SEO Your Way To Google Success

Our Manly Marketing advises on how to optimise each page of your website and rise in the search engine ranks.


To start, we need to understand how Google works.

In Australia, Google accounts for approximately 90% of all searches on the internet. Its goal is to display the best, most relevant search result for the keywords that are entered into the search bar. So, if your site does not have content that is unique or very relevant to specific keywords, your ranking will struggle. People are not likely to find you, research indicates, if you are not on the first page of results (and preferably top 1-5 position) for a specific search term (keyword) or phrase (keyword phrase).

Therefore, your goal is to optimise each page of your website for a different specific search phrase that is relevant to your product/service in order to achieve a higher ranking; optimal targetted enquiries and ultimately new business for your company.

Point 1:
So what are the most popular search terms for your industry?
There are free tools available online to let you know which “search terms” people are using in Google for your specific product and service, e.g. http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

Using this tool, you can predict that “dog shampoo” will be searched about 130 times a month and other terms like “pet shampoo” and “cat shampoo will be searched 80 and 40 times respectively. This tool will give you ideas on what search phrases to use when optimising your site pages.

It is worth taking into consideration that a general rule of thumb is that the more popular the keyword, the more competitive it will be to rank highly for that keyword.

Point 2.
Make sure your web developer includes relevant, fresh content on all your pages and utilises Title Tags, H1 Tags and Meta Tags in the source code (hidden text which is the structure and skeleton of your web site).

Your Title Tags are the information shown in the blue bar across the top of your website.

H1 tags highlight to Google the main page headings of your content. Meta Tags let Google know what the specific keywords for a particular page are.

These should all match.

For example, if you are selling dog shampoo and optimised one of your pages for the search term “dog shampoo,” your tags could be something like:

Title tag: “dog shampoo order online cheap”

Meta tags: “dog, cat, shampoo, conditioner, wash, pet, clean”

H1 tags: “Finally, a dog shampoo that thoroughly cleans your pet”

The actual copy of your site would also include the words “dog shampoo” throughout.

Point 3.
Make sure your site is made up of live text and not images or flash content.
Google cannot read this information. In fact, Google reads the hidden “source code” of your website and at this point can only decipher text.

Point 4.
The more links to your website from other sites the better.

Google loves links. The concept behind this is that if people are linking to your website, your content is likely to be useful and relevant.  

Authoritative links such as Government (.gov.au) and Educational (.edu.au) sites are held in greater regard by Google.

Point 5.
Don’t phrase the links throughout your website as “click more,” “read more,” etc. Rather, use descriptive words that describe what is found at the end of the link, e.g. “dog washing”

Point 6.

If in a cluttered market, try to optimise your pages for more obscure search terms and win those spots. For example, the tourism industry is so cluttered that instead of optimising for “hotel Sydney” which will get you on page 9 of the search results, try “hotel northern beaches” which may get you spot 5 on page 1.

Point 7.

Don’t use duplicate content. This means, don’t copy content directly from other sites or use the same tags for each page in your coding. Google will read this as duplicate content and not display all the pages. Rather, write fresh, new content for each page.

Point 8.

If all else fails, you can use Adwords. Google is made up of 2 directories. The organic “free” directory and the “pay-per-click” Adwords directory.

Adwords involves bidding on the place where your ad is to be displayed. This are shown as “Sponsored Links” on the top and right hand side of the search results page. Everytime someone clicks on your link Google charges you a certain amount of money based on the popularity of that specific keyword. You can set a daily limit and a maximum bid you are willing to pay for each click. Google made US$4 Billion last quarter through Adwords.

Contact Our Manly on 02 9976 0017 for more information or professional advice.

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