How Google works (and most other search engines too) is a hot topic of conversation in Web marketing circles everywhere! But at its most simple Google sells advertising. Once you understand what exactly this means to you, you’ll have a far greater appreciation of how you can use this to your advantage for your on-line business.
Google exists to make money from its advertising. The Google search engine page is one of its greatest sources of revenue (but certainly not it’s only one), and to keep it earning Google needs to get top dollar for the ads they sell. To get top dollar it needs millions of visitors each day. And to get millions of visitors they need to ensure that their search results pages (SERPs – search engine results pages) provide visitors with THE MOST RELEVANT information.
So to do this, Google needs to have a way to analyse your Web pages to determine RELEVANCE – or how accurately your page gives the searcher the information they are looking for.
The Googlebot – your best friend on the Internet
To acquire information about the relevance of your site, Google sends a little application to scan your Website. Generically called a “bot” (as in robot or webbot) or “spider,” but more specifically called the Googlebot, will crawl through your Website and gather information. It collects this data and returns to Google where your site is indexed in Google’s huge database. A lot of data processing goes on using the famous Google algorithm and after this analysis if your site meets various criteria, you will get "listed on Google."
You also might find that after months of being online you still aren’t listed on Google. Not every site gets listed on Google. But remember, how Google works relates to relevance. A searcher types in some words or phrases, called keywords, into Google’s search page, Google searches it’s database for relevant sites based on those KEYWORDS.
If your site's content isn't relevant to what's being typed into Google's search page, people won't find you. If you site's content is about something that no one types into Google's search pages, no one will find you either!
Getting Listed on Google – what is SEO?
For your site to get on Google’s SERPs, you will need to do many things, but one is to ensure that you craft your site's content to provide information that people want. On the Internet it's all about information! Then you'll have to work very hard at making sure your site has many incoming links from other high ranking Websites (this is like the on-line version of word-of-mouth referrals and testimonials). Finally you must make sure your site contains relevant high demand, low competition keywords; that it has unique content; and is regularly updated with fresh information. This process is known as SEO Search Engine Optimization, or simply SEO.
We think of the Googlebot as a cute little puppy – feed it and it will start to trust you. Feed it a little more and it will start to like you. Feed it regularly and he will be your friend for life! And when you feed the Googlebot unique, fresh content, it will comeback to your site for more. The more content you have, the more you can profit from it, and the profit will come from Google and it will soon become your best friend on the Internet!
Google has a very comprehensive section of their site that explains what you need to do to get listed. It IS a competitive process, and it takes a thorough and methodical approach to succeed. If it was easy every site would be ranked number one on Google! If you want some help figuring out how Google works to get your site listed we can work with you to help get you there.
Now that you know how Google works, request your free website assessment today. No website yet? No problem, let us help you build success into your site before you get started. Request a free website planning consultation.
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