Guidelines for Success with Google’s Organic Search

By Aparna Agarwal

With increasing competition among local businesses, every entrepreneur is struggling with ways to ensure that their website shows up as the top search result in Google.  Getting the best results from Google search does not necessarily entail a technical understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  There are several ways to ensure success, based on the some basic principles used by Google while looking up pages.

In order to have your website listed in as many searches as possible, you need to assimilate a “big picture” view of your business. You need to understand what the popular phrases and words are that people use to look up information on the web and design your website to cater to the most frequently used items. You can test various terms using tools such as Google's Keyword Tool and Insights for Search.  You can then include these words or phrases in your website content.  These keywords should especially be included in page titles, section headings, and the domain name(s).     Although it is always a good idea to upload images on your website, you must also include text with the images since the Googlebot does not read images.

Another principle that determines rankings in Google’s search results is the number and quality of other websites that link to your content.  You must make sure you are aware of your competition and their web presence. If there are related businesses or customers, you can ask them to link their content to your site.  You can also set up blogs or Twitter feeds to regularly put more information out there about your website.

There is a lot to learn about SEO which can greatly impact your web presence and help your business grow rapidly.  You can access various guides online that can help you navigate through the process, but most often, a few key simple steps can take you a long way.