How Do You Rank Your Website on Google?

Every business wants to show up on Google's search results. While other search engines like Bing, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge are used by some people, Google is still by far the most used search engine worldwide. In this article, we'll walk you through the steps on how to make sure your website is correctly structured for Google to rank it. 

So you just created your brand new website. Why isn't it showing up on Google's search results yet? Search engines, like Google, do a couple of things before ranking your website in their search results. Let's take a look at the most important factors. (Keep in mind these practices vary for other search engines.)

First, Google crawls your page. This means they use online bots, or "crawlers," to take a look at the written content, code, and images to understand what your website is about. Once they understand what you do, they move on to the next step.

Next, Google's bots organize your content so it can match it to people's Google potential searches. If your content states that you're a baker in Houston, TX, the bots want to make sure they can match your website to a Google query like, "what is the best bakery in Houston?"

Finally, Google takes your organized content and matches it to real queries. The closer your content matches a search query, the more likely Google will recommend your page as a result. This is why having relevant, location-specific content is essential in ranking high on Google's search results.

Ideally, you want to have a diverse mix of relevant keywords and phrases on your website so that Google can match your page to an interested Google search user. If you have a page on your website, with little to no written content, it's extremely unlikely that Google will recommend that page to a user.

If your website does not show up for any search results on Google, there could be a few possible reasons:

• Your site is new, and Google has not crawled it yet
• Your site has no external links
• Your website navigation is too difficult for Google's crawler to use
• Your site is blocking Google's crawlers
• Your site has been punished by Google for having "spammy" or "unfair" techniques (keyword stuffing, illegitimate outbound links)

For your site to be ranked, Google has to be able to crawl, organize, and index your content. If the bots cannot do this, you will never show up on the search results. A few ways to guarantee your website can be crawled is to make sure all content is available (there is no "login" form required). Search boxes in your menu can also hinder Google's crawlers. Make sure all your images are tagged with a title and description, your menu is clear, navigation is easy, and your labels are accurate. 

Finally, you want to make sure your website LOOKS good. This not only helps people find your page easier, but it keeps them there. Instaboost Media designs beautiful websites that are well-optimized and keep customers engaged. Not sure what design you'd like? Check out some of the best website designs of 2020 https://www.bestdesigns.co/best-website-designs!

With all of these practices, Google should have no problem recognizing your website and listing you in their search results. Keep in mind that there is much more to ranking highly on Google's front page. To read about how to rank on the first page of Google's search results, see this article.