Development XL, Accessible Web Design and Bespoke Development

Straight from the horse's mouth

24th February by Andrew Senter

Google knows its stuff, and as it's the preferred search engine of roughly 49.2% of the net's population it's also the best place to find advice on search engine optimisation. But surely Google aren't going to give away all of their trade secrets? Well, no, they aren't, but a bit like Coca-Cola, they do let us know the vital ingredients. How we put it all together is down to us.

Before we get going, it's important to state that all search engines have the same primary goal; to order their results by relevance. So if you sell chairs but would like to get onto page one of the search results for tables - give up now.

.. the SEO [search engine optimizer] promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291

Even if by means of an intensive SEO campaign you make it to page one for a term that isn't relevant to your site, you won't be there for long. Search engines are constantly developing ways to circumvent the latest trickery employed by less-than-reputable consultancies to get irrelevant sites up the rankings.

Still here? Fantastic, let's move on with some positive steps you can take to get the search engines on-side.

Google wants to be your friend

Honesty is the best policy (at least with regards to SEO), but how do we go about being honest with a search engine? Let's nip over to Google to see what they've got to say about it.

Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage. This is the single most important thing to do.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349&topic=8522

OK, so high-quality is a bit of a vague term, but what they're saying is that the better your site's content is for your average human visitor, the better it is for search engines.

The best question to ask yourself now is; what would I like to be on this page if I came looking for a specific search term? When you have your answer sit down and write some well-structured, meaningful content for your site. Oh, and make sure to include the search terms you'd like to be listed for.

At this point a little bulb may be appearing above your head. You may be thinking "Ah, so I could use a search term in my site over and over, perhaps even put it at the bottom of the site using really small text". Sorry, Google's thought of that one too.

Don't fill your page with lists of keywords, attempt to "cloak" pages, or put up "crawler only" pages. If your site contains pages, links, or text that you don't intend visitors to see, Google considers those links and pages deceptive and may ignore your site.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349&topic=8522

This is commonly known as keyword-stuffing and is a technique used by many SEO consultancies. Be very wary of this, it's dishonest and as a result may get you dropped from Google's listings entirely.

Let's all hold hands

Search engines love links, they can't get enough of them. Essentially when a search engine indexes the web it will do it in the same way a human user would - starting on one page and following links. In this way they can determine which sites are the most popular for certain search terms by analysing who links to who.

Google counts the number of votes a page receives .. interpreting a link from page A to page B as a vote by page A for page B. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349&topic=8522

For example, if you're creating a website to bring the world the latest news and reviews and you manage to get - what Google determines as - the most important news sites that currently exist in the UK (BBC, Telegraph and Sky News) to link to your wonderful new world of journalism then Google will assume your site is also an authority on the subject, providing your content is also relevant.

In essence, the more sites that link to you with content that is deemed relevant to a search term you'd like to be listed for, the better you will be placed for those terms.

Just like all other SEO techniques, this has to be used in moderation. Don't be tempted to swap links with sites that do not contain content relevant to your own. Again, this won't do you any favours and you may even see yourself drop down the search listings.

Keep in mind that our algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural links. Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors. Unnatural links to your site are placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66356

However, there is a problem with this. Most of your competitors aren't going to be too likely to link to you on their sites. So how do we know where to get our quality links from? Quite simply by searching Google for a term relevant to your site.

It's a safe assumption that the first site on the resulting list has many inbound links from sites that, if you were to gain links from also, would help you on your way to the top. How do we know who links to your competitors' sites? It's as simple as popping this into a standard Google search; link:yourcompetitorsdomain.com

Invite them in, give them the tour

It doesn't end at the home page. Ensure your navigation is consistent and clear throughout the entire site, use techniques such as progressive enhancement so that your site can be accessed using any manner of web browsing device and most importantly for SEO purposes, make sure your site makes sense when all styling is removed.

Build your site with a logical link structure. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link. Use a text browser, such as Lynx, to examine your site. Most [search engine] spiders see your site much as Lynx would.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349&topic=8522

So grab yourself a copy of Lynx, or just try turning off CSS and see if you can still make sense of your navigational structure and content.

This brings me neatly on to my next article, cleverly titled Won't somebody think of the users? where I'll take a more detailed look at accessibility, interaction design and all those other buzz-word related things you need to think about after you've enticed users to your site with a slick design and an even slicker SEO campaign.

Conclusion

By making your site Google-friendly you're ensuring it will will stand in good steed with all of the major search engines. This is a long-term approach to SEO that requires a little bit of thought and careful planning, don't be tempted by quick-fixes and cleverly disguised guarantees. I'll leave you with these parting words of wisdom from the mighty Google.

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?"

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769&topic=8522