Hello,
I'm Mervi Eskelinen!
An artist, nerd and sorcerer, dedicated to make world softer and better for everyone, and to get you to make more art. Make art, change the world!
How to get my site on top 3 of Google search results
Today a client of a previous web development project sent me a question: How can I get my website on the top 3 of Google search results?
I squirmed, hit my head on the wall and went overall dramatic over the question for a while. Since I had just came from a run (in time before the rain it raineth every day) I decided to take a shower before writing my response.
The following is my reply to the question with some modifications. Do note that the reply was originally written in Finnish and there's always a huge possibility of lost in translation between such different languages. The response was also written for a person who has herself pointed out that she's not very web or tech savvy.
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Hello,
This is one of the big questions of web life (a bit as if you would have asked me the meaning of life :)). Unfortunately there's no one clear answer to it. I know there are some people who claim to guaranteed results, but these claims are only big sales talks.
Firstly it's good to know that Google is more likely to punish than reward. This means that a smallest error can result in huge negative impact in the search visibility and on the other hand a small positive gesture doesn't necessarily do much anything. For example back in time one could manipulate search results with listing keywords (for example meta keywords) but nowadays using keyword lists is usually punishable. I have tried this recently and I managed to get my own site to drop down on search results by using meta keywords.
It's also good to remember that the search results are more or less personified: Languages, recently visited sites and recent searches and for instance Google+ profile information and shared content resonate to the search results. That's why the same site or page may be in the top three of the search result for another person and on the second page of search for someone else. There are no guarantees that the same site or page is in the same position for different "searchers".
For a new site it's more difficult to get to the top of searches instantly than for older known ones. The search results are feeding themselves. If your site has hit the top of searches every click will help it stay there. Thus traffic is important. Getting in top of search results of more popular subjects is lots of work since there are so many other sites competing of the same visibility.
The most important ways to get to the top of searches are good and well written content and links from other, good and reliable sites. The first one means that the content includes those important keywords in the way that the language and grammar are good and as flawless as possible. The content therefore is best to optimise for the reader and not the search engine.
Links from other sites are very important. With them Google can find the site and "sees" that the content is so interesting and important that it has created a need to make the link. It's important to notice that for instance buying links can result in a punishment. I also want to emphasise the website linking to your site must be good and reliable. A link from a site which seems like (or is) spammy or straight forward scam can have a very negative impact.
Lately Google has made the importance of their own Google+ service in search results. Please take a note that Google+ isn't a guaranteed measure to get the site in top of searches. However it is a very good effort and can help. Additionally sharing the site and pages on other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter may help. Tweets show up sometimes in search results. Besides getting more traffic through them may help.
As you can notice I use lots of words may and can. Because Google doesn't give exact details on how search results can be affected positively and because Google changes, fixes and updates it's algorithms constantly, it's impossible to give any unambiguous and works in every case kind of an answer.
Practically search engine optimisation is pretty much Russian roulette.
I know that this was quite a lot and I gave you lots to think. I'd like to remind that you should invest in making sure the website is found elsewhere. This will also help Google to decide if the site is worth the top three.
Mervi
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