How to Use Google Tools to Improve SEO

First, what is search engine optimization? Here’s a 3-minute video from Common Craft, in collaboration with Search Engine Land, that explains SEO:

You can use Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics to improve your search engine optimization ranking:

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools tells you how Google sees your website. If you’re not using the tool, go to Google Webmaster Tools to add and verify your site.

Keywords
To see what keywords Google associates with your website, in Google Webmaster tools go to: Your site > Keywords.

Looking at the keywords, can you do a better job at positioning your company?

In order for Google to understand who you are and what you do, you need a content strategy for your top keywords. This means that you need
to:

• Use top keywords in your page titles, blog categories and blog post titles.
• Have pages in your top-level navigation that explain what you do and your ideal clients.
• Write blog posts that explain your processes and target the type of people that would hire you. For example, if you’re an accountant who works with small businesses, write a blog post titled “5 Bookkeeping Best Practices for Small Businesses”.

Once you have a strong content strategy, Google will start to have a better understanding of who you are and will index your site more accurately.

Duplicate Content
Under Diagnostics > HTML suggestions, you’ll see if Google is detecting duplicate content on your site. If it is, address any of the suggestions listed.

You want to avoid Google thinking you have duplicate content because it limits your website’s ranking.

Site Performance
Under Labs > Site performance you can see the performance stats for your site. If Google thinks your site is slower than more than 50% of sites, you should work on improving your website’s speed.

A significant factor for site ranking is site performance. For help on improving your site performance, check out the resources on Google’s Page Speed.

Google Analytics

In addition to telling you how traffic is behaving on your site, Google Analytics can give you useful information for SEO.

Under Traffic Sources > Keywords you can see the keywords that people are using to come to your site from search engines.

Looking at this data:

• Are there keywords listed that you can use in your page titles and meta descriptions?
• Are there keywords that you can incorporate into blog posts and website content?
• How is your site ranking for these keywords? To see your page rank, download and use SEObook’s Rank Checker tool for Firefox

The content strategy tips above also apply here.

Learn More:

Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Optimization

5 Ways to Optimize Your Blog For Search

Top 5 Ranking Factors in Search