Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO for
short) is one of those many topics surrounding computers and the
Internet which is shrouded in mystery and intrigue!
People who own websites typically want
to "get to the top of Google" and, therefore, there is a
hot market for businesses selling services attempting to fulfil that
need .Some services are good but, unfortunately, more often than not
the service is ineffective at best and down right damaging at worst.
Search Engine Boot Camp
If you type "south wales
locksmith" into Google, it will return listings of websites in
reverse order with the most relevant first. How Google define
"relevant" is obviously their secret as, if it were public
knowledge, spammers would use it to try to gain unfair advantage in
the listings.
Some shady outfits even try to second
guess or "reverse engineer" how a search engines such as Google decide what is relevant in an effort to uncover a hidden gem which they can
make money on – the ultimate irony here is that Google already
disclose the low down on what you need to do!
Google's Guidelines
Google publish a set of common sense
guidelines for webmasters (webmasters! do they exist anymore?!).
A very brief summary of the guidelines
would be this: produce engaging and interesting content which people will
find of value or, in Google's words:
"Create a useful, information-rich
site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your
content."
Everything starts from the content - if
it's not interesting or relevant in the first place then no amount of
trickery or other techniques will make up for that.
Another killer piece of advice from
Google is:
“Think about the words users would
type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually
includes those words within it.”
It sounds completely obvious and common
sense (and, in truth, most good SEO is basically common sense) but
you would be amazed how many times this advice is not followed. To
put it simply, if you have a website which sells “air conditioning
units for hotels” then your website copy (the text) needs to
reflect this. But, avoid the urge to repeat such phrases so often
that the copy, when read out loud, doesn't really flow – Google can
easily see through such tricks.
Following on from this Google say:
“Make sure that your <title>
elements and alt attributes are descriptive and accurate”
The person who writes your pages will
know what the TITLE element is and how to alter this – this is a killer place on your webpage in
terms of SEO. Following on from our previous example this could be:
“Whamo Ltd Air conditioning – servicing air conditioning units
for hotels, restaurants and gyms all over South Wales including
Cardiff, Newport and Swansea".
Google aint stupid...
If something sounds stupid then it
probably is...
If someone says to you “if you add
lots of these links in to your website, you'll get to the top of
Google, guaranteed!!" then a knee jerk reaction might be
“wahooo! Top of Google here I come!” but, with a calmer
assessment, it quickly becomes obvious that such a claim does not
make sense. Google aren't stupid. They want to return relevant search
results to their users. There aint not short cuts to relevancy (or, atleast, not ones without the potential to turn around and bite you, read on for an example!).
...but Google can get angry!
If Google think you are trying to gain
unfair advantage (e.g. vast tracks of hidden text on your website in
a vain aim to show one set of content to search engines and another set
to regular visitors) then Google can penalise you. Don't believe me?
Ask BMW!
If it can happen to a big site like BMW then it can happen to you!
Again Google are very clear on their
policy and guidelines here:
"Don't deceive your users or
present different content to search engines than you display to
users, which is commonly referred to as 'cloaking'"
Trying to pull the wool over Google's
eye is a pointless effort. They are smarter than you and me – I
guarantee that. Your best bet is to concentrate your effort on
producing really killer content which your users will find interesting and want to engage with.
Hire the services of a reputable web design company who really want
to interact with your target audience and know how to follow the Google
guidelines.
In Conclusion
Unfortunately there are a lot of snake oil salesman out there peddling their own brand for SEO foolproof wares. The best way to avoid their snares is simply to follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines and by the time you have finished acquainting yourself with those you'll know enough to see straight through the snake oil men!
