8 Simple & Easy ways to make Google love your website
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But before you get any wrong ideas..what does it mean to say “Google loves my site”. It could mean different things to different people but when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (which is what I’m trying to explain here), it means that your website is in the good books of Google, it is seen as an authority on the topic you’re on, and its trustworthy.
To be honest with you, being Google’s friend (or trying to be one) isn’t everything. In fact, it isn’t important at all.
What’s more important, is being seen as an authority on your topic by users or your readers.
This is in fact a tricky situation. Can you be friends with both Google and users ? Would, trying to be friendly with Google, piss off your readers ? More questions than answers right ? Well, here are some possible solutions.
1. Forget about Google completely. Yes, just ignore them.
And it will work. Getting obsessive about Google and search engine traffic will only make you waste your time thinking about what you “could do”, rather than actually doing it. And Google generally likes websites that are not-so-obsessive about them, and doesn’t try too hard to impress them.
2. Don’t memorize SEO formulas, instead think about the guy in front of the monitor, looking at your site.
SEO formulas come and go, and its hard to keep up with them, and believe me, if you thought only guys who memorize them are successful, you’re wrong. Successful are those, who’re friends with the readers and not the bots.
3. Build a healthy backend structure, that’s clutter free and accessible by all – easily.
But don’t get me wrong. By ignoring Google, I didn’t mean that you shouldn’t be bothered at all. All you have to do is make sure you have a good, healthy, sound backend structure. Its like having a nice home.
4. Try accessing your site from everywhere possible – kiosks, iPhone, Xbox browsers…
Friends and readers come from everywhere, right ? Simulate it. Try visiting your site from different places, devices and see if it appears the same to all. Ideally, it should.
5. Even if you haven’t built a subscriber base yet, assume you have a huge one, and write for them frequently.
So, what are you waiting for ? If you already had a huge reader base, who’s worried about anything, leave alone Google. So until you reach that tipping point, behave as if you are popular and you are writing the content for millions to read, daily.
6. Ask a friend/family member if they like what you wrote.
If they don’t, then its very likely that Google too won’t. So try to make your site friendly as possible to everyone, yes including your tech savvy granny.
7. Promise yourself that you won’t write stale content.
Its easy to write what’s been written over and over again right ? Or to copy paste from somewhere else. The reality is that by doing so, you’re smoking your site to slow death. You don’t like to see the same news on TV, over and over. You skip channels, right ? Don’t let you readers hit the back button.
8. Either make a site as exclusive as Wikipedia, or be cool and make lot of friends.
Being like Wikipedia is being like God on the internet (apart from the fact that everyone can edit you). So you either write exclusive content nobody knows about yet, like what’s inside the Bermuda triangle or be genuinely interesting, share your knowledge, be fun loving and make a lot of friends. Google like influential websites with lot of references.
So there you go, silly it may sound but I’m damn serious about those points. The interesting fact is that, most of the times, when you try too hard at something, it shows and doesn’t come out good. So when you’re trying to be friends with Google, trying too hard with it isn’t the right way to. Just be cool, and try and do other things that might gather you a lot of friends, when you have lot of friends and references, Google can’t possibly ignore you, can it ?
This is a very good post, I know that seems like such a generic compliment now-a-days to many bloggers. :/ But I mean it, this is well written and the fact stands out that it is about your readers and not about Google. And I like that point very much. What’s the point in making your site search-able, if you really have nothing of value to share?
Sticking to one particular SEO formula can be dangerous.The algorithms change and before you understand and make use of them they change again.The bots are always one step ahead so it makes sense to forget them and write for the user.
This one is as true as gold “Successful are those, who’re friends with the readers and not the bots.”
Good one ! Loved reading it.
Thank you for a well written article. I’m glad to see another who emphasizes that it’s the reader/end user/customer who is important, NOT the search engines.
Sometimes I wish we would stop calling it Search Engine Optimization, it’s the reader/end user/customer we are optimizing for!
Nice post. I think you are right, many people get so concerned about SEO tips, page ranks and robots, that they forget the most important thing, their readers!
Personally I do recommend adopting core on-site SEO strategies such as using W3C valid code, semantic HTML, unique page titles, etc. But these are meant to help guide search engines and user agents (browsers) so that they can provide a better experience for our visitors.
In the end content still wins out. If you provide well-written, easy-to-understand copy, that people find useful, they will both visit your site and link to it. This in turn will enhance your SEO. If you review your copy and make sure you’ve used the appropriate key words or phrases, that will make you even more findable. But the trick is not in finding the words that appeal to searchbots, it’s in using the words that your audience uses when looking for the kind of information you provide. When you write first for humans, the robots win too.
Great blog indeed. Really useful for SEO and SEM. And you right to achieve success in marketing you really have to consider major search engines and give them respect also. Nice info. Thanks
To make your search engine optimization work properly, one works out a roadmap of how to proceed with the site optimization process.Very often, SEO professionals miss out these critical aspects of optimization rendering all their site optimization work ‘useless’. Know them..
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These seem like simple tips, but I agree with them. There has been so much written about keywords that many articles these days read like a dictionary.
Great and helpful post. I’ll certainly list it on ‘Resourceful articles for writers’ on my new writing blog.
Thanks, Anne
Good post Mani its true that being real and assume that you are watching the same then everything can go right.
Thanks for a great post! Im currently aware of where I stand with Google but havent worried too much about it. I just started blogging in May and feel Im doing pretty good so far. There is always room for improvment and thats why we read articels like this. Thanks again!
Content, content, content! Nothing gets Google’s attention quicker than great content. Fantastic post – keep people’s attention focused on the most important thing – becoming recognized as an opinion leader / trusted authority in their industry – everything else (including a high ranking organic site) will follow!
That is definitely good advice, however, you should at least pay attention to the fundamentals of SEO.
For instance, you shouldn’t ignore proper URL structure, or using title tags in your heading. Even Google recommends certain SEO basics be followed.
But, your post is quite refreshing because it reminds us of what a website was intended to do.
Indeed Steve,
I wanted to “remind” that its not just about SEO, and you got to balance it out b/w SEO and Usability, of course not to ignore SEO completely.
In my opinion having a healthy SEO framework/structure, and then filling it up regularly with fresh and wholesome content is an ideal situation.
Hi,
Personally, I think that if you’ve got a blog, the first thing to do is to follow google’s advice. Google’s written a 22 page document on how to promote your website (or blog). I think it’s worth reading it. It’s re-posted here http://www.bergstrom-seo.com/resources/google-search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf.
I think that once you’ve taken SEO ideas into account, then it’s just a matter of being good. A successful blog needs people to come back. People won’t keep coming back unless you have regular content. I think it’s also a good idea to
(a) pick a niche and stick with it.
(b) Cross promote your blog with your facebook and twitter accounts
(c) Post comments on related blogs and try to cross promote your blogs with other bloggers that you think are both good and related to your blog. People like reading more then one blog. So, if you can send your traffic to a friends blog (and vice versa) you’ll both come out ahead.
Good luck!
Vick
Well written and pertinent post, Mani. We all tend to pay waaay to much attention to Google, and forget about our human audience in the process. Striking the correct balance is key, so developing a solid website, and then working hard on creating quality content that will engage your audience and cement your reputation as an authority in your specific field is non-negotiable.
wow, really great content written related to seo marketing strategies if include this in my brain to have more tips to do in my seo path work of web marketing
thanks
Very interesting article indeed.
If you try to cheat Google, the search engine will recognize that and penalize you for it.
The Google engine is getting smarter and smarter: it’s looking at the whole content of your page and no longer taking in account old tricks like keyword tags.
You must create a web page with html/css best practices (ex.: use of headers, etc.): Google will give you a better ranking for that.
This was one of the best posts on your site, I think. In the end, all that really matters is your own site, how functional it is, the content, etc. Results will follow from there.
i hope after i read your tips, Google like my site too ^_^
thanks for your tips!
Hey, that a really good post. Agree to most of the points. So many people forget their readers in the quest of running after google rankings, SEO formulas, etc. Always keeping the reader in mind is so important along with obviously optimizing your content to a certain extent.
Thanks for dis gud post ! can u guys chk my blog and tell is it ok in SEO or not ?