Google's SEO Advice For Your Website: Focus on Content

Google's SEO Advice For Your Website: Content
By Joel Walsh (c) 2006

The web pages actually at the top of Google have only one thing
clearly in common: good writing. Don't get so caught up in the
usual SEO sacred cows and bugbears, such as PageRank, frames,
and JavaScript, that you forget your site's content.

I was recently struck by the fact that the top-ranking web
pages on Google are consistently much better written than the
vast majority of what one reads on the web.

Of course, that shouldn't be a surprise, considering how often
officials at Google proclaim the importance of good content.
Yet traditional SEO wisdom has little to say about good
writing.

Does Google, the world's wealthiest media company, really
ignore traditional standards of quality in the publishing
world? Does Google, like so many website owners, really get so
caught up in the process of the algorithm that it misses the
whole point?

Apparently not.

Most Common On-the-Page Website Content Success Features

Whatever the technical mechanism, Google is doing a pretty good
job of identifying websites with good content and rewarding them
with high rankings.

I looked at Google's top five pages for the five most
searched-on keywords, as identified by WordTracker on June 27,
2005. Typically, the top five pages receive an overwhelming
majority of the traffic delivered by Google.

The web pages that contained written content (a small but
significant portion were image galleries) all shared the
following features:

* Updating: frequent updating of content, at least once every
few weeks, and more often, once a week or more.

* Spelling and grammar: few or no errors. No page had more than
three misspelled words or four grammatical errors. Note:
spelling and grammar errors were identified by using Microsoft
Word's check feature, and then ruling out words marked as
misspellings that are either proper names or new words that are
simply not in the dictionary. Does Google use SpellCheck? I can
already hear the scoffing on the other side of this computer
screen. Before you dismiss the idea completely, keep in mind
that no one really does know what the 100 factors in Google's
algorithm are. But whether the mechanism is SpellCheck or a
better shot at link popularity thanks to great credibility, or
something else entirely, the results remain the same.

* Paragraphs: primarily brief (1-4 sentences). Few or no long
blocks of text.

* Lists: both bulleted and numbered, form a large part of the
text.

* Sentence length: mostly brief (10 words or fewer).
Medium-length and long sentences are sprinkled throughout the
text rather than clumped together.

* Contextual relevance: text contains numerous terms related to
the keyword, as well as stem variations of the keyword.

SEO Bugbears and Sacred Cows

A hard look at the results shows that, practically speaking, a
number of SEO bugbears and sacred cows may matter less to
ranking than good content.

* PageRank. The median PageRank was 4. One page had a PageRank
of 0. Of course, this might simply be yet another demonstration
that the little PageRank number you get in your browser window
is not what Google's algo is using. But if you're one of those
people who attaches an overriding value to that little number,
this is food for thought.

* Frames. The top two web pages listed for the most searched-on
keyword employ frames. Frames may still be a bad web design idea
from a usability standpoint, and they may ruin your search
engine rankings if your site's linking system depends on them.
But there are worse ways you could shoot yourself in the foot.

* JavaScript-formatted internal links. Most of the websites use
JavaScript for their internal page links. Again, that's not the
best web design practice, but there are worse things you could
do.

* Links: Most of the web pages contained ten or more links;
many contained over 30, in defiance of the SEO bugbears about
"link popularity bleeding." Moreover, nearly all the pages
contained a significant number of non-relevant links. On many
pages, non-relevant links outnumbered relevant ones. Of course,
it's not clear what benefit the website owners hope to get from
placing irrelevant links on pages. It has been a proven way of
lowering conversion rates and losing visitors. But Google
doesn't seem to care if your website makes money.

* Originality: a significant number of pages contained content
copied from other websites. In all cases, the content was
professionally written content apparently distributed on a
free-reprint basis. Note: the reprint content did not consist
of content feeds. However, no website consisted solely of
free-reprint content. There was always at least a significant
portion of original content, usually the majority of the page.

Recommendations

* Make sure a professional writer, or at least someone who can
tell good writing from bad, is creating your site's content,
particularly in the case of a search-engine optimization
campaign. If you are an SEO, make sure you get a pro to do the
content. A shocking number of SEOs write incredibly badly. I've
even had clients whose websites got fewer conversions or page
views after their SEOs got through with them, even when they
got a sharp uptick in unique visitors. Most visitors simply hit
the "back" button when confronted with the unpalatable text, so
the increased traffic is just wasted bandwidth.

* If you write your own content, make sure that it passes
through the hands of a skilled copyeditor or writer before
going online.

* Update your content often. It's important both to add new
pages and update existing pages. If you can't afford original
content, use free-reprint content.

* Distribute your content to other websites on a free-reprint
basis. This will help your website get links in exchange for
the right to publish the content. It will also help spread your
message and enhance your visibility. Fears of a "duplicate
content penalty" for free-reprint content (as opposed to
duplication of content within a single website) are
unjustified.

In short, if you have a mature website that is already indexed
and getting traffic, you should consider making sure the bulk
of your investment in your website is devoted to its content,
rather than graphic design, old-school search-engine
optimization, or linking campaigns.

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[Formatting: for web, please use "website
content provider" as the link's anchor text (visible link
text)] Joel Walsh's archive of web business articles is at the
website of his business, UpMarket Content, a website content
provider: http://UpMarketContent.com
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