Is website positioning necessary to be able to find it on the Internet? It is not – as long as you allow web crawlers to your site, you will be deployed into the modes of a huge machine known as Google. However, simply finding yourself in the search engine database does not bring traffic, and those interested in your content or services will not find it soon where you would like to invite them …
Hey Google, I’m here!
When Google recognizes our website, it is necessary to take steps to identify those elements that its users may find useful. The steps to encourage web crawlers to go on our side are mostly found in Google’s guides and webmaster manuals.
Basic activities focus on sharing your website and allowing traffic on it – both machine-made and human-made. Then, it is worth indicating the area with which the search engine should associate our site – e.g. by including keywords related to the industry within it. In the meantime, it’s also important to create access to a place where Google stores everything about our domain – Google Search Console. And then… then a more advanced part begins that should be discussed with a specialist!
But first, let’s focus on the basics and start positioning our site on Google!
Hey Googlebot, you’ve got Allow here
Positioning your site should start with the admission of web robots to your site. For old seo enthusiasts it is obvious, but for people who have not had any previous contact with robots, this issue may be interesting.
Internet crawler / indexer – a program whose task is to collect information about everything that is available on the Internet. There are different types of robots that specialize in collecting various data.
Googlebot performs a crawl – it goes through the links on the pages and indexes its content. The frequency of Googlebot visits to websites varies – visits may be repeated every few hours or every few days. Without crawling, it is not possible to display the page in search results.
Most of the web robots obey the rules imposed on them by the website. Information on this is contained in the robots.txt file and the “robots” tag located in the HEAD section of the page’s code.
Why is this information so important? When creating a page, in most cases you disable the ability to index your site, preventing robots from entering the page. Such action makes sense – an unfinished page, full of “lorem ipsum” or pictures of sweet kittens playing the role of place holders – will not be found in the search results by accident and will not mislead the potential customer. At the time of commissioning the website, the guidelines for web robots should be changed, but this is not always the case.
These types of mistakes are not uncommon and do not only happen to small players. In 2009, Skoda’s promotional campaign was widely discussed, in which the Internet search engine played one of the key roles. In the commercial, which was aired on television, it was encouraged to search for “Yeti kidnaps”. Problem? Access to the content on the page for robots was blocked in the robots.txt file.
The content of the result description is automatic information that appears when crawlers are not allowed to access the content. This situation is not conducive to website positioning, and the popularity of the slogan was used by the brand’s competition, quickly jumping over the website advertised on TV in Google.
Titles and descriptions
Page unlocked? Time for a title and description! The elements of the <head> section – title and description are the first fragment of your website that users encounter.
Both elements are also important, although it is assumed that the description (meta description) is of less importance from the SEO point of view. The title not only appears in search results, it also appears at the top of the browser tab.
The <title> element should contain information relevant to web robots and users. Keywords assigned to a given subpage have the highest priority here, and other information may follow them – for example, for industries such as road assistance it will be a contact phone.
The content of the title should be 65-100 characters long. Both values are approximate – for titles, this is where the number of pixels the title has been created is concerned. Google displays titles and lengths of about 460-600 pixels (depending on the size of the device we use), and in the case of longer ones – cuts the part and leaves a triangle, as you can see in the screen above. To make sure that the most important part of your title – your keyword – fits in the result, place it right at the beginning.
When it comes to <meta name = “description” content = “…”>, things are a bit different – its main goal is to encourage the user of the search engine to look at the site. When preparing a description, it is worth focusing on those aspects that make the website stand out from the competition. It is worth using the appropriate passwords – in the case of online stores, it will be e.g. information about free / immediate shipping. Call To Action should also be installed in the description – a password that will encourage you to take action – “Check now!”, “Find out more now!” and so on…
The description is limited to approx. 160 characters. When it’s too long, Google limits it to the appropriate size, leaving three dots at the end. The content of the description is available in the code of the website, but it is not displayed directly on it – its main purpose is to present the website in search engine search results.
During the process of positioning a website, analyzing titles and descriptions, and if necessary, changing them, it is one of the first steps that a positioner takes. Changing the above does not require technical skills, and in the case of popular CMSs, it is limited to placing appropriate content in dedicated places, usually marked as “title, description for search engines”.
Introduce yourself… or else Google will do it
In the absence of a title and description, Google decides what will be displayed instead of them. Unfortunately, sometimes Google also takes over when both tags are properly completed. In such cases, text fragments from the page appear in the SERPs containing the words and phrases searched by the user.
The lack of properly prepared title and description prevents the search engine from showing the most important keywords and finding the site in the right places in the search results. This hinders the procedure of positioning a website and associating it with a specific topic.
The presentation of topics and phrases important for our website and business also takes place through appropriate content. Content is as important to robots as it is to those more human users of the site. Each of them has their own preferences regarding its presentation… Robots like a well-described structure – texts with different headings – h1 as title and h2, h3,… as subheadings; subsequent paragraphs placed in the <p> tag, and the most important elements (keywords!) highlighted with <strong>. Additional description of it with the help of structured data will make the robot filter the content of the page faster (and more probably!). On the other hand, the web user will appreciate the structure of the text – its length, font size, breakdown into paragraphs, clarity of graphics and all other elements that will help accelerate the consumption and assimilation of the content.
Both aspects can be neatly combined, which usually has a positive effect on the visibility of the site in search results. Well-written and html-described text is popular among website visitors, and sometimes they even pass it on. Such action also stimulates its popularity among web robots, which translates directly into more frequent visits to the website and high positions.
What is website positioning?
Positioning is primarily emphasizing the advantages of a website, while eliminating all its disadvantages, in order to achieve the highest possible position in the search engine. Website optimization is nothing more than adapting to the rules that prevail in the Google search engine environment. It is these rules that are key to the order of the results displayed on the query.
Sounds simple and logical? Unfortunately, it is not – the above-described basic steps to be included in the Google index can be compared to putting the first track while learning to write – the title of a calligraphy master from this position is still far away. The following actions should be taken after the website is published and made available:
– optimization of its operation in terms of speed and efficiency,
– improvement of functionality,
elimination of technical errors,
– appropriate description of the
content of the positioned website – also using structural data,
– content analysis, creation and
modification,
– activities aimed at extending the
database of links pointing to our website,
– analysis of the effectiveness of
these activities, and in the case of low effectiveness – changing the approach
and building an improved strategy.
Positioning a website is a process dependent on many factors, including not only changes in the search engine algorithm, but also the specificity of the industry in which the promoted business or budget operates. Gaining SERP peaks requires consistency and constant control – the search engine is an extremely vital organism that is constantly being modified. Unfortunately, this causes uncertainty as to the stability of the position – which in the absence of appropriate and prudent actions – may result in spectacular mishaps.
In the case of positioning, it is worth relying on current knowledge and experience that allows you to develop an effective and safe strategy.
