Through the Eyes of “the Google” – How Google Looks at Your Website

Your business website should always do two things well:

1. Help Google tell searchers about your business.
2. Convert web visitors to phone calls, leads or store traffic.

Get these two things right and you’ll immediately see the results in your business. This article helps you understand how to solve the first problem. A future article will help you understand the second.

How Google Works
The Internet consists of over 100 million websites with Google tracking over 1 trillion URLs. With all those web addresses, trying to get your website to the top of the search results is not an easy task. But, before you can even begin to solve the problem, you first have to look at your website the way that Google does.

When Google loads a page from your site, it doesn’t use a web browser. Google loads your site with proprietary software that downloads the text but doesn’t run Adobe Flash, scripts or any of the other things that make a website visually interesting. Google only sees text. If you’ve got a Flash-based website, chances are that Google either doesn’t see it or doesn’t give it much attention.

No Text = No Google = No Web Visitors.

But even text may be a little challenging. Google isn’t an English major, it’s a text processing engine. It doesn’t grade on style, it grades on quantity with results determined by the words and phrases searched for by your potential customers. If your website has plenty of good phrases that potential customers might search for, the better your chances that your website moves up the list of search results.

Most Important Tip – Write for Potential Searchers
For example, the phrase “Customers love us, you will too!” may work well for human visitors to your website, but Google won’t spend much time on it and more importantly few users will ever search for that phrase. However, changing the phrase to “Dallas customers love us! See for yourself with a free home theater consultation!” gives Google more context and provides potentially more hits for customers searching for “dallas home theater” or “home theater consultation”. This second phrase may not be the most concise, but it’s much better for Google and potential searches.

Besides writing for searchers, here’s a few of my favorite Google techniques:

• Include location information on every page.
• Don’t use graphics to display text information such as phone numbers or addresses.
• Use good page titles.
• Keep your site focused on one business and one set of business terminology.

A Smart Website is Your Best Investment
I’ve been amazed at the improvements that we’ve achieved by revising a client’s website. So, I know this approach works and improves results. The bottom line is that today’s websites have two audiences, a customer actually visiting your website and a customer you want to visit your website. Writing for both audiences improves the bottom line and is often the smartest investment for a neighborhood business.

Jeff Farris

Jeff is the President and CEO of BubbleLife Media, the publisher of http://bubblemedia4.wpengine.com, DFW's largest neighborhood news source, and a leading provider of neighborhood marketing solutions. Jeff has always been a technology entrepreneur including founding and leading one company that ranked 26th on Inc. Magazine’s list of Fastest Growing Private Companies, held an IPO and sold to McAfee.