The best way to promote your website and receive visits is to appear in Internet search engines.
There are many search engines, but without a doubt, the most widely used and popular one is Google.
Appearing in the top positions on Google is very important for any website that wants to become known. However, you should not use search engines only to get visits; what you really want is to gain qualified visitors.
What is qualified traffic?
Qualified traffic refers to visitors who actually want to visit your page and will consider it interesting. For example, if your page is about marine animals, you should try to promote your content related to that topic.
Using misleading information or keywords such as land animals may help you receive more visits, but those visitors will not find what they were looking for. In addition, this kind of deception may be penalized by search engines.
What are search engines and how do they work?
Search engines are computer systems that index files from web servers.
Searches are performed using keywords or hierarchical topic trees; the result of the search is a list of web addresses related to the searched keywords.
The importance of Google
The most popular and widely used search engine is Google. More than 60% of Internet users use this search engine to find the information they want. In Spain, approximately 95% of users use Google.
This is why it is very important to be indexed in this search engine.
What are "bots"?
Google and other search engines use what are known as robots or "bots" to enter web pages and analyze their content. These applications are responsible for crawling the web, searching for keywords and links in order to obtain information and store it so it can later be indexed on their servers and appear in the search engine when a query is performed.
What is PageRank?
PageRank is a trademark registered by Google that determines the "importance" of a website.
This system is based on the number of links each page receives.
A website is more important if it is being linked by other websites, and it will be even more important if those other websites are themselves important.
In other words, if a website with a high PageRank has a link to another website, that website will receive a significant PageRank score. It is assumed that if an important website references another website, that one must also be important. That is why it is useful for other websites to link to yours.
If you want more information about PageRank, you can consult the following link:
Tips for search engine positioning
- Have good content: the fundamental element of any website is having good content. The user should find what they are looking for on your page and visit your site. Create a website with clear, concise and accurate information, with a logical structure and clear links that allow access to all sections of the site. It is vital that the website has original content that differentiates it from other pages.
- Simplicity: Google's robot prefers simple pages without too many decorations. It looks for readable text and clear content. Avoid, as much as possible, flash elements, frames, JavaScript and other multimedia elements. If you must use this type of content, it is advisable to provide alternative access methods for browsers that cannot read these elements, and thus also facilitate the crawling process for robots.
- Submit your site to Google and search engines: once the website is ready, with quality content and programmed in an optimal way for proper navigation with any browser, access Google and submit your website.
It is also advisable to perform the same steps on other search engines, such as yahoo.com or live.com.
- Links: it is also very important that other websites link to yours. If other websites have a link to your website, it means they consider your page important. The level of PageRank depends on these links. However, it is not only the number of links from other websites that matters, but also the importance of those websites linking to your page. If a website with a high PageRank, meaning an important website, links to yours, it gives importance to your website and consequently your PageRank increases and Google will give it greater consideration.
- Avoid penalties: Google may penalize a website and modify its indexing or even remove it from its database if it detects fraudulent use. You should not create pages solely to "please" robots. Avoid hidden text that cannot be seen by users but can be read by robots. Do not overuse keywords and do not use keywords that are unrelated to the content of your website. Keep original content. Do not copy entire documents or large fragments from other "better positioned" websites.
- Avoid duplicate content: if you have different sections that share the same text, try to combine them into one to avoid the same text appearing in different parts of the website. Do not use misleading redirection techniques or doorway pages to send users to the same destination in order to increase PageRank. Do not create pages with fraudulent content such as phishing pages, viruses or any other type of malicious software.
- Keywords: in order for Google and other search engines to relate a search to your hosting, the page must contain keywords. For example, if you have a toy website, it should contain words related to that content. The word "toys" should appear in the text of the page and also in the page title. It is advisable to highlight keywords in bold. Obviously, you should not overuse them. Repeating keywords excessively and without context will not help, as Google may penalize your website if it reviews it.
- Meta tags and descriptions: it is necessary to provide information to search engines. You must indicate what content is available on your website so users can find it more easily. For this reason, it is always recommended to use page titles.