5 quick fixes for making sure your new & improved website can be found by Google.
What is the top assumption our clients make when building a new website, you ask? Well of course, a new website means more traffic, more sales, and a promotion for the marketing director. Right? Um…we’ll just come out and say it: no. Just because you have launched a new website does not mean the search engines know it’s out there (yes I know, we think Google knows everything, but they don’t…yet…).
Here are 5 fixes you can do fairly quickly and cheaply to ensure your site can be found by the search engines.
- Place a 301 permanent redirect on either the www or the non-www version of your site. A 301 is a permanent way of redirecting one url to another. Search engines automatically see the non-www and the www as two competing websites.
- Use the Google Keyword Tool to determine what people are searching on that is relevant to your site, and add that phrase to the beginning of your homepage title tag, as well as the rest of your homepage meta tags. A developer should be able to add these in for you and you can see your title and description meta tags when doing a Google search for your name (it is typically the listing that pops up). An example title tag might be: “interactive agency chicago | envisionit media.”
- Make sure that same phrase is in your homepage content, sprinkled in a couple times if you can make it fit without seeming obvious.
- The motherload: claim your listing in Google & Bing Webmaster Tools asap to alert Google the site exists and needs indexing. That includes the addition of an xml sitemap, which is just a guide for search engine spiders to navigate throughout your site.
- Claim your business in Maps – Google, Yahoo and Bing. This may take a few weeks to get approved and listed, but the set up is fairly quick and easy. You can go to Google Local Business Center, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local to claim those.
And if you’re not sure how to proceed with these tips on your own…well that’s what we’re here for!!
