Google has created a massive database containing the details of most web pages on the Internet.
When someone searches for a particular word or phrase, Google shows a list of appropriate pages and sorts them in order of relevance.
At the top of the page are ads which are served from “Adwords“, Google’s advertising service. The ads appear in a shaded part of the page at the top and also in the column on the far right of the page.
If the search phrase used is location based, such as “Dublin Restaurants”, Google will usually show a number of entries with Map / Location Details from “Google Places”.
The Natural Search listings are displayed below the ads and the Google Places listings .
Google was the company that developed the concept of “PageRank“. In essence, this is a concept which recognises the fact that some websites and web pages should have more authority than others and that greater weight should be given to links from pages & sites that are more important, ones that have a greater “pagerank”! For example, a link from a university website or government department has greater authority than a link from a personal blog.
The software used to determine both pagerank & page relevance is complex and takes into account hundreds of factors. However the most important are:
- The use of the search phrase on individual pages & websites;
- The interlinking of pages on a website and the phrases used to link them;
- The inclusion of the search phrase on links back to websites & pages;
- The geographical location of the user
- The “Quality” of the websites linking to individual pages
Most of the factors that are used by Google to determine relevance are fairly sensible. For example, if a website showed an address as being in Bray, Co Wicklow , has a link from the Irish Institute of Funeral Directors, has text which includes words like “Coffin”, Cremation, Cemetery, Church, Flowers, Undertaker etc. This site should feature highly if someone in Dublin does a search on Google for “Bray Funeral Director”.
The problem arises when there are many different websites, all of whom are competing for a particular phrase. In this case, it is important to do everything possible to demonstrate the relevance of your website for those phrases that are critical to your business. That’s where you need a Google Marketing Specialist…… That’s when you need Hoot!
