How to Rank a Website on Google

A couple of clients have told us this week that they didn’t understand why they weren’t yet at the top of the Google search results page. “I picked a good name,” they say. “I thought that was all I needed!”

There was a time when that was true. When there weren’t many sites on the web, you could expect that the name of your site would take care of you. Your customers were looking for an Italian restaurant, your site was ItalianRestaurant.com, and you could sit back and relax.

Now, there are billions of websites. Your new website probably can’t get ItalianRestaurant.com, but even if you can, you’re up against MyItalianRestaurant.com, ItalianRestaurantJacksonville.com, JacksonvilleItalianRestaurant.com, BestItalianRestaurant.com, and thousands of other options.

What’s more, you’re competing with sites like RestaurantReview.com and JacksonvilleNightLife.net which discuss Italian restaurants, blogs that review restaurants, and sites about Italian food. Google doesn’t choose which site to offer a searcher just on the basis of the domain name.

Google’s algorithm involves hundreds of different things. Here are some that we believe are important:

Optimized content The actual words on your website, as well as the meta language the search engines see, are probably the number one factor.
Links The number and quality of links to your website from other sites is a primary indicator of how important and valuable other people think your site is. Google uses this information to determine the value and trustworthiness of your website. You need lots of quality links.
Technical optimization A correctly built, standards-compliant site that loads quickly will be chosen ahead of sites that have outdated code or slow loading time. Fortunately, Oyova builds highly optimized sites.