that?!
Like what we’ve got to say? We’ve just scratched the surface. Get in touch with the team at Creative Canary and optimise your website and your business.