Google Engineer Reveals the Secrets to Better Rankings

If you’ve never heard of Matt Cutts - he’s the Google engineer in charge of keeping web spam at bay for the world’s largest search engine.  Since he works at Google, he’s a popular go-to guy for the latest tips and tricks on getting on Google’s good side (now say that three times fast!)

When he’s not fighting web spam at Google, he’s revealing juicy tidbits on his blog that help people rank better.  Recently he revealed a few secrets on how to boost your search engine ranking without spending a penny on advertising.

The truth is that despite what “internet marketing gurus” like to tell you, there really is no secret to a top Google ranking. Google works just like any other search engine - what it really wants is relevant, unique content that helps its own visitors find what they’re looking for. 

A few days ago, Matt was interviewed by USA Today  and asked what really works with Google to get those coveted top rankings.

The downside is - that surge in rank won’t happen overnight.  Like a first date turning into a full-fledged relationship, Google likes to court website owners to see if they’re “the real thing” first.  With that in mind, here are the tips Matt revealed to help increase your site’s Google ranking:

1. Include your keywords in your website content - That means if your site is all about natural soy candles - put “natural soy candles” in your web content as well - preferably in your headline as well as in the body of your page.  The “largest” headline size - H1 - works particularly well in getting the search engine’s attention.  Google figures if it’s big, it must be important.

2. Remember your description meta tag - So many sites I’ve seen no longer even use meta-tags because somewhere, someone told them that Google doesn’t bother reading them.  It’s true that Google doesn’t use them to factor in its ranking - but it does use them to present a description of your page in its search results - so make sure you use it!

Don’t take that as an opportunity to write a sales pitch though.  Use it to present information in just a sentence or two.  Make it relevant and Google will thank you for it.

3. Get quality links back to your site - As long as you write solid, valuable content, people will link to your site.  Don’t bother joining link exchanges or posting your page link on dozens of junk sites like FFA (free-for-all) pages.  Google looks at the quality of links - not the quantity. 

4. Get a blog and post to it often - Setting up a blog is much easier than it used to be, and blogs are no longer just for geeks or high school kids talking about their latest crush.  Get Wordpress to put a blog on your own site quickly, easily, and free.  Ask your web designer for help with installing and customizing it to fit your business. 

With a blog, you can easily set up and schedule content that you’ve already written to be posted as often as you want - even every day if you’d like.  I do this with iElectrify and it dramatically helps increase my productivity while letting me stay in touch with my clients - and potential clients in an easy, direct way.

5. Make sure Google knows about you - It doesn’t do you any good to take all of these steps if Google doesn’t know you exist!  Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools (even if you’re not a webmaster!) at www.google.com/webmasters/tools and be sure to get added to Google’s local business directory while you’re at it.  https://www.google.com/local/add/

With these tips in mind, you’ll not only catch Google’s attention, but you’ll also have done it all for free! 

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