This is why your Cleveland business isn’t showing up in search results.
Have you ever run a search for your type of business, only to find that your brand doesn’t break the top 10 rankings in Google search? This is the reality for most business owners. Millions of people use search engines every day to discover new businesses and do research, so if you’re not ranking, you’re missing out on thousands of new visitors to your site.
So what is it, exactly, that makes a site rank high or low?
Relevance and Authority
You can think of Google working in two main dimensions: relevance and authority. Relevance refers to how closely a site addresses a user’s query. For example, if you’re searching for bikes, Google doesn’t want to display a taco restaurant in the top results. Authority refers to how trustworthy a site seems. For example, if you’re searching for bikes, Google wants to display the best bike shop it can find, and the one most likely to make you happy. Google wants its search users to be happy, so it uses these dimensions to give you the best results.
Key Elements of SEO
Knowing how Google search works, you can adjust your site to fit these parameters. Within relevance and authority, there are hundreds of techniques you can use to improve your site’s search fitness, or likelihood of ranking in the top 10. This collection of strategies is known as search engine optimization, SEO, and usually manifests in a few key areas:
- Onsite optimization. Onsite optimization tactics make sure your site can be indexed and “seen” by Google, and optimize individual pages of your site for specific keywords and phrases, so you’re more relevant to your target audience.
- Ongoing content marketing. Ongoing content marketing has you creating blog posts and other pieces of content regularly, so you can build both your authority and relevance.
- Link building. Google measures trustworthiness in part based on how many external links are pointing to your site. Link building makes sure those links get created.
- Local optimization. Local results function a little differently than national results, and depend on things like local optimization and positive reviews in third party apps.
- Measurement and analysis. Of course, you’ll also need to measure and analyze your results if you want to inch up in the rankings.
If you’re interested in starting an SEO campaign, or learning more about how you can improve your site’s rankings, contact Quez Media today!
