Every Web site owner in the world wants to know the answer to one of the following questions.

Why can’t I find my site on Google? How do I increase my position within Google search results?

Hopefully the following information will help explain why some sites come up higher than others.

Content Relevancy – As a site owner, first determine if the phrase you’re searching for matches the content or message of a page on your site. Keep in mind that every page on your Web site can have its own message and it is always a good idea to separate products and services into separate pages. For example, having a page dedicated to Product A will increase your chances of being found if someone searches for Product A. Another tip would be to publish new pages as often as possible. Not only is it a good idea to have pages specifically written (optimized) to target a certain search phrase, but in general a 50 page site has a better chance of being found than a 5 page site.

Search Results – Once you have specific pages optimized for certain phrases, your pages will be added to a sea of search results. For example, if I search for internet marketing, Google is able to find over 474,000,000 pages that match my search. Needless to say that it would be very difficult to come up high in a search with this many results. Therefore, try adding words to your search, or change the words you’re using. What you’re doing is trying to find phrases with fewer search results. Google even offers a keyword tool to help find phrases.

Competition - By typing in a phrase into Google’s Keyword Tool, the search engine giant is able to report back a list of related phrases and their competition level. If a phrase has a high level of competition, it will be harder to achieve a top ten position. If you determine that a phrase is too competitive, you may need to go back and rewrite the content on a few of your pages.

Search Results vs. Competition – Without using the Google Keyword Tool, you can generally assume that the number of search results for a one or two word phrase is a good indication of how competitive a keyword/phrase is. However, sometimes Google will display a high number of search results for phrases that honestly does not have a high level of competition. For example, if I change my search to internet marketing lima ohio, Google finds 798,000 pages that match my query. In this example, Google is able to find three or four of the words that I used in my search on a number of pages. Keep in mind that just because four random words are on the same page doesn’t mean that the content of the page is exactly what you’re looking for. In this example, the search phrase I used has an extremely low competition, and Google tries its best to determine what I’m looking. However, because this service is one that CorpComm Group offers, our site (linking to specific pages) floats right to the top of the list.

Search Volume – Usually the more competitive a keyword/phrase is, the higher the search volume (number of people using the exact phrase). However, if you’re able to achieve a high position for a search phrase that only a few people might use, that click might just be your next big client. Although Google’s Keyword Tool does not provide exact search volume information (instead uses high, medium and low bars) Overture’s keyword tool does.

Inbound Links – In order to come up higher in the search results for keywords/phrases that have a high level of competition, Google recommends increasing the number of links from high quality sites to your site. This is typically achieved by requesting links from partners, joining professional organizations or from buying advertising on related sites.

Page Rank – The Web sites that link to your site will help determine your page rank. Google gives every site on the Web a score (or page rank) from 0 - 10. When you first launch a site, even if it is submitted and indexed by the search engine, it may be hard to find your site unless you work on your inbound links. The reason is because your site currently has a page rank of 0. To check if your site has been indexed by Google, search for site:www.mywebsite.com. If you do this correctly (including the site:) you’ll get a list of pages on your site that Google knows exists. If you’re curious as to what your page rank is, there are a number of free page ranking tools available online. I happen to like Google Ranking.

Domain Names – If you’re thinking about building a Web site consider registering a domain name that contains one or more of your keywords. This will also help your position within the search engine results. However, if you’re site is a page rank 2 don’t expect to come up higher than a site that has a page rank 6 just because you have a great domain name. On the other hand, it may help move you above sites with a similar page ranking score.

To learn more about how we can help improve your company's online visibility, through Internet marketing, contact us today for a free consultation. Feel free to visit our office located in Lima, Ohio or contact us via phone or Web.