Google Briefing: Organic Search

Google ran the second of its 2016 Breakfast Briefing series today. The topic was an introduction to organic search, titled “Grow Your Business with Organic Search”. The presentation was pitched to provide those new to digital/websites with an overview of how Google searches the web and returns results.

While the data presented today was at a basic level, there is always something to be gleaned from any presentation, hence this synopsis. The presentation was effectively delivered in two parts. The first part explained how Google searches, how it delivers its results and the inherent implications of this process for your website. The second part looked at some of the tools available in Google Search Console to enable you to assess your website’s performance in searches.

1. Google: Crawling – Indexing – Ranking

Those three words basically outline the process followed by the Google search engine. Its robots will “crawl” all the available data on the web, finding all newly added content. They then index all the data found so that it’s easily searchable. Finally, they rank it all based on its quality and how the data will fulfil the needs of a search request entered by a user.

The key point here for a website owner is that if the content on your website is not of sufficiently high quality and is not relevant to the search terms, then your site is unlikely to be listed highly (if it’s listed at all) in the search results. Two tips to improve your site’s results:

Optimise your Site Content: A key point to remember in developing website content is that you need to write for your customers. You have to give them what they’re searching for. So the best option is to optimise your site for the user, with your most important/key data easily found. Importance should drive visibility and visibility will drive conversions. How do you want them to interact with your site? Every page in a website should have a goal and a purpose. If it doesn’t take it out or make in more relevant – your website should give your users some value.

Is it Mobile Friendly: this is a very important factors Google looks at when ranking sites in search engine results. It is important that your site works well on mobile devices. To a lesser degree, Google will look for a HTTPS designated, indicating site security is in place.

2. Google Search Console

The Google Search Console is a great, free tool offered by Goggle. Apart from other functions it will let you know how “visible” your site is to Google. And it will tell you how Google understands your site or even if it knows your website exists. Some of the key items to look for are:

Index: how many pages of your website is Google aware of
Robots.txt Tester: this will let you know if your site is accessible by Google or not (look for a message saying “No Errors. No Warnings” and all is OK)
Crawl Errors: what pages on your site are not being found.
Search Traffic (Pages): will show you what pages are being viewed the most.

The Google Search Console can be found at https://www.google.com/webmasters. However, you need to have your site verified by Google before it will show in the search console. For more information on using Search Console or setting it up please email us at BBMM: [email protected]

About the Author: Charlie Cummins

Charlie focuses on the analytics area of digital media, using Google and Clicky Analytics. Social media activities and email marketing results are all analysed for insights. His natural affinity for analytics comes from his previous experience in media planning & strategy. Charlie brings more than analytical insights to Bbmm: he successfully studied the full gamut of digital media at the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) at postgraduate level. Charlie now brings this experience directly into play on client website design, content writing and SEO.