Leveraging the power of Drupal to improve Google ranking

To achieve higher rankings in Google, website owners need to know what their current PageRank is and constantly strive to improve it. PageRank is the technology and algorithm that Google uses to sort websites and search results. The higher your PageRank, the better your position will be among other sites within the same search.

Google constantly strives to improve their search technology to achieve perfection, defined by Larry Page as something that, "understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want." While there are over 500 million variables that are considered within the PageRank algorithm, providing lots of good, authoritative content is still the single best way to rank higher.

Fortunately, with a Drupal site, it's easy to set up a variety of different ways to add content to your site. Since not every business owner will have the time to write lengthy articles regularly, it's important to have options available to you so that can always find some way to update your site and add content. We covered blogging in an earlier article, Blogging for your Business, but what are some other options?

1.  Case Studies

A Case Study is typically an in depth look at a particular project or client. The purpose of a Case Study is to illustrate an example of the kind of project you might tackle, some of the challenges that might arise, and how you would work to overcome those challenges.

Case Studies can be particularly effective in converting sales since potential clients can read about someone else's project and can relate to the issues they went through, and marvel at how you helped them.

More importantly, a Case Study should be a rather lengthy, detailed description of the project, the client, the circumstances, the issues that came up, the ways those issues were resolved, and how the project ultimately was concluded. Therefore, there are many, many opportunities throughout the Case Study to ensure that you use your targeted keywords.

While an extensive explanation of targeted keywords is food for a different article, the idea here is that you have a set collection of keywords and keyword phrases that you think your potential customers will use in a search engine to find a business like yours. It is critical that you keep these keywords in the back of your mind and ensure that they're used as often as possible in your writing. If you do not use your keywords, you might as well not have written anything at all.

2.  Testimonials

Hopefully, you are doing such a wonderful job for your clients that they will occasionally pen a testimonial for you. Every time you receive a testimonial, you should make sure that it appears somewhere on your website. For instance, you'll find within StadiaStudio.com a testimonial appears in the sidebar, as well as on our Feedback page.

Just like Case Studies, Testimonials are a great tool to convert visitors into sales, or at least strong leads. Potential clients may not read every testimonial on your site, but if one or two catch their eye as they're browsing through your website, they'll continue to get to know, like and trust you.

The best part about Testimonials is that someone else has already done the hard work of writing them. It should only take a matter of minutes for you to log into your site and copy & paste the text from your email or wherever you received the feedback.

3.  Frequently Asked Questions

Every site should have a growing list of frequently asked questions. First, it will save you time. Frequently Asked Questions are aptly named - they're those questions that you get asked over and over. If the question and answer is on your website, you might save a phone call from a client. You might also demonstrate knowledge to a potential client and help reassure them that you truly are an expert in your field.

Frequently Asked Questions will generally be short and to the point. If you have a lot of FAQs, you should break them up into different categories.

4.  Articles

If you're already blogging, writing an occasional Article is a great idea. You can keep your blogs limited to short pieces on particular subjects, while you're articles can be longer and more general.

For instance, you might use your blog to talk about a recent job that you did for a client, but write an article on a more general "How To" topic, providing tips and information for all clients.

5.  Glossary Terms

A Glossary is a great place to provide definitions and explanations for abbreviations, jargon, technical and industry terms that are used throughout your website. With a Drupal site, the glossary is more than just a page though - it's a fully functional glossary that automatically tags words throughout your site that have an entry in your glossary ( like the superscript 'e' after E-Commerce ), so all you have to do is create the initial entry and let your site do the work.

Creating entries is easy - you can either write them yourself or just look them in an online dictionary or encyclopedia.

6.  Press Releases

Any time you are able to make an announcement of some kind for your business, you should issue a press release. Press Releases should be distributed online as well as sent to your local media outlets.

And of course, every business website should have some kind of News page that lists press releases and other articles in which the business has appeared.

7.  Documentation

Many businesses fall short when it comes to documentation, yet it's a relatively easy thing to provide. Documentation is generally the same things that you already tell your clients verbally (or should be telling them). The great benefit to you is that, once you write it down, you don't have to repeat it over and over again. You can simply refer your clients to your online documentation and have them contact you if they have any questions. As aspects of your business change or grow, you can modify your documentation appropriately.

In our case, we've used the Book feature of Drupal to provide documentation for our clients on our standard CMS implementations. As certain features become more and more common, we simply add a new chapter to the documentation that covers that feature.

8. Portfolio or Gallery

Most businesses can offer some kind of list of projects they've done, clients they've worked for, and / or pictures of past work. While it's great to provide a nice collection of images, or throw out some big name clients if you can, if that's all you do you're missing a great opportunity to not only talk about yourself in an interesting way, but also missing out on some great content opportunities.

Any picture or project you decide to put online should come with a detailed description of what it is your visitors are looking at and what it is you did. These should be mini-Case Studies.

For instance, if you glance through our online portfolio, not only will you see the names and screenshots of some of our work, you'll also be able to read a brief description of each project and a little bit about what made it unique or challenging. We also use Drupal's built-in categorization function to tag our projects by region, platform and industry so that interested visitors can view all our projects from a particular area. Tagging and Cross-linking pages also helps with search engines.

Not every business can utilize every one of these recommendations. However, each and every business owner should be able to incorporate at least two of these techniques within their website. If you use a few, and mix them up, you'll find that it's easier to add new content to your site regularly, and you'll be able to watch your search engine rankings and performance increase steadily over time.