How To Make Google Love Your Website

love you

As I write this there are only thirteen days left until, what most consider to be the most stressful holiday, Valentine’s Day. While everyone else is scrambling to buy those chalky chocolate Russian roulettes maybe this should be the year that you concern yourself with a different type of love affair? I’m not talking about your weird neighbors’ from across the street. It’s time you thought about the relationship between your website and Google.

But Google is just too temperamental! There are no guaranteed ways to make Google love your website! Half of that might be true but with time and patience, there are several things you can do to make your website desirable. For today, let’s focus on four simple ways to win this search engine’s affection.

Responsive Design

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but responsive design is one of the easiest ways for both users and Google to fall madly in love with you. Focusing on this type of design allows for your website to be accessed on all platforms. The biggest deterrent for most when going to a website is seeing that “view our desktop version” link. Google has separate scores for desktop and mobile but takes both into consideration when it ranks search results for websites. Why not use the motto, two birds one stone, by utilizing responsive design to score high on both? With this, you’ve only just begun the process of making google love your website. 

 

Loading Speed

This should be a given. Like how we hate waiting on dates who are late, Google hates websites that take too long to get ready. Having a website with quick loading time helps keep users interacting with your website. Google tracks how long users are on your site as well as how fast they leave your site from the first page they click on. When your website sees longer visits it’s going to rank higher than sites that lose users very quickly. So don’t forget to freshen up and optimize your website every now and then.  

 

Meta descriptions

Think of this as a page’s Tinder bio. With such few characters, it’s important to make a good impression. When you have well-written meta descriptions that also contain keywords specific to that page, Google will totally swipe right. These little descriptions not only tell search engines what the page is about but it’s what it displays to users to help them know they found the right page.

 

Alt Tag

Out of these four practices, I feel as if this is the most overlooked but easiest one to do. The Alt Tag ( or alternative text) is what is used to describe an image to Google. Since a search can’t see the photo it needs text to be able to describe it. This text is also displayed when the server cannot find that photo and it’s helpful to visually impaired users who use screen readers. But, my favorite thing about alt tags is that they help a website rank for other relevant keywords.

 

Like any relationship, the one between your website and Google requires a lot of time and effort. And certain problems need to be addressed before it really starts to harm that bond. When it comes to understanding SEO, it can take just as long. Lucky for you, we can act as your website’s matchmaker and help make those steps towards getting Google to love your website as much as you do. Reach out to us today to find out more information!