“How do I get on Google?”
To get on Google you need to do several things. First you need links to your website, preferably from authoritative websites in your field. These links are called back-links because they link back to your site from a third party.
To get on Google you need back links.
When other websites link to your website Google follows those links and finds your website. But…
To rank high you need good quality, well optimized content.
Good quality web page content is well written and easy to read. But more importantly, it answers the question your site visitor typed into Google.
Search terms and search intent.
The question the visitor typed into Google is called a search term or search string. A search term could be “walking football for over 60s in Bradford”. The searcher’s intent was to find a walking football team they can watch or join in their local area.
Your web page title.
The title of your web page is important becauseGoogle uses your page title as its first clue as to what your web page is about. So in our example, we want people who are trying to find a walking football team for over 60s in Bradford to find our web page. Which means “walking football for over 60s in Bradford” is a good page title. It makes sense for Google to show this searcher our web page.
Getting the right search terms.
Picking search terms is big business. E commerce sites and expensive service providers can afford to employ agencies to do detailed research and analysis to get just the right search terms. But a small local social enterprise does not have that budget, so what do we do?
Ask your customers, clients, or patrons what they searched for.
There are software programs and SEO professionals who uncover the best search terms for your enterprise and your website. And they do it for a hefty price. However, one of the first things they do is ask the people who use your service how they found you.
The real search terms your patrons use can be quite different to jargon filled service descriptions some professionals use. For instance, a professional might be providing “a health enhancing service for adults with complex and varied mobility issues”. But how many of your patrons found you by typing that in to Google?
The more of your patrons you ask, who actually found you via Google, the better idea you’ll get as to what the best search terms are for your enterprise and your website.
Place your search string in the right places in your web page.
Using WordPress and Yoast SEO plugin you can insert your search string in…
- Your page title.
- Your introductory paragraph.
- Headlines in your content.
- Your web page body copy.
- As image alt text.
- And in your meta description.
Free software that helps you.
There are several free software programs that you can plug into WordPress to help you optimize your web page content so it ranks better on Google.
One of the best of these plugins is called Yoast SEO.
Yoast SEO tells you exactly where to put your “Focus Key-phrase”.
Yoast SEO is a free plugin for WordPress. It analyses your web pages and gives you instructions as to where you need to add your key phrase or search term. Therefore, by following the instructions you can optimise your page in minutes.
Google and your site visitors will love you for it.
Yoast tells you where to place your search term.
You just install the Yoast SEO plugin in your WordPress website then follow the suggestions. Yoast SEO makes it easy to optimise your web site and your individual web pages to rank better in Google.
SEO Made Easy
The FREE version of Yoast is good enough!
There are two versions of Yoast SEO, first you install the free plugin from the official WordPress repository. If your enterprise ever grows big enough to need the premium version, you can buy and install that later.
