In this podcast we are going to discuss a tip directly from Google but first let’s discuss a bit about the last few podcasts. I have been working on a series called Bad Blogging Advice and this is a short intermission from the series.
Tip from Podcast x: Bad Blogging Advice #5: Blogging will save your SEO problems
Forget for a moment of the act of “doing” SEO and think about the reason that you care about SEO. You care about SEO because you are trying to get people to your website / blog so that you can connect with people and then have them take an action, whatever that is. Blogging will increase traffic which in turn helps with the concept of SEO.
When I think of SEO I essentially think of a checklist of things that can be done to a website or even off-site to increase the likelihood of a website being seen and presented as an option to the search engines and in turn to the reader.
Now let’s get down to it and discuss SEO Tips directly from Google
There is nothing more frustrating than Googling something and not finding your intended answer. If you do this enough times on a particular search engine you are likely going to switch search engines. Believe it or not Google is not the only search engine on the planet. This is why it is critical to Google that they provide their client the “searcher” with the right pieces of information.
Bloggers often see Google as the enemy instead of their friend. Google wants your blog or site to succeed. They want this so much that they provide us with lots of information, tools and tips on how to do this.
For example, they created an article called:
Steps to a Google-friendly site
Today, I think that we are going to talk about one of their suggestions:
Give visitors the information they’re looking for
[su_note note_color=”#ffb766″ radius=”5″]Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage. This is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site. In creating a helpful, information-rich site, write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic. Think about the words users would type to find your pages and include those words on your site.[/su_note]
Ok now let’s break that down.
Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage.
Now on the surface this may seem easy to you or darn frustrating. I talked about the tip often provided “write amazing content” in podcast 27. It can seem vague but remember what Google titled their article here.
Give visitors the information they’re looking for
This is why it is crucial to understand in advance what your blog theme is about and when I say theme in this instance, I do not mean design theme. Instead I mean topic theme.
For example: I did a search on seo tips and searchenginejournal.com came up right away on the first page. Their site is a large blog on the topic of SEO. It just so happens that their blog is what we call magazine style. It has over 20 articles for me to choose from right on the front page. They are giving their readers what they are looking for.
When you are creating your blog it is crucial that your front page immediately give the reader at least a clear method of finding what they are looking for. Google is telling you right here how important that front page is, so don’t waste it. Splash pages seem cool on the surface but what value do they actually add in the eyes of Google?
Second sentence:
This is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site.
Consider what this sentence is really about. Yes, they are repeating the importance of high quality content here but they are also introducing the concept of links. They are telling you here in not so many words that it is important that other people link to your site.
Google puts a tremendous amount of value in links. In Podcast #23 I told you not to spend your time link building but instead spend your time making content that answers peoples questions. If you do that instead of trying to game the system you will get ahead. This is not an idea that I made up, I got it directly from Google.
The answer is to make useful content, content that will attract people purely based upon its’ value. If you keep doing that people will link to it.
Next sentence:
In creating a helpful, information-rich site, write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic.
At this point Google is just hammering the point home. They are saying create information-rich sites. Basically they are telling us to not push out and not build what is considered “thin” websites or blogs. They want us to spend time on our content, spend time adding value, spend time being the answer. They want the information to be accurate, true and helpful.
The last sentence in this section:
Think about the words users would type to find your pages and include those words on your site.
Here we are at the end of this section and we are just now getting to what could be considered the
“SEO” section. Only after we have provided good solid content, only after we have thought about the quality of what we have to say are they telling us to consider the keywords.
It is amazing to me how much Google told us about how to be good stewards of the web world in one short paragraph. If you want your blog to be found you could spend your entire blogging career just focused on these ideas and success would likely eventually find you. OK maybe not but sure is a darn good start.
Until next time folks, blog on!
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Thank you so much for stopping by my show notes for this podcast, I really do appreciate you.
I would love your comments and feedback. Also, if you have any questions that you would like discussed in future episodes, please either leave them in the comments below or shoot me an email at [email protected].
[su_box title=”What do you think?” box_color=”#81c11d” radius=”6″]Please tell us your experiences with SEO. Do you have a tip etc?[/su_box]
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Don’t forget to clickety on my PDF download of Tips on Blogging for Business. It covers some tips about the Yoast Plugin and a few others that I install on all of my clients’ blogs.