Every business wants to boost SEO rankings and be on the first page of Google when someone searches for their company or products.  Not only do they want to be on the first page, but they want to be on the top of the first page.  There is only one spot at the top and depending on your industry that can be very competitive.  To make it even more difficult, search engines such as Google are always updating and changing their algorithms and how they rank a website.  Even though there is a lot to keep up with when it comes to search engines the number one thing you can do is to continually update your site with accurate and fresh content that is relevant to your business.  This process is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Here are three easy ways to help Google find your site.

Use Google Keyword Planner

Google’s keyword planner is a free tool that is available for anyone to research keywords in your industry.  You can see what keywords you are currently ranking for as well as what keywords your competitors are ranking for.  Google uses keywords on a website to decide what site is the most relevant to what the consumer is searching for.  Google wants to put the website that has the most relevant information possible up first for the consumer to choose from.  We don’t normally think of Google’s search engine as a product, but it is their product and they want to provide the best possible product (ie best search results) for their customers.  They are able to do this with reviewing websites for the best keywords and pages related to the search.  You can improve your ranking by publishing relevant and informative content for your customers with the proper keywords so that Google can find the information easily.

Create a Good Meta Description for Each Page

A meta description is the short preview of the web page and link that comes up on the search results page – it is the black text under the blue clickable headline.  It is important that you fill this out on the admin portion of your site otherwise the search engine will auto fill this area.  If that happens it will most likely not a good focused key word and it will be difficult for the user to understand what the page is about.  You want to create a meta description that is easy to read and understand with only one focus keyword that relates exactly to the content that is on the page.  You can also create a clear call to action in the meta description so that people with click through to your page

Use Different Media and Optimize It

Users these days are becoming more and more interested in other forms of media than simple text to receive their information and search engines like Google are rewarding webpages with various forms of media on them with higher rankings.  When it comes to search engines though, they are not able to read or ‘see’ an image or video on its own.  It’s up to your publisher to make sure that the search engines are able to find these other forms of media.  In order to do that those images and videos must be optimized.  Some basic ways to optimize and image or video is to make sure they have accurate header tags, alt tags and have the proper file formats and sizes published for the web.  These basic steps will help search engines find your images, videos and ultimate your company’s website.

What has been your most successful way to get Google to find your site?