Often our clients ask, “Can you get our site listed on Google?”

There are many factors that are considered by search engines in how they rank websites. However, Google and other companies guard their systems and “formulas” carefully, and divulge little information on exactly how they rank the websites they list.

Nevertheless, here are some things we know that Google and other search engines look for:

1. How many quality sites link to yours
2. The actual text in these links to your site
3. The title on each page of your site
4. How well the code of your site is written
5. The words that appear on your website, and how large they are
6. The amount of information on your website (better to have many smaller pages)
7. How much traffic your website currently gets
8. How frequently your website is updated
9. Words that appear in your domain name
10. How long ago your domain name was registered, and how long your site has been up
11. The quality of websites that your site links to
12. Keywords and phrases that appear in your site’s code

Here are some things that Google can penalize you for, or at the very least will cause your site to be ignored:

1. Hidden text on your site (e.g., tiny white text on a white background)
2. Pages loaded with information that instantly redirect to another page (“doorway” pages)
3. Having many low-quality sites link to your site
4. Not updating your site
5. Having very little information of value on your site
6. Having a site that consists primarily of images
7. Duplicate content.
8. Poor reliability (i.e., your website is frequently down)
9. Excessive repetition of certain words.

The purpose of search engines is to provide people with the most relevant websites that pertain to the search term you provided. Websites that are not relevant and useful do not belong on the first page of Google’s search results. With that in mind, if you want your website to be ranked at the top of the search engines, the best way to accomplish this is to make your site useful and informative.

Interested in learning more? Give us a call at (513) 742-9150 or complete our inquiry form for a free assessment of your site’s search engine positioning.