SolveYourProblem
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Series
SEO Strategies for Google
Google is still the most popular search
engine out there, and they’re not showing any signs of slowing
down. It’s important to know how to get on the right
track with your SEO for Google. It is also important, however,
to remember that Google is not the only search engine out
there and that Yahoo! is also a highly rated search engine
which actually has more pop culture usage.
Before you can truly understand Google you must understand
a little bit of the history behind Google. In the beginning,
Google was considered by many to be the “Geek’s Search Engine.”
This changed as Google started delivering better and better
results. Google slowly evolved into the most trusted search
engine around, but Yahoo!’s advertising strength and popular
usage has still claimed a large number of users. It wasn’t
all that long ago when Yahoo! was the most popular search
engine by far.
Google’s
search engine is based on PageRank, a complex
algorithm that was revolutionary when it was invented.
This page rank
is the primary reason that Google is so popular. The Page
Ranking technology that Google has created and the evolutionary
steps that Google has taken to increase the strength of its
algorithm has made it a search engine giant which actually
sets out to protect internet users from fraudulent web sites.
Google has come to be a search engine that cannot
really be tricked. It’s kind of the integrity
police of the world wide web. Basically, Google checks
the number of links to
each site in its database, and treats them as ‘votes’. Here
are some tips on getting ranked high on Google:
1. The more incoming links you have, the better your chances
are. Good links are ones that are relevant to your
own page and link with text that makes it obvious that they
intended
to link to your site. Google has also recently integrated
a new piece into its algorithm which makes old links better
than new links. In Google’s opinion, if a link withstands
the test of time it is has to be relevant or else both parties
would have removed the link after not seeing any positive
action by Google. Basically, this is another one of Google’s
“keeper of integrity” options that have become so famous
among SEOs.
2. Links from ‘authority’ sites, such as directories or
non-profit organizations, tend to produce better results
than links from commercial sites. Google likes to decide
what sites are important. A site has some huge credential
for being a spectacular source for quality information will
be appreciated more than sites that don’t have such strong
affiliations with quality work and content. This will result
in stronger, more heavily weighted links to and from this
site.
3. Site elements to consider for Google are the title (including
the strongest keyword phrase), the meta description (Google
displays this to its users) and the body text (it needs to
be highly-focused and use keywords well), as well as your
onsite navigation.
4. Make sure that Google can spider the whole site easily. You’ll probably want to have plain links to every page on
your site at the bottom of each of your pages.
Don’t forget, though, that Google is strict about ‘cheaters’
who use unethical SEO techniques. Here are some things that
Google hates:
1. Getting lots of ‘shadow domains’ that all point to one
site.
2. Using doorway pages.
3. Using falsified WHOIS information.
4. Sites that are "fake" search
engines or spyware.
Google
Facts and Fiction
Google has an article on its site called ‘Google Facts and
Fiction’. For example:
Fiction: Advertising on Google affects my rankings in the
search results.
Fact: Advertising with Google neither helps (nor hurts!)
a site's rankings on Google.
Fiction: Sites that are not HTML are not included in Google's
index
Fact: Google is and does index as many file formats as possible,
however there are some that it cannot index. File types Google
is able index include: pdf, asp, jsp, hdml, shtml, xml, cfm,
doc, xls, ppt, rtf, wks, lwp, wri, swf.
Everyone who wants to optimize for Google should make sure
they read this article, to avoid common mistakes.
