SEO'ers Shouldn't Feel Threatened By The Google SEO Starter Guide

Google has released a SEO Starter Guide (about time).

For most that are belatedly joining the online world it'll be a great introduction to understanding how your site's design does actually affect the levels of traffic you'll receive from Google.

Many small scale, lets do the basics, SEO'ers may feel a bit threatened. And rightly so - the Guide contains the very fundamentals of SEO. The issue is however, that for many established websites there are many common issues not covered in the document.

Every website is different, every client has differing resources, different wants and needs, different views of what works for them. But what this does do is give weight to your arguments when it comes down to making tough decisions such as re-writing the URL structure or why you should pay greater attention to your description tags.

The fundamentals it looks at are:

1) Using unique and accurate page titles
This is an area I often play great attention to. Many retailers forget how this tag is, not only for SEO, but by increasing the CTR from the natural SERPS.

Also many site owners forget about the "active keywords" that can be used here to increase actual conversion rates (my clients will know what I'm talking about).


2) Make use of the "description meta tag"

I still love this tag. Many SEO'ers can't be bothered with it but I view the tag as highly useful. It's great to theme sites and break sites out of any duplication penalty - if used properly.

Of course they also can be used in the snippets in the SERPS so need to be thought of from an "increasing CTR" point of view as well.

Many affiliates use them to stuff keywords in. But what do you think a user will think when it sees a snippet with loads of repeated keywords? "Spam crappy site" me thinks.

If you don't use Webmaster Tools to analyse your meta descriptions, you need a slap (a big one).

3) Improve the structure of your URLs
This is an often overlooked part of SEO. The issue is that many site owners read somewhere years ago that page rank is passed through the directories and not via links. The issue now is that they want really complicated URL's with loads of variables instead of creating a themed hierarchy of folders and content sections.

With one client the extended variables in the URL's are starting to create problems as well as how pages are collated and organised. A proper, logical method of organising how your pages are linked to is vital for SEO success - especially when you can have many different URL's for one actual document. Trying to fix this issue can take 3/4 months to fix in large sites.

4) Make your site easier to navigate
Google proposes the use of sitemaps. On the simplest level I'd agree. But a sitemap should be no substitute to logical navigation within the made body of your site.

Another issue is that many businesses take the Sitemap to the Nth degree and whack every page on it. They didn't read the bit in the SEO document they read 5 years ago that Google will get to the stage were it won't carry on reading links on a sitemap. The actual figure isn't agreed on, but I'd limit it to 150 links. Furthermore PageRank is diluted by the ratio of the links of the page to the actual link in question. So use the SiteMap logically - perhaps think mini sitemaps based around themes and use them as part of content?

5) Offer Quality Content And Services
Many site owners want to get people from the SERPS to their checkout as quickly as possible. A good number have started to add content to their sites - because they've been told to by their SEO agency, without actually knowing why.

Here's a couple of reasons, think long tail, and attracting more relevant visitors. But there's other reasons which I'm not going to give away for free on here.

6) Write better anchor text
Many still forget about this, whilst the rest over-egg it. Webmasters need to think why anchor text is useful? Does a sign over a shop indicate what's actually in the shop? Are you more likely to find what you want if you go into a shop that has a site that says exactly what you're after i.e. [Buy cheap green widgets] or [obscure name that has something vaguely related to your desires]?

Some site owners take the pish with them, they think they should cram every keyword possible into their anchor text. Whilst others think they should have a load of links at the bottom of the page to other pages. Don't you think Google has caught onto this yet?

7)Use heading tags appropriately
This is one of those tags that I've started to downplay in recent years. I'm not saying forget them, I'm saying don't put all of your eggs in the H1 basket. Spread your SEO risk by using the whole range of methods that are available to you in the relevant proportions.

Oh, don't spam the heck out of them, you'll trip a spam filter.

8) Optimise your use of images
Admittedly I'm slack at this, but I've started to do it out of respect for those that are visually impared rather than for SEO per se.

9) Make effective use of robots.txt
Now, unless you know what you're doing here then stay well clear. Sometimes with clients that'll be one of the first things I look at and modify. Whilst other times its something I'll leave until we've got more fundamental issues resolved. Make sure you thoroughly research the topic before you do anything.

9) Be aware of rel="nofollow" for links
This is a fantastic, but largely misunderstood tag. If you've got a large site with poor structure and medium levels of PageRank then you can effectively use them to funnel PR to the most relevant (highest earning) pages whilst you work on your link building/link inducing programme.

10) Promote your website in the right ways
I'd virtually always recommend that clients blog about what they do. But you need to make sure that they've got the resources available to them and the appropriate style to make this work (oh and a great template). Not all blogs work.

Google also recommends the use of social media sites. If you don't know what you're doing this could cause more harm than good. I've seen so many reputations destroyed online over the years by incorrectly using social media.

11) Make use of free webmaster tools
But you need to know how to use the information given to you. Simply having data won't help your search engine performance. Knowing how to take that data, mix it with an understanding of your client's needs, resources and desires together with an understanding of the target audience, the market as a whole, their competitors and the ability to quickly respond to changes in your and their environment - that's the key to SEO success - and happy clients.


If there's anything you don't understand, or would like clarification on, some SEO training, then feel free to contact me on the email address top right, or PM me if you're on the A4U Forum.

p.s. time to read the morning papers with a cuppa