Google Guidelines-What Does Google Want?

You have a website that was doing pretty good for a while, so you invested more in your SEO campaign and then Google hits you with a penalty. Your rankings have dropped and now you think it’s best to hang up your SEO hat once and for all.

Chances are that if you began to a more aggressive SEO campaign then you did something that Google didn’t like. It may be just one little thing, but even little mistakes can result in big damage. Here is what you don’t want to do: You don’t write-off SEO altogether. Take a deep breath and look for what went wrong and where. Here are some things to consider…

Quality

Google wants to rank the best websites. They want to award rankings to websites that are seen as authoritative and popular and that are following the rules. When I say “rules” I am referring to Google’s guidelines that they have set forth.

Some of the things that you might consider as a “quality” ranking factor are: websites load time, keyword density, rich back linking profile, and consistent website updates (i.e. blog)

 

Quality Control: Make sure that all of your links are quality, your website runs well and fast, update your blog often and share across social media sites and offer quality, on-page content.

Relevance

Take an audit of your back linking profile. Where did you get links at and are they relevant to your site? Hopefully you submitted your site to Google, Yahoo and Bing and hopefully you or whoever was/is doing SEO for you has submitted your site to niche directories. But you need to look for any irrelevant backlinks. Is your site submitted to directories under the wrong niche category?Are you offering links that are relevant to your site and are other sites linking back to you form relevant sources?

Really, all you need to do is make sure that all your links are honest and make sense. People need to know where they are going to go when they click on a link.

User Experience

The big picture is that Google is trying, with every algorithm update, to make the internet a better experience for the user. When Google notices that you are offering a great user experience they will reward you.

Don’t be afraid to link out to other authoritative sites. The idea of linking away from your page terrifies some, but it makes for a better user experience. You help your audience to have a better, easier time on the internet when you offer other resources that will better help them out from whatever they are trying to learn. Your audience will see you as an authority when you begin to share the link love.

Optimizing your website for the search engines isn’t the easiest thing to do right, but those that do it right understand how powerful it can be. Don’t throw the idea of SEO away, you may want to consider having someone else do it for you, but you should never quit on it if you have a website.