Let’s face it: Google is the most dominant search engine in the world. In fact, it’s so popular that more than 90% of all internet users use this platform to find information online. If your website isn’t showing up on the Google SERPs results, then you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to reach potential customers and generate more leads for your business. To help businesses create better strategies for ranking high in organic SERPs (search engine result pages), here are some essential tips for controlling your presence on Google SERPs and avoiding just showing up when someone googles you:
An Introduction to SERP
When you type a question or search query into the homepage of a search engine, the results page that shows up is called a SERP. A SERP (Search Engine Result Page) includes your website as well as other websites that answer your query.
The results are determined by an algorithm, which is basically how each search engine determines what should be displayed on their SERPs. The top 3 listings are usually paid ads. After that, there’s an organic listing that may or may not be yours (depending on how popular it is). You can think of this organic listing as ‘the carousel’ because it scrolls vertically and contains different listings related to your search term.
How Google Works
Google is a search engine, which means they provide you with the results of your search. If you are looking for something specific, like “how to get rid of bed bugs,” a search engine will help you find what you’re looking for.
Google uses algorithms to determine the order of results on their SERP (search engine result page). One factor that plays into this is how often those sites are updated and how important those pages are linked from other sites on the web (link authority). This can make some sites more likely to show up higher than others when someone searches for something like “how do I get rid of bed bugs?”
How Search Works
Google uses an algorithm to determine the relevancy of search results. The algorithm is based on a number of factors, including:
- How many times the keyword appears on your site (if it’s even relevant)
- The length of your content and how it relates to the keyword(s)
- Your ranking on Google SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages)
The higher you rank on Google SERPs, the more likely people will click through to your webpage when they perform a search using that particular keyword or phrase. This is why having one page that ranks high for multiple related keywords is so important; it might mean the difference between getting 100 visitors or 10,000 visitors per month!
Understanding Organic Search Results
Organic search results are a big part of the Google SERPs, and they’re the top 10 results that show up for free. These are the results you see when you search for something like “best restaurants in NYC.” There are also paid ads that show up above or below organic listings, but those aren’t what we’re focusing on right now.
The reason why these organic listings matter so much is that they’re highly relevant to what you’re searching for—that’s why someone would click on them! If you’ve got a highly-relevant page of content, chances are it’ll do well in the organic search results too.
Understanding Paid Search Results
Paid search results are the ads that you see on Google’s SERP. They’re positioned above organic results and at the side of the page, but not always visible. They can be text ads or display ads, which are images or videos. Paid search results are paid for by advertisers who want to show up before their target customers when they’re searching for something relevant to their business.
Paid search campaigns don’t appear in organic searches; however, if you run both types of campaigns together in your account (and this is highly recommended), then both will appear on Google Search Results Pages (aka SERPs). When someone searches for something related to your business or industry—a keyword phrase you’ve chosen—your ad might show up alongside organic results related to that keyword phrase instead of at the top like traditional PPC advertising would imply.
SEO Fundamentals
So, the first step to getting a basic understanding of SEO is to understand how search engine optimization (SEO) works. The foundation of your knowledge should be built on some basic concepts such as:
- How to optimize your site
- How to write content that is optimized for search engines
- How keywords are used in Internet searches and how they can help you rank higher in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages)
You’ll also want to get familiar with some more advanced techniques like link building, social media, and Google Analytics. You will use these tools on a daily basis when it comes time for you to publish new content or manage existing pages on your website.
SEO Best Practices
To avoid showing up in Google when someone simply Googles your name, you should be doing the following:
- Doing SEO right is an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and attention to detail. But if you take it one step at a time, you can grow your business and build a loyal customer base while staying on top of what search engines want from you.
- Start by making sure all of your content is accessible through mobile devices so that people can find it wherever they are—even if they don’t have access to computers or laptops.
Tracking Your SEO Performance
There are a lot of ways to track your SEO performance. Here are just some of them:
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Google Webmaster Tools
- Google Adwords Keyword Planner and Ads extension tool
When it comes to tracking what people are searching for, finding out which keywords they click on and how much traffic those clicks generate is a great way to start. These tools will let you see what people are searching for, which ones they click on (and why), how much money that generates in ad revenue, and more!
You need to understand how Google works and how organic and paid search work.
- You need to understand how Google works and how organic and paid search work.
- Google is a search engine, not an SEO company. It doesn’t want to give you anything for free, it wants you to pay for it by buying ads.
- Google is also not an SEM company (search engine marketing). They’re more interested in selling their ad products than helping your rank better in organic results.
Conclusion
You now know how Google works and how search works. You also understand the basics of SEO, including what it is, why it’s important, and how to measure your performance. And this is just the beginning! There are many more aspects of SEO that we did not cover in this post—from keyword research to link building—and feel free to explore them as you get more involved with SEO.