After building websites for businesses around Louisiana for more years than some people have owned their email address, one thing has become painfully obvious: a lot of websites make absolutely no sense to Google.
And honestly, some barely make sense to humans.
A business owner will call and say something like, “Brett, why am I not showing up on Google?”
Then the website loads slower than a pot of gumbo on low heat, the homepage says “Welcome To Our Website,” and the navigation menu looks like somebody threw darts at random page titles.
Google is smart. Scary smart. But it still needs clues.
Think of Google like a tourist from another planet trying to figure out what a business does. If the website clearly says roofing company, plumbing company, attorney, dentist, or air conditioning contractor, life is easy. If the homepage says things like “innovative lifestyle solutions for tomorrow’s future,” Google starts sweating and reaching for aspirin.
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is trying to sound overly corporate instead of simply explaining what they actually do.
- A roofer should say roofer.
- A seafood restaurant should say seafood restaurant.
- A lawyer should probably mention being a lawyer at least once or twice.
Simple stuff.
Instead, some websites read like somebody lost a bet with a marketing consultant in 2007.
The structure of a website matters too. Google likes organization. Clean menus. Proper headings. Logical page flow. Clear service pages. It wants to understand the difference between the homepage, service pages, blog articles, and contact information.
Basically, Google appreciates a website that doesn’t look like a garage sale exploded onto the internet.
Another thing people don’t realize is that Google reads websites a little differently than humans do. Humans may glance at photos first. Google is reading code, structure, text hierarchy, metadata, page speed, mobile responsiveness, and about a thousand other things that would make a normal person immediately need a nap.
For example, heading tags matter.
That giant title at the top of the page? Important.
Subheadings? Important too.
If every line on the website is bold, red, flashing, spinning, and underlined, Google gets confused. Humans do too, but humans usually just quietly leave the website while pretending the internet broke.
Page speed is another huge deal now.
Back in the old days, people would patiently wait for a website to load while listening to a dial-up modem scream like a raccoon trapped in a trombone. Those days are over. Today, if a website takes more than a few seconds to load, visitors disappear faster than free food at a Saints tailgate.
Google notices that behavior.
If people instantly leave a website because it loads slowly or looks terrible on mobile phones, Google starts thinking maybe the site is not very useful. That affects rankings over time.
And speaking of mobile phones, there are still businesses operating websites that look fantastic on desktop computers but turn into absolute chaos on phones.
- Tiny text.
- Buttons stacked on top of each other.
- Photos the size of billboards.
- Menus that require the precision of a brain surgeon to click.
Google is heavily focused on mobile usability now because most people search on phones. If a site performs poorly on mobile, Google notices immediately.
Then there’s content.
Google loves content.
Not fake robotic content stuffed with keywords every three words like some kind of SEO hostage situation. Real content. Helpful content. Informative content.
If somebody owns a roofing company in New Orleans, Google likes seeing articles about roofing problems in Louisiana weather, hurricane preparation, insurance claims, attic ventilation, and common roof damage.
That tells Google the business actually understands the topic instead of simply repeating “best roofer New Orleans” 400 times like an unhinged parrot.
Internal linking also matters more than people realize.
A good website connects related topics together naturally. Service pages link to blogs. Blogs link to related services. Contact pages are easy to find. Google follows those connections like a roadmap.
Without proper linking, a website becomes digital spaghetti.
Another thing businesses overlook is image optimization.
A shocking number of websites upload giant photos directly from smartphones without resizing them first. Suddenly the website is trying to load a 14-megabyte photo of somebody holding a wrench.
Google sees that too.
So does every visitor waiting 12 seconds for the page to appear.
And then there’s consistency.
Google pays attention to business information across the internet. If the website says one phone number, Facebook says another, and Google Business Profile lists a third number from 2014, things start getting weird.
Google likes consistency because consistency builds trust.
At the end of the day, making a website easier for Google to understand is really about making it easier for everybody to understand.
- Clear structure
- Clear messaging.
- Fast performance.
- Helpful information.
- Logical organization.
- No chaos.
- No mystery.
- No homepage music suddenly blasting at full volume like it’s 1999.
The funny part is most businesses already know their industry better than anybody else. The challenge is translating that knowledge into a website that both humans and Google can easily interpret.
That’s where strategy comes in.
Because in today’s world, a website is not just a digital business card anymore. It’s the front door, the salesperson, the receptionist, the brochure, and sometimes the first impression somebody has of an entire company.
And trust me… Google is definitely judging it.
