Latest posts by James Martell (see all)
- Building A Better Fathers Day With Gifts That Give Back - June 6, 2013
- The Simple Path To Google Rankings Success - January 14, 2013
- Google Rankings – The Gift That Keeps On Giving - November 12, 2012
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For some reason I don’t fear Google.
I guess it goes back to my early days when gaining top rankings was brain-dead easy.
I’ll never forget the day when a Google Top 10 page listed only sites built by either myself or one of my students for a “money” keyword in a very competitive industry :: {cell phones}.
But there is no doubt things have changed.
It’s more competitive now because not only has Google fine tuned their algorithms to filter all sorts of weak content and backlink tricks but companies now routinely invest big bucks in optimization.
However, along with this trend of companies seeking to “improve ROI through SEO” :: as the humorous National Car Rental TV ads remind us :: goes the all-to-human-tendency of “over thinking” a fairly simple concept.
I think of Google as library.
And like any library people can find useful information about topics, or subjects they are interested in.
However, book libraries would be useless without an organizing system.
Because of the Dewey Decimal System a library assigns a number that makes it easy to locate a particular volume to within a short length of shelving which makes it simple to find any particular book.
In the case of Google they too make it easy to locate information through sophisticated mathematical formulas that narrow down a top-ten selection of websites deemed most appropriate to the search term entered by a user.
Google’s continued success depends on their ability to get this right.
That is not a bad thing but a good thing.
Imagine going to a library and asking the librarian for the best books on the American Revolution and she or he brings back books about the War of 1812, the American Library of Congress or the French Revolution.
No, no, you’d say, I want to learn about the American Revolution.
You’re close, but not close enough.
Of course, libraries do a pretty good job of classification so the above analogy is far fetched to be sure. But my point is simply this: Google’s role is the same as the librarian.
They want to help you find what you’re looking for and unless they have a high rate of success you’ll go elsewhere.
Google’s Simple Rules
1) No games please
I don’t have “black hat” types reading my emails. (at least I hope not).
But consider, for a moment, the challenges Google faces when ranking gazillions of web pages every day.
Here’s a black hat trick that recently got demolished by Google’s latest EMD update of Sept 27th, 2012, which unfortunately caused some collateral damage to legitimate sites.
It used to be a benefit if your domain name consisted of a money keyword. Take for instance a site named VancouverLawyers.com
That used to give you an edge because the algorithm would see a match for anyone searching for “Vancouver Lawyers”. (a top keyword)
Well, what the scammers would do then is register tens of thousands of domain names using money keywords across numerous industries.
They would simply plaster these fake sites with advertising and make a killing before Google’s algorithm caught on and delisted them.
But that didn’t stop them because they had already made their money due to temporary top listing for ten’s of thousands of sites.
They simply invested more bucks in phony sites using money keywords as the domain name.
So Google was forced to dial down the immediate importance of high traffic keywords used in domain names.
NOTE:
2) Have Something To say
The days of weak content are long gone.
In fact, I’ve been preaching the importance of “quality” content since 2005 after I got mightily dinged by the infamous Jagger update.
Quality begins with professional writing, which is why I only hire professionals through elance.com who have a talent for research and getting their point across.
So, unless you are an expert in your niche possessing a flair for the written word, then forget about competing in a meaningful way for top rankings.
Visitors expect quality. Google insists upon it.
3) Use Proper Titles, Tags & Descriptions
What’s the name of your page? Briefly tell us what the page is about.
Give us a few keywords to help broaden our understanding of your page’s content.
These are the essential clues Google needs to classify your site.
Take the time to do this right.
4) Impress Visitors Right Away
A common mistake I see with students & clients is burying the best content “below the fold”. (users have to scroll to find the good stuff).
Don’t do that.
There are two reasons for this.
One, Google scans your pages from the top down.
The algorithm, which operates at nano-second speed, still needs to save time. It does this by first scanning the above-the-fold information for the nuggets of detail it needs.
It assigns a lower priority to pages that take too long to get the point across.
The other reason concerns bounce rate.
Google increasingly factors in the length of time visitors stay on a page.
The last thing you want is for a visitor to land on a page, found through a search query, only to bounce because they saw nothing that grabbed their interest right away.
You need strong headlines, photos or graphics as attention grabbers.
If they land then stay and possibly click another link on your site that pleases Google.
It validates their decision for giving you a top spot.
5) Be Seen As popular
Links back to your site from trusted sites within the Google index is absolutely critical to gaining top rankings because it is the great equalizer.
As you most surely know, if you’ve been a long time reader, I planted my flag on natural search right from the beginning.
I never liked the concept of Paid Search because as many have found out the hard way, its a perilous and expensive path to gaining traffic.
But without a proper backlinking strategy you might as well forget about having enough traffic to make money even if you do everything else right.
That’s because of how Google gained it’s dominance as a search engine.
They pioneered the way in formalizing the democratization of the Internet.
They reasoned that if a webmaster placed a link on their site pointing to another site, then that was an important indicator of the other sites value and relevancy within certain circles.
The idea itself is a simple one based on human nature.
I have a very clear recollection of waiting in line at a favorite restaurant when a couple behind me were discussing whether to wait or go somewhere else.
When I turned to say, “it’s worth the wait”, they immediately decided to stay.
Why is that?
In marketing circles it’s known as “social proof”.
Studies show that undecided or confused consumers are easily persuaded by endorsements from others.
That’s what a “backlink” is. It’s an endorsement. It’s social proof.
And if that endorsement comes from a trusted site already ranked highly by Google then it powerfully separates your pages from other pages of similar quality and relevancy.
To your online success!
James
