Ranking well in Google

Written by FreeToastHost on . Posted in Documentation

What determines Google placement?

Search engine Optimization (SEO) is a large subject that is not simple. Companies spend tens of thousands of dollars to hone search results. The exact rules are kept secret but there are some things that anyone can do. Here are some of the basics.

First, you most know what search term(s) you are targeting. This means anticipating what users might type in the search field if they are looking for what you have to offer. The more specific the better. For a geographically targeted website, "Improve speaking skills in Lincoln NM" would be much better than "Improve speaking skills". Since people in Connecticut are not likely to travel to New Mexico for a meeting.

Google placement is determined by a number of factors, some of which the webmaster can control and others that she cannot. The most important is what is on the page itself. One has to match anticipated search terms with text on the page. The more closely text on a page matches a particular search term the more likely that Google (and other search engines) will give it more weight. Search engines also assign an importance priority based upon the calculated priority of the term on a page. Google has algorithms that try to determine what the website considers important. Text in H1 Tags are given more weight that text in in H2 tags which are given more weight than text in paragraph tags. Also the closer the term appears to the top of a page the more weight it is given. A page should limit the targeted to a few most relevant for that page. Far better to have a page on "improving speaking skills" and another on "boosting confidence" and another on "honing presentation skills" than to try cramming it all into one page.

Site structure. More weight is given to websites that are better constructed in terms of complying with WWW3 standards. Since the Toastmaster websites are hosted within a content management system, there is nothing that webmasters can do about the basic site design, but you can make sure that what is in you site is compliant. for instance make sure that photos do not have blank "alt" tags, that you do not have any dead links and that links have a descriptive text (Links have two parts, the Text of the link and the link itself). Constructing a link as "To Learn More click IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS." instead of "to learn more click www.improveskills.com" will add to the pages search weight.

Meta Tags. These are the Title, Keyword, Description, etc tags. High weight is given to the Title tag, so instead of having "Home Page" in the Title tag, you will improve your ranking by replacing it with text that includes the search term you are targeting. (i.e. "Lincoln County NM Toastmasters, Improve your speaking skills")

Many people will tell you that the "Keyword" meta tag is very important. Most search engines, Google in particular, give no weight to that tag. Early on in internetdom, search engines placed a lot of weight on the Keyword tag, but many porn sites began putting frequently used generic search terms in the Keyword Meta tag. Searching on a generic, innocuous term, like "improve speaking skills" would produce a listing of porn sites. The keyword tag can be useful to the extent that it coincides with content on the page, but overloading the tag with every search term one can dream up is an absolute waste of time.

Reputation. Search engines try to give a reputation index to a site. They do this by looking at the number and quality of links to the site and by your site's longevity. Links to a site from blogs, news articles and other sites contribute heavily to the weight given. Links to your site from blogs or other sites with heavier traffic are given more weight than links from low traffic sites, or sites that exist only for hosting links. You can improve your results by posting on reputable sites (facebook, for instance) with links back to the site that you want to promote. That is why you find "Like", Twitter, Digg etc. links on so many websites. This is specifically intended for boosting search results.

I hope this is helpful.

 

James Brown
Sgt at Arms
Webmaster
Southern Berkshire Toastmasters
Great Barrington MA

 

Search Engine Optimization

Have your club officers make sure your website address is correct at Toastmasters.org Club Central

  1. If your District has a website make sure they point visitors to your new website address
  2. Every page description box needs to be specific about your club and the content on the page
  3. Every Keyword box needs to be specific about your club and the content on that page.
  4. Create more pages about your club. Use the club name and location often.
  5. Make sure the Toastmasters.org find-a-club shows your club website. If your district has a website make sure it has a link to your site.  

 

Remember that with search engines "Content Rules". Search engines only search text. Make sure every picture has a description. Create additional pages and brag about your club. There is no magic SEO bullet. Great content makes good position in Search Engines.

Brian McDonald

Google's own recommendations

Google has a 32 page document (pdf file) for new webmasters. It's available at https://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf