As a local business owner, you know it’s important to market your business online so that you can be found by local consumers. But, it’s also important to know how sites like the Google search engine work and how to conduct searches that can help you – as a business owner and a consumer – find the information you want and need.
To help you become a better searcher, Google has put together a series of six online courses aimed at helping small business owners do just that, complete with video lessons and activities to practice what you learned. Here are a few lessons from the courses to help you learn a little more about how Google search works and how to get more out of it as a searcher. For more in-depth information, make sure to check out the entire program on Google’s power searching site.
How Google Search Works
What exactly happens when you conduct a search on Google? From spiders to indexing to PageRank, this video from Matt Cutts illustrates the process to help you better understand exactly how Google search works.
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The Art of Keyword Choices
When you search something on Google, how do you choose the keywords you want to search in order to get the best results? This is a critical skill to learn in order to become a more effective searcher – and it’s important to understand how consumers are selecting keywords when they search for local businesses. This video recommends three simple tips for picking the right term to conduct a search on:
- Think about what you’re trying to find
- Choose words you think will appear on the page
- Put yourself in the mindset of the author of those words
[gradient_divider]Reading the Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
Have you ever heard or seen the term “SERP”? This stands for search engine results page, and it’s the result you will see after tying a search term into Google. This video offers more information on understanding SERPs and how to read them.