Every time Google releases a new search engine algorithm, like Panda and Penguin, many webmasters throw up their arms in despair, complaining how their sites have dropped off the first page of Google…
While other webmasters are elated because their sites are getting more traffic.
Some are just not affected at all.
And when it comes to optimizing your site for Google and the other search engines, many would have you believe that there is some ‘secret’ formula involved.
I’ve got great news for you…
When it comes to SEO, there are NO secrets!
In fact, Google WANT you to know exactly what they are looking for. They want you to create a site that offers internet users want they want, and they’ve even outlined what they look for in a site.
They call it Webmaster Guidelines. You can even download the pdf version of it here.
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines is very comprehensive. Here’s some of the points that are covered:
Design and Content Guidelines
- Have a structured site where each page can be reached by at least one static text link
- Don’t have too many links on a page
- Have unique, useful content with accurate, clear headlines, sub-headlines, etc (as required)
- Have a sitemap that has links, at least, to the important pages of your site
- Keep dynamic pages to a minimum (dynamic pages are pages that are generated as need; the opposite of a static page)
Technical Guidelines
- Use different browsers to test if your site appears correctly in all of them
- Keep your site’s loading time at an optimum rate. Sites and/or pages that load slowly are looked upon less favorably
- Use your robots.txt file to exclude any pages and/or directories that you don’t want the Google spider to crawl through
Quality Guidelines
- When creating your pages, keep your visitors in mind, not the search engines
- Don’t use techniques intended to manipulate search engines
- Keep away from link schemes
- Don’t create multiple pages on your domain with duplicate content (this issue is raised a lot when it comes to SEO. My understanding is that Google looks unfavourably upon duplicate content WITHIN a site)
The examples given above are just some of the many important guidelines that Google has outlined. I encourage you to read them all here.
By following these guidelines, you will find that your sites will rank very well on Google and all the search engines…
And you won’t be affected by algorithm changes!
SEO is not a mystery and it’s not hard. Follow the guidelines that Google has laid out in plain and simple terms and you will be successful and have nothing to fear.