What do Google, Yahoo! and Bing look for in the content you publish on your website?
Content is the number one priority when it comes to reaching higher organic ranks on Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Users, including you, search for the best and most precise information available on the internet. Successful websites owner and content publishers know quite well how to rank first on search engines. What do you have to do to obtain the same results and improve your ranking on these platforms?
The optimization of the content written for your website is one of many things Google, Yahoo, and Bing bots do to evaluate how relevant your website is. It is also one of the first things you must address when building a website that has the potential of being on the first page of search engines. Here are a few things you must consider:
Keywords and Relevant Topics
In the past, all you needed to do is fill your site with keywords related to what was being searched by users and you would automatically appear on the first page of search results. With the modernization of search engines algorithms such as Google’s, this practice is no longer effective. Now you have to be able to write well-written content containing a variety of keywords specific to a term being searched. You need to be able to choose your words carefully and never trigger algorithms to think your site is keyword-rich, but the text is poor in content and fails to make relevant points. Never cut corners when adding content to your site. Your content must be excellent, relevant, well-written and keywords must be placed in the right place throughout your text and title.
Size of an Article
The size of an article is not as important as the content written. If you can make a compelling case, clear and objective, then a smaller and concise text should work. As an example, Google judges your content based on the contribution it offers the users reading it. Google not only scans your site, but it measures how much time users spend on a certain page of your site, how many clicks your site receives based on a term searched, what other actions are taken within your website, and hundreds of other factors.
Expiration Date
You are probably not going to read a paper from 2012. Likewise, search engines such Yahoo, Bing, and Google won’t show their users old content from your site. Content written recently is always shown first, especially from sources who are constantly publishing new articles daily. Therefore, the factor “date and time” matters more than one thinks.
The best way to resolve the problem of “date and time” is to constantly update the content of your website. Articles placed under the “news”, “insights” and “blog” menus must always be updated. New articles with new date stamps must always be published to maintain relevancy. By keeping these pages updated with new content a particular website gives search engines’ algorithms the impression that your site is constantly updated, thus making it more relevant than the site of other companies publishing somewhat similar content.
You don’t have to re-write everything, but simply update your articles with new info regarding that same subject. You must be careful to make sure your article is not making mention of events that happened months or years ago. Algorithms are highly efficient and capable of detecting the slightest mistakes. They behave this way to make the distinction between a historic event and a news article that talks about a not-so-important date in the past. News articles are a lot more volatile than the event itself.
Internal Links
Internal links are just as important as the quality of the written content and its relevancy. Google and others consider it extremely important when a text contains hyperlinks or words with links associated with them. These hyperlinks must lead your visitors to other pages on your site or other sites, thus keeping your visitors engaged. Links can also be associated with actions taken within your site which will lead users to purchase a product or service sold by your company. Time spent, actions and clicks are three important factors taken into account when ranking your site higher on search results. Search engines consider extremely important the time spend on your site.
Alternative Text on Images
Alternative texts on images are words or phrases that have the function of telling the users of search engines the meaning of those images. This mechanism also makes your website accessible to people who are visually impaired. These alternative texts placed as the description of the images posted on your website help search engines to determine the importance and meaning of these images and what message they intend to transmit. A brief and simple description of an image is sufficient to fulfill this requirement.
Name of the Image
Yahoo!, Bing and Google will penalize your website if your images are not named correctly. Imagens named image_1234 or image1 will not satisfy this requirement. Your images must be labeled correctly, and they must have names that properly describe what they are about.
Our Search Engine specialists have both, the training and experience, to deliver excellent work optimizing your website on and off-page. Their experience comes from “hands-on type of work”, where they spend time with our web developers building sites that are search engine ready. Get in touch with us for a free analysis of your existing website or to get a quote on a brand new one.