There is no doubt that Google is the world’s leading search engine. Not only does it specialise in complicated algorithms and systems to determine what website is “the best”, it’s also a leading corporation in various other industries such as mobile operating systems, mapping technology and soon a worldwide internet provider.

Because Google is such a dominating force in determining what websites are popular or not, you never want to disrupt or annoy Google. Every website dreams of being the top few results that the search giant spits out when someone searches for something, but how can you convince Google’s systems to prefer you over your competition to improve your business?

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It takes time

First and foremost, you need to understand that Google’s systems take a long time to determine your ranking. You might not appear in Google’s search results for a long time, but that’s fine because you have to realise that it’s not a lightning fast process. The methodology that Google uses is constantly changing so that it can’t be abused, and everything about your website is logged, cached and reported so that you can never trick Google.

So if you’re curious why your company isn’t appearing in any search result no matter how specific, don’t be alarmed. Don’t spam Google with hateful and demanding messages, and certainly don’t change too many things on your website.

Keywords and optimization

SEO is one of the biggest abbreviations when it comes to ranking well with Google. Google ranks your business based on relevance and original content, meaning that the closer you are to the terms that have been searched, the higher you rank. For example, if someone searches for Asian food recipes, then you better have a lot of Asian food recipes on your website with words that relate to those recipes.

Let’s use an example. If someone wants to search for a recipe to make Chinese-style fried rice, they would type into Google something along the lines of “Chinese fried rice recipe”. This goes into Google’s system and the search begins to sift through thousands, possibly millions of search results that are related to Chinese food. Once Google narrows it down, you are presented with a bunch of recipes that are popular, original and are relevant.

You can hire seo consulting services to help you optimise your website, but a general rule of thumb is that you need to simplify your words and phrases so that they are easily picked up by Google. People prefer using simple words like “best” when they search for something, so don’t write “Most Spectacular Chinese Food Recipes”, just write “Best Chinese Food Recipes”.

A word on originality

Google determines how great your content is by its originality. If Google notices that your content uses stolen phrases, images or detects that you have copied and pasted content from another site, you will not only rank low on the website, but you will also be booted off Google’s search results.

The best way to avoid being flagged like this is to guarantee your content is original. For starters, don’t copy other people’s work. Secondly, focus on your own voice and having your own opinions. Make sure that you are typing up articles and blogs yourself (or hiring a specialised service) so that Google knows you have written original content, thus ranking you higher in its search and boosting your position up a couple of places for more exposure.