When your website visitors arrive, they are looking for, and need to find, very specific things. They enter your "front door" thinking: 1. "Make it quick, I don't have time to waste." 2. "Make it easy for me to understand the benefit." 3. "Make it easy for me to reply." 4. "Don't let me down." Funny enough, or not so really, the MAJOR search engines are looking for, and need to find, these same "features" in order to give your website the thumbs up and allow your webpage to be listed. However, a search engine is much more specific in the sense that the overall flow through of your website must meet a particular set of criteria. To ensure you're on the right track with your current or soon to be in existence website, let's take a look at Google's Quality Guidelines. Basic Google Search Engine Website Principles: Make pages for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users, or present different content to search engines than you display to users. Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?" Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links. Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our terms of service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google. Pretty straightforward, right? Well Google, in it's effort to help you help yourself, has also posted a more specific set of rules. They are: Google's Specific Recommendations: Avoid hidden text or hidden links. Don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects. Don't send automated queries to Google. Don't load pages with irrelevant words. Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content. Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content. Now take a trip back up a few paragraphs. Did you notice that Google specifically mentions programs like WebPosition Gold and automatic submission programs. Using programs like this can be the kiss of death for your website. People try fooling spiders all the time. But, spider algorithms are so immense, so changeable, and so mathematical that you WILL NOT FOOL Google for long. Regardless of what the latest and greatest craze out there is telling you, and recently I've been hearing how "unimportant" it is to get ranked in search engines, we all know that's hogwash. You use search engines, right? Stands to reason the rest of the planet does, too. So getting listed IS an important aspect to doing business online. And, once you are listed, you want and need to stay listed! Don't jeopardize your ranking by trying off-the-wall, could-get-you-blacklisted-forever techniques. Content, easy navigation, and filling the needs of visitors and search engines are the only things that matter. Be professional, provide what they come looking for and the rest will fall into place. Next time, we'll take a look at Free Search Engine Submission Tips. Until then, happy designing! |
