Since Google's creation in 1998 it has become the fastest growing and most popular search engine certainly in the western hemisphere. Google was created to provide clear and more relevant search results, which other search engines at the time such as Yahoo, MSN and AOL were failing to do.
Google seized on that opportunity and it is now a recognised fact that amongst all the search engines and directories Google stands out as the most popular Search Engine / Directory for searches by internet users. Many say that if your site is not in the top 20 of Google for your popular phrases then your site will not be a great success in commercial terms as it could be if it was.
If you want to be in the good books with Google we strongly suggest you read and follow notes and Google guidelines, as White Hat we endeavour to ensure that your website does not break any rules or falls foul of the Quality Guidelines.
Google publish Webmaster Guidelines so before you attempt to submit your site or permit your site to be spidered by Google it is important to follow their guidelines, which will help Google find, index correctly and rank your site appropriately.
We have provided our interpretations of these guidelines, which are basically the rules of conduct that Google expect you to follow but be assured that by ignoring them or even worse contravening any of their 'guidelines' particularly the Quality Guidelines you are certainly running the risk of not having your site indexed or ranked well if at all by Google.
In particular you should pay attention to those practices that are deemed by Google to be unacceptable which can lead to your site being removed from their directory completely and on any other directory which partners results with Google. In short DON'T DO THEM or ELSE.
- Design and Content
- Technical Guidelines
- When Your Site Is Ready
- Quality Guidelines
Design and Content Guidelines:
- Create your website with a clear and easy to follow structure and simple text links as well as graphics.
- Every page should be accessible from at least one static text link, don't hide pages and keep the path to all pages easy to follow.
- Create a site map which visitors can see on a page all sections of your website by text links just like an index in a book. If your site has hundreds of pages then breakdown this sitemap into main headings list and then sub headings list to link to all those pages.
- Make sure your site contains UNIQUE content that has not been copied from other sites or from copyrighted publications such as books etc as Google can tell if your content has been copied. You wouldn't like it if you saw your content that you have personally created on someone else's website its called piracy so don't do it.
- Make your site information rich and create pages of content that clearly describe your message and write the pages well and make your message clear.
- Research and know your market audience and make sure your pages contain the key words and phrases that your potential customers will be searching for.
- Try to use text as opposed to images to display important names, content or links, as the Google crawler that will look at your site cannot read images.
- Images make your site look nice but words make your site get found so keep that in mind and in balance, which can be hard if your site is about photography or images, as you only want to promote your images. The secret would be to write about the images so that the Google Crawler can effectively read the images like a blind person would read a book by Braille.
- Ensure that the TITLES of the pages and ALT tags are descriptive and accurately reflect the page.
- Always check for broken links and correct and functioning page code. Make sure all pages work and that links go somewhere and that the images on the page open quickly.
- Make sure your home page opens up on a high speed modem as well as a fast speed ADSL line under 10 seconds as not every one has a high speed internet access and if your home page is too slow to appear they will click away before it has even opened as visitors are not very patient. Are You?
- If you decide to use 'Dynamic' pages (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.
- Keep links on any given page less than 100 and if you have more than that its probably best to create a menu of links with main headings and separate pages of links.
Technical Guidelines
- The vast majority of search engine spiders / crawlers see your site as text and as such any use of fancy features such as JavaScript, Cookies, Session ID's, Frames. DHTML, or Flash animations will prevent them from seeing or reading your site and can effectively block them from indexing your pages as they are blocked by such scripting. It is highly recommended to use a text browser such as Lynx to examine your site, as that will show you what is accessible and readable and what may cause a crawler a problem. See it from the crawler's perspective and not with your own eyes.
- Permit search bots to crawl your site without using session ID's or script arguments that track the crawler's path through your site. These may be useful for tracking the path and individual user crawler behaviour BUT the access pattern of crawlers are different and using these forms of scripting may result in incomplete indexing of your site and some bots and crawlers may not be able to eliminate URL's [pages] that look different but actually point to the same page. In short make the path clear and uncluttered for the search engine crawlers to ‘walk through’ your website un hindered and with free access.
- Make sure your web server supports the If-Modified-Since HTTP header. This feature allows your web server to inform Google whether your content has been changed since they last visited the site. This feature thus saves your bandwidth and overhead and keeps Google informed of changes.
- Make use of the robots.txt file on your web server. This file tells crawlers which directories can or cannot be crawled. Make sure it's current for your site so that you don't accidentally block the Googlebot crawler. Visit http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/faq.html to learn how to instruct robots when they visit your site.
- If your website operates a CMS Content Management System, make sure that the system can export your web content so that the Search Engine spiders can crawl your site.
- Don't use "&id=" as a parameter in your URLs, as Google don't include these pages in their index.
When your site is ready
- Create a links exchange page so you can invite other RELEVANT websites to want to link to your site to create a reciprocal link exchange. But there are many pitfalls with creating links see Links Page
- Submit your site to Google at http://www.google.com/addurl.html.
- Submit the site map of your site as part of the Google Sitemaps (Beta) project. Google Sitemaps uses your sitemap to learn about the structure of your site and to increase the coverage of your web pages. This is mostly relevant to large sites, which have a ever changing amount of pages. A simple text site map is sufficient for the majority of sites with relatively small numbers of pages that don't change much.
- Try to make sure that all the sites that should know about your pages are aware your site is now online.
- Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo! as well as to other industry-specific expert sites and directories consult your webmaster who can advise you where to submit your website to as there are many hundreds of directories you can submit to some of which are free and some make a submission fee.
!Pay particular attention to these Quality Guidelines as failure to comply can and most certainly will lead to penalties being imposed or at worst total removal of your website from the Google Directory. Remember it is THEIR directory and THEY make the rules of the club and if you choose to ignore the rules [in this case guidelines] then you had better be prepared to take the consequences
Quality Guidelines - Basic principles
- Create and write pages for readers, not for search engines. Don't try to deceive your readers or present different content to search engines than you display to your readers, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking."
- 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 bulk link exchange schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or Page Rank manipulation. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighbourhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links. In other words don't mix with bad company or link to inappropriate websites that bear no relevance to yours, for example if your site were about Fishing Equipment why on earth would you want to create a reciprocal link with a Gambling or Casino Site or a Site containing an Adult content.
- Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, to check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate Googles Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.
Quality Guidelines - Specific recommendations
- Do not create 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, sub domains, 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.
These guidelines cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative behaviour, that Google do not like but Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites). It's not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn't included on the list that Google approves of it. Webmasters and SEO Companies who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles such as White Hat will provide a much better user experience and customer service and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit.
To view the official Google Webmaster Guidelines click below
http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
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