Search Engine Optimization according to Google
When the world’s largest search engine releases a starter guide for search engine optimization, which Google did this week, it tends to evoke a certain respect. When Google mentions that following their suggestions “could have a noticeable impact on your site’s user experience and performance in organic search results,” webmasters tend to take notice.
When I began working in SEO full-time in 2004, Google tried to act as if there was no such thing as SEO. They basically tried to say, “Just create good websites, and let us decide how to rank them. Stop trying to figure out how we do it. And certainly don’t try to figure out how to get us to rank them higher.” Of course, that didn’t work. Google still insists that webmasters should focus on pleasing human visitors, not search engine spiders. But their starter guide, which began as an internal document, sets out what’s important to them and their spiders.
I’ve gone through the document and simply cut and pasted all the headlines for you below. We’ll continue to elaborate these issues ourselves in the future, but if you want to hear it from the horse’s mouth, download Google’s PDF document.
Edit: Google released an updated version of the SEO Starter Guide in September 2010.
Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
Create unique, accurate page titles
Good practices for page title tags
- Accurately describe the page’s content
- Create unique title tags for each page
- Use brief, but descriptive titles
Make use of the “description” meta tag
Good practices for description meta tags
- Accurately summarize the page’s content
- Use unique descriptions for each page
Improve the structure of your URLs
Good practices for URL structure
- Use words in URLs
- Create a simple directory structure
- Provide one version of a URL to reach a document
Make your site easier to navigate
Good practices for site navigation
- Create a naturally flowing hierarchy
- Use mostly text for navigation
- Use “breadcrumb” navigation
- Put an HTML sitemap page on your site, and use an XML Sitemap file
- Consider what happens when a user removes part of your URL
- Have a useful 404 page
Offer quality content and services
Good practices for content
- Write easy-to-read text
- Stay organized around the topic
- Use relevant language
- Create fresh, unique content
- Offer exclusive content or services
- Create content primarily for your users, not search engines
Write better anchor text
Good practices for anchor text
- Choose descriptive text
- Write concise text
- Format links so they’re easy to spot
- Think about anchor text for internal links too
Use heading tags appropriately
Good practices for heading tags
- Imagine you’re writing an outline
- Use headings sparingly across the page
Optimize your use of images
Good practices for images
- Use brief, but descriptive filenames and alt text
- Supply alt text when using images as links
- Store images in a directory of their own
- Use commonly supported filetypes
Make effective use of robots.txt
Good practices for robots.txt
- Use more secure methods for sensitive content
Be aware of rel=”nofollow” for links
Promote your website in the right ways
Good practices for promoting your website
- Blog about new content or services
- Don’t forget about offline promotion
- Know about social media sites
- Add your business to Google’s Local Business Center
- Reach out to those in your site’s related community
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