2 questions on search engine optimization?

Question

Hi all,

have 2 questions which needs your insight and guidance:

1. my website appears in the search rankings of Google when I use the "search the web" function, but not for "pages for Singapore". How do i ensure my website appears also in the rankings when I use "pages for Singapore"?

2. Google shows duplicate pages of my website in its search results eg 2 copies of "About Us" - one result shows the pages description; one doesn't - it simply picks up text from the body. How do i ensure Google only shows the page with the carefully crafted page description?

Many thanks to community for help and insight

Answer 1

Magirhy,



Here is my answer to your questions—which are clear for professional working in the field" ;-)





==== "Search the Web" vs "Search pages from Singapore" ====



You said that your pages appear in the global index—Search the Web—at not in the local index—Search pages from Singapore.



Here is the reason why.



But before, you simply need to step back and quietly listen to what Google is telling you—it doesn't qualify them for local search. My guess is that you have a .com domain, maybe hosted outside of SG—all of which doesn't give a hint to Google about the audience you target.



Google—among other search engines (SE)—says that the top-level domain (TLD)—e.g., .com.sg—is sufficient to help relate the site to a country—and in most cases, a language.



And lucky you, Google allows you to explicitly target a country for your site—regardless of its TLD—within Google Webmaster Tools (GWMT) (see link below). In which case, Google says the TLD doesn't matter. In fact it helps Google localize a country-agnostic site—i.e., .com, .org, .net, .info.



Aside from explicit localization in GWMT or from the TLD of your choice, Google says that the IP address of your site—something link 66.201.244.33—is also part of the localization equation they use. So it's better to host it as close as possible to Singapore—ideally locally or at least in Asia.



In a nutshell, you don’t need to register a .com.sg but merely:



1. geotarget your site in GWMT (see link at the bottom on how to link a site to a country); and



2. create a profile in Google Local Business Center (GLBC) associated with this domain (see link at the bottom on how to create a GLBC profile).





==== Provided description vs. Google’s own page description ====



Google uses the description provided in the page metatag ONLY when the keyword combination searched is found within it—otherwise, Google comes up with its own description built from occurrences of words within the page content.



Is there a way to ensure Google only shows the page with the carefully crafted page description?



—NO.



As I said, Google will come up with its own description. So you have to make sure to embed in your description all the keywords you deem important and relevant for your site in order to maximize the appearance of the carefully crafted description in search engine results pages (SERP).



Note: Geotargeting a site doesn't exclude it from the global catalog and it will still appear in international search; the opposite is not true though—an untargeted site is disadvantaged compared to geotargeted and country-TLD'ed sites when searches are performed against the local index.





—Pascal

Answer 2

Hi!



I am a little unclear as to what you mean in your first question, so it makes it hard to answer. Can you provide links to the results that you are referring to?



As for your second question, google will pick up and display what it considers to be the most highly relevant content to display. Unlike some of the other major search engines, Google does not simply pick up on the description and display that in the results.



I would follow that answer up with, why do you need Google to pick up certain information from your page description? If your content is written correctly and is relevant to your topic, then it should not matter. Remember, very few people actually read the description that is displayed under a Google search. Your focus should be put on your ranking for your specific keywords. Thats where truly good SEO comes in to play.



Thanks!

Answer 3

SEO and SEM should not be confused. Keywords help but they are only part of the algorithm that search engines use to shuffle results. Popularity, usability link quantities etc make a secret formula used by these search engines. SEM gets you in the top "sponsored results/sites" areas, the areas around the frame of the page are paid advertisers (which is way more profitable to advertise in), this is SEM. SEO is different, it lands your listing in the organic results area , these areas will get harder to find as time progresses forward. think of the web as real estate. it is getting gobbled up by paid advertising