How to Get Your Dealer Website Indexed in Google Search …
Whether you’re implementing a new website or fine tuning your existing site, you don’t want to miss these three keys.
Note: This very basic primer is related to a greater discipline known as “Search Engine Optimization” (or “SEO” for short), which aims to “optimize” the presentation and availability of web content for proper (i.e. thorough) indexing and ranking in the major search engines. There are a few SEO resources provided at the end of the post.
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Get Listed in Google Places.
This is critical if you want to come up strong in local search results. Google Places makes it much easier and faster for RV buyers to find your information when they search for you.
Here are the steps you should follow to get listed in Google Places.
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Get Some Links Pointing To Your Website.
A link pointing from one website to another is one of the primary ways Google discovers new websites for indexing. Links are still heavily involved in how websites get ranked.
As such, you’ll want to get some links pointing to your site ASAP.
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Make sure that all of your Social Media profiles include a link to your website.
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If you have an old domain name and you are moving to a new one, you can redirect the entire domain. Be careful when doing this, however. Get professional help.
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Ask for links from non-spammy (important!) websites, such as well respected, industry specific sites, your local Chamber of Commerce, etc.
Overall, become “link aware.” (I.e. look for new, quality link opportunities and get rid of spammy links.) This will help your rankings.
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Make Sure Your Site Has High Quality Unique Content.
Strongly avoid the use of “duplicate content,” i.e. content that exists already somewhere else on the web. One prime example of this SEO-costly practice, which many dealers fall into the trap of, is copying & pasting manufacturer product descriptions.
“Google tries hard to index and show pages with distinct information.”
By writing your own high quality unique content you will avoid duplicate content penalties from Google.
There are many more advanced topics and nuances to “Search Engine Optimization,” most of which can be found freely online. Make sure to read Google’s guidelines and stick with the most current information you can find as Google regularly updates their search engine technology.
If You Want To Go Deeper, Here Are Some Other Resources:
Moz is one of the top non-Google sources for information about search engine optimization. They have a community of users and thought contributors as well as a robust set of “SEO” (and other marketing) tools and resources. Their blogs are particularly interesting, filled with in-depth SEO concepts and discussions.
Matt Cutts’ Blog & The Google Webmasters YouTube Channel
Matt is the “head of Google’s Webspam team,” but he is also among the best sources of direct information from Google regarding SEO and Google’s position on various topics. He has scores of Q&A videos on a wide range of topics, answering questions submitted by real people.
Here’s an interesting blog post by Matt titled, “The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO”
The Google Webmasters YouTube Channel contains many (if not all) of his videos.
There are many other sources of information out there; some of which are quite insightful. Be sure to check the date on anything you read or watch, because there have been some fairly major changes to the way Google’s search engine works more or less every year for the last few years.
Bio:
Drew Clifton is a web analytics and search engine optimization consultant with RVT.com.
