How Google works

Getting a top ranking in Google search results is top priority for every small business out there, but just creating and publishing a website is not going to achieve that goal by itself. Sure, we can make sure your website is optimised and structured correctly so that Google can index it properly and find all the relevant key information, but here is so much more that goes into your search ranking, and while we can influence some of it at the design stage, the rest will only come after more time, effort and (sometimes) money is invested. Have a look at this video by Matt Cutts, explaining how Google search works:

So, as we now know, a very important factor is links to and from your website. In the old days, we used to have a page on our sites with a list of 'friends' - other companies and websites we recommended or collaborated with, and this would give us a nice SEO boost. But, like keywords, Google has now learned to more or less ignore this, favouring organic content that is 'on topic' and that makes up part of the overall story or subject.

So, to go hand in hand with our previous article, " Do I really need a website " this article could be called, "do I really need a Facebook page?". And yes, you do. Apart from the fact that you can create a valuable (important) link to your website from your FB 'about' page, you can also create regular posts on Facebook that can drive even more business to your site. And not just Facebook, Twitter as well.

That is where the deep sharing options that IWD offers to its clients come into its own. Of course, you can create or buy an image and upload that to Facebook and create some content around it to make up a post. But when a user sees the post and clicks on the image, all they get is a bigger image. How much more exciting would it be if you could just copy and paste the URL of one of your website pages into Facebook, watch Facebook create a preview made up of an image and text we have set, in consultation with you of course, at the design stage of your website and THEN add your extra text, your special offer, your anecdote or your crazy new idea.
Now, when the user clicks on that image, it takes them straight to the page on your website. As I said, it can be an existing page on your site to highlight one of your services, or maybe a landing page created just for this month's special offer or event. Hey presto - more links TO your website, Google will be happy!

The deep sharing coding we add to each page of your site will also keep a count of the number of times that page was shared so you can see how well you're doing. And if you share that page on Facebook and someone shares that FB post, it will add to the number of times shared, even if the user didn't visit your website (hence 'deep' sharing). Clever, eh?
From time to time we can change the image and text to keep the content fresh but that is entirely up to you. For the sharing to be most effective, we create 2 images for each event, one for Facebook at the optimised size of 1200 x 630 pixels and one for a standard Twitter card at 600 x 600 pixels.

You can, of course, pay someone to manage your social network activity for you but, quite frankly, who has that kind of money to spare? But with a little bit of discipline and maybe an hour or so of your time at the start of every week, it is easy to do. You make a decision about the events, special offers or even just little rants you want to post on Facebook that week (let's say 3 posts) and you create them, linking each post to a page on your site. Facebook allows you to schedule the posts to be published at a day and time you specify and once that is done, you can focus on your work.
Remember that creating a Facebook post that only exists to sell something is much less effective that one that looks for a response, starts a discussion or imparts unbiased information. Think about it a while, make it fun and interesting. Do some research on the web for inspiration and, while you're at it, pay attention to the search queries you enter and the responses you get. After all, you now know how Google works!