At least a dozen design clients have contacted me within one week of their website going live to frantically demand, "Why isn't my website in Google yet?!"
My first answer always is the same. "Google isn't sitting at home fretting, 'When is So-&-So going to finally make a website! I just can't wait until she has a site!' Google has no idea who you are. And, by the way, Google isn't a person, it's a technology. So not only doesn't it know who you are, it doesn't care."
Most of the people I say this to laugh self consciously as they realize just how ridiculous they were being thinking that Google, a company that announced in 2008 that it had indexed over one trillion websites, would take notice of their website in one week's time. Google is powerful but... come on.
The best way to obtain a good page rank is to work hard at creating valuable and relevant content. It isn't as fast a method as paying for sponsored listings but it will earn you consistent priority for relevant searches. Search engines use algorithms to determine page rank that are constantly changing due to new technology and also, unfortuantely, to counteract bad faith practices. The base of these algorithms, no matter how often they change, is always germane content. The content on your site should be pertinent to the purpose of your website, useful for users of your site, grammatically correct and updated often to stay relevant.
There needs to be almost as much thought as to how your content will be arranged throughout your website as there is to the actual content itself. Search engines check to make sure your entire website has a cohesive intent. Your pages should all have the same tone as well as a balanced amount of images and text. Obviously, there will be photo gallery pages or contact forms that have a natural imbalance or lack of purpose-driven content but the bulk of the site should organically work together. To help maintain focus, I often suggest that clients first write out a list of questions they want to answer on the website as well as key phrases that they think users will search for to find their site. Keeping this list in front of you while you develop the content for the site will help you integrate the keywords into the copy seamlessly and keep you centered. It is much easier to write consciously keyword-centered copy from the start rather than going back through and trying to cram it in. Search engine software depreciates random lists of keywords, especially those listed at the bottom of a page to try to increase the weight (number of times a word is used). This is why it is important to write fully constructed sentences that indicate to search engine software that your website speaks about a subject thoughtfully rather than just spewing a list of popular keywords.
Search engines not only look at your content but also look for your "popularity" with sites that have similiar content. Popularity is gauged by websites that link to your website. The measure of your inbound links is further arguement for creating relevant content that is valued by your users. Strong content (especially content that is updated frequently) will encourage repeat visitors who will also recommend your site through their websites and social networking portals. When other websites are recommending you via links, search engines will take this as a sign that your website is a valuable asset to the internet community and rank you accordingly.
Outbound links, or links to websites other than your own, are also considered by search engine algorithms. Linking to other websites shows you are actively promoting the communal intent of the internet that search engines look for. However, because websites have nefariously linked to websites that are not relevant simply to promote their page rank, outbound links are not counted as heavily as inbound links. Of course, linking to sites that have similiar intent will encourage them to visit your website* and they just might link back to you, thus increasing your inbound links. Think of it has hyperlinked kharma.
You should be thinking about search engine optimization from the very first stages of website development. It is important to choose a domain name that correctly describes the purpose of your website. Obviously, this gets more difficult as time goes by and there are few and fewer options for domain names. Whenever I decide I want a new tattoo, I make myself sit with the design for a minimum of 6 weeks before I get inked. For domain names, I suggest a minimum wait time for 6 days. You can change a website name more easily than a tattoo but once you build up the audience you won't want to. So make sure your name reflects the purpose of your site, is easy to remember & pass on to others , and that it's spelled right! (That last tip applies both to domain names and tattoos!)
Clean markup, alt text for images and a separate style sheet all make it easier for search engines to assess your website's content and apply a page rank. All search engines except The Open Directory Project (which is hand/human-indexed) use software programs called spiders to index your website. These spiders go through every page on your website and assess its content. If the software has to find its way though messy code or too many images that don't have a text description, this will lower your page rank. This is a major reason that I handcode all my websites so I know exactly what is going in the source code and avoid extra markup that might confuse search engine spiders. (For more information on the elements of web design such as "markup" and "alt text", see my terminology page.)
Of course, there are ways to get search engines to take notice of your website and rank you quickly. Most of these methods cost money. If you want to know how to invest your money wisely and to maximum effect in an SEO campaign, I will happily connect you with a respected online marketing firm. I work with all my clients throughout the development of their site to integrate good SEO practices and also advise on how to continue to improve your ranking over time. Regardless of whether you employ paid advertising methods or not, quality, useful content in an efficient, accessible website is the most important and most proven method to earn a priority ranking in all search engines.
*How do other people know you link to them? This is shown in a website's statistics. Most web hosting companies provides one or more means to check their statistics to determine how many visitors you've had, what pages they've looked at, how they found you and much more. You can also use the popular (and free!) Google Analytics to view your site's statistics.
