If you’re reading this article, you probably want to increase your website’s visibility on search engines. You’ve surely heard about Indexing and Ranking a website on Google: in this article I want to explain the difference between the two activities and suggest some key strategies that will allow you to increase your website’s visibility.

First of all, it’s essential to make a distinction between “Indexing” and “ranking”. They’re often used as synonyms; in reality they refer to two totally different dynamics.

INDEXING

Indexing is the process by which a website’s pages are added to search engine listings. These web pages are shown when a user searches for something on Google, Bing, or other search engines. I’ll explain better how search engines work: search engines use software called “spiders” that frequently scan the web to find new web pages, to add them to the list. Spiders also check websites already indexed to see whether they have added or removed more pages. 

POSITIONING

Google’s goal is to provide the best possible results to users who are searching for something. For this reason, Google ranks websites on the SERP (search engine results page), or results page, based on how relevant they are to the search.
 
The result is shown as soon as the user enters specific keywords. Your site’s position is the key to getting a good result; in fact, depending on the position it holds, the site will receive more or fewer clicks. Keep in mind that results at the top of the page get 70% more clicks than results on the following pages. Site ranking depends on three elements: keyword relevance, number of sites that mention the site, originality of the content. 

The strategy to get a good position is called SEO (search engine optimization), a set of strategic digital marketing activities designed to optimize the visibility of the website. 

Below I’m giving you some crucial tips that you’ll need to index and rank your website on Google. 

HOW TO INDEX A WEBSITE

As we said, indexing is the process through which search engine software analyzes and classifies the web pages available.  

The indexing process is not immediate: if you put a site online it won’t be indexed after a few minutes, but it may take a few days. To speed up the indexing process, instead of waiting for the spiders’ analysis, you can send the information directly to search engines. 

Sending the information happens via a file called a Sitemap, that is, the list of pages on your website, to Google Search Console. This process is a bit technical, but Flazio has provided an automatic sitemap generation system that lets you send your website information to Google in one click. In fact, inside your editor you have a dedicated panel where you’ll find the sitemap to send in one click and a section where you can connect the site to Google Search Console.

HOW TO IMPROVE A WEBSITE'S RANKING WITH FLAZIO

Submitting the sitemap allows the website to be indexed, meaning it is added within the lists of pages available on the web. These will be the pages the search engine will show as soon as the user types specific keywords.

The next step is to increase your website’s visibility, this is an activity linked to two disciplines: SEO and SEM. By applying these strategies we can achieve two important results: increase website traffic and the number of visits. 

Let me explain better: through SEO activities we can improve ranking and therefore the visibility of the website in an organic or free way. With SEM strategies (search engine marketing), instead, the increase in visibility happens through the launch of PPC - pay per click - advertising campaigns. 

Both strategies are based on the use of keywords (keywords) or groups of keywords (long tail) relevant to the site’s content.

Below I suggest some SEO strategy activities that you can apply right away to increase your website’s visibility. 

Write content for clients

The first step in writing your website texts is to think about the key keywords for your business, meaning those words that identify your business as clearly as possible.
 This doesn’t mean adding keywords at random, but placing them within meaningful sentences, so you will also need to use synonyms. The important thing is that the texts are developed in a way that is usable both by search engines and by users who are looking for information within your website. For example, if your company produces artisanal ice cream your main keyword will be “ Sicilian Artisan Gelateria”. 
NB: a good strategy is to add a blog within your site, so you can enrich it with content.

Insert Tag - Title (h1) for each page of your website

It’s essential that every page of your website contains a clear, distinctive and descriptive title of your business. The title must include the main keyword to make the content clear both to users and to Google spiders, for example “Sicilian artisan gelato”. In this way you are telling Google and users which website text is most relevant. You should also add h2 - h3 - h4, that is, mark the subtitles and the following paragraphs of each page in order of relevance.

Set titles and descriptions for your website pages

The title is the intro text of your website that is shown on the search results page (serp). The description includes further useful info about the content of web pages (I suggest adding the keyword used in the title as well). 

Titles and descriptions are essential for two reasons: 
- for Google, because it is a very accurate detector of your web page content 
- for users, who must be encouraged to click the search result instead of the other results. 

Add ALT tags to images

Alt-tags or alternative text is a short description of the inserted images. You will need to add a short description for each image on your website. This way you will allow Google to understand what the image contains. (also in this case the alt tag must contain a keyword relevant to the image).

It will be easy to follow these strategies with Flazio. In fact, inside your editor you will find a dedicated “Site indexing” panel  that will allow you to increase your website’s visibility through the activities described above. Follow my advice step by step and I assure you that results are already just around the corner. 

Create your site with an extra edge with Flazio!