Why doesn’t Google love me?

Wondering why your website doesn’t score highly in Google? Not sure what you can do about it?

This is the secret no-one is telling you:

When someone types in a search, Google wants to return the best result possible.

For some reason, many people seem to think Google is ‘ignoring’ their website, and they simply need voodoo magic to make it appear in Google. This is bunk. Google cares about the people who are searching. If your prospective customers search for “funky widgets”, Google wants to delight them with the best possible content on “funky widgets”. If that’s you, congratulations.

Chances are, that’s not you. Take a keyword you want to score highly for, Google it, and see what the top 3 results are like. For anything competitive, there are probably companies who get this who are way ahead of you. They might have a page talking all about funky widgets, widget news, the funky widget blog and a section defining all the industry jargon for funky widgets. Compare that to what you have on your site, and remember: to beat them, you probably need more.

Of course there is a technical element to this. You need to make sure Google can see your site (chances are it can), that your website is online and responsive (ditto), and your pages are programmed in a certain way (which they should be since 2001). You can refine these elements, and a few others – like your internal links – to gain maybe a 10% advantage. If you’re neck-and-neck with a rival, these changes can tip the balance. But without relevant content, it won’t matter.

By far and away the most effective strategy for appearing in Google is:

1. Write great, relevant content
2. Encourage people to link to it (easy if you’ve done #1)
3. Repeat as often as possible

Step 1 is hard. Step 2 is easy, with a few simple tricks (like putting features on your pages, like “Tweet this” or “Digg this”) and networking. The faster you do Step 3, the greater the effect.

There are a few cheap shortcuts – like buying in external articles – which have some value, but they’re no substitute for genuinely relevant, unique content. Ultimately, that’s what Google is trying to show, and chances are that in a battle to outsmart Google, you’ll lose.