In Pittsburgh Internet Marketing: Understanding How Google Ranks Websites Part II, the first two metrics that Google is likely to measure when visiting your site were detailed. This included the age and ownership status of a domain, as well as the very domain name itself. But while the exact and continuing impact these aspects have on your site is subject to argument, the two metrics discussed in this part on the series are inarguable: site structure and site content have a major role in how your site pans out in the SERPs.
Pittsburgh Internet Marketing: Understanding How Google Sees Your Website Structure
Your website's "physical" structure has a significant impact on how well your site performs from a search ranking standpoint. In fact, many people might argue that it has the most impact of all, because if your website structure is not setup and managed properly, Google may not be able to find and index your pages and content.
In general the following parts of your website structure must be optimized properly in order for your site to be easily catalogued:
*Fast loading time – if your site takes a long time to load, both search bots and human visitors will likely just click away to another website or web page.
*Proper descriptions – your page and site descriptions, post titles and even Meta data must be keyword optimized and setup to allow for easy discovery.
*Navigation – Nav bars must be clean, operate quickly and provide an efficient method of moving about the entire site.
*Links – links on your site are examined by Google, and unless you tell the search engine specifically not to, the spider/s that visit your site may spider off to the sites you reference. They'll also spider off to your internal links, which must be in good working order to be effective. Interlinking and out-linking tells the search engine exactly what you think is important about the site, what content is related to what, and what outside websites are relevant to yours.
*Plugins – plugins can add significant functionality, but when improperly configured they may hinder Google's ability to continue deeper into the site.
Widgets – like plugins, widgets must be setup correctly in order to prevent problems with Google's spiders.
Pittsburgh Internet Marketing: Understanding How Google Sees Your Website Content
One of the oldest clichés on the internet is "Content is King." However, there's a reason that this phrase is so over-used; it's absolutely true. The content that you feature on your site will have the single largest impact on your rankings. This even trumps the importance of backlinks, because even a million backlinks pointing to a website with no content or poor content will have little effect.
The best strategy is to produce content that is directly related to your industry or niches and ensure that it is of the highest quality possible. Linking this content to deeper pages in your site and then syndicating it after it has been indexed is one of the most powerful ways to achieve top search ranking placement.
Overall your site's structure and content are your primary representation to the world – visitors know it, and Google most certainly knows it. Therefore, ensuring that your site functions well and offers valuable high quality content is the most effective Pittsburgh SEO strategy possible.
In the next installment of Pittsburgh Internet Marketing: Understanding How Google Sees Your Website, we'll detail the 3 final metrics used by Google to rank your site: Backlinks, Trust and Social Influence. But if you need to get to the top of your markets now, call the number at the top of your screen for a free, confidential consultation. The sooner you get started, the sooner you'll lead the pack.
